John Buchan

Scottish author John Buchan (1875–1940) was both an acclaimed writer of adventure novels and, as the Governor General of Canada, one of the most high-ranking colonial administrators in the British Empire. His political career usually took precedence over his writing, but he still managed to produce several iconic works of spy fiction, including his masterpiece The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (1833–91) is chiefly remembered for his subtly ironic plots and quintessentially Spanish settings and characterizations.

Sir Walter Scott

One of the major figures of Scottish literature, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) was a prolific novelist and poet, whose masterpieces include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley and The Lady of the Lake.

François Villon

François Villon (c.1431–c.1463) is an almost legendary figure in French literature. Involved, as a young man, in street brawls, thefts and a killing, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death, but later pardoned by King Charles VII. His most famous poems, which are among the founding texts of French literature, are The Legacy, The Testament and The Ballade of the Hanged Men.

Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) was a French playwright and poet. He was a leading figure in the Surrealist movement and, despite a divergence of ideas, remained a dedicated Surrealist all his life – devoting his time to the study of the problem of the conflict between man’s physical and intellectual natures.

Luis Sepúlveda

Born in Santiago, Chile, Luis Sepúlveda is the multi-award-winning author of many adult novels and stories for children. The Story of a Seagull and The Cat Who Taught Her to Fly has been translated in over 40 countries with several film and theatre adaptations.

Read an interview with Luis Sepúlveda here

James Wilson

Born in Cambridge and educated at Oxford, James Wilson now lives in London and Normandy. He is the author of four acclaimed novels – The Dark Clue, The Bastard Boy, The Woman in the Picture and Consolation – as well as a work of narrative non-fiction, The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America.

Read an interview with James Wilson here
Watch a video interview with James Wilson here

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) is one of the giants of modern literature, exerting a strong influence on many present-day novelists and dramatists. As a playwright, he ranks in popularity second only to Shakespeare in the English-speaking world. As a prose writer, he was one of the first to use the stream-of-consciousness technique, and his anti-heroic realism, full of ambiguity and allusion, provides no easy moral conclusions and results in a new kind of narrative approaching real life in a way no writer had achieved before him.

Srikumar Sen

Born in Calcutta and educated at Oxford, Srikumar Sen started his career as a journalist at the Statesman in India. He later moved to England, where he worked at the Guardian before moving to The Times as their boxing correspondent. The Skinning Tree is his first novel.

Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of ethnomusicology.