Authors
Mark Gwynne Jones
Mark Gwynne Jones is a poet who works in film, on stage, in print and with music. During his travels Mark has sold poetry to the CIA, won The National Trust Poetry Competition and thrice won the Buxton Festival Fringe. He currently tours with The Psychicbread providing an unforgettable show of music and poetry.
Maureen Prest
Maureen Prest was the promotions and public relations manager for Batley Variety Club 1967-1974. She was a close friend and confidant of James Corrigan, the founder of the club.
Olivia Piekarski
Olivia Piekarski is a writer with a passion for contemporary fiction and music. She has worked abroad and in the UK as a teacher, an actor and in radio.
Paul Laverty
Paul Laverty has written the screenplays for several full length feature films directed by Ken Loach: including Sweet Sixteen (2002) – winner of Best Original Screenplay at Cannes, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) – winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and It’s A Free World (2007) – winner of Best Original Screenplay at Venice Film Festival.
Ramón Chao
Ramón Chao (born 1935 in Vilalba, Lugo) is a Galician writer who emigrated to France in 1956. He was chief editor for the Latin American service of Radio France Internationale, and wrote for for Le Monde and Le Monde diplomatique. In 1984 he created the Prix Juan Rulfo award for new Spanish language writers. He is the father of singer Manu Chao and radio maker Antoine Chao.
Rebecca O’Brien
Rebecca O’Brien is a film producer who has worked with director Ken Loach since Hidden Agenda in 1990. She is a partner with Ken Loach and Paul Laverty in the production company Sixteen Films.
Sophie Coulombeau
Sophie Coulombeau was brought up in Manchester. She studied at Trinity College, Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently worked for the British Civil Service in London and the European Commission in Brussels. She is currently reading for a doctorate in English Literature at the University of York. Rites is her first novel.
Steve McKevitt
Steve McKevitt, author of Everything Now, is an expert in marketing, communications and branding. His critically acclaimed book City Slackers revealed how most corporate business nowadays is actually conducted on the assumption that it will be a failure.
Amadou and Mariam
Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia met at an institute for young blind people in Bamako, Mali, and fell in love both musically and romantically. Following several years of performing and releasing cassettes in the their native West Africa, they went on to become stars of the international stage with a string of best selling albums.
Anne Caldwell
Anne is the editor of Some Girls’ Mothers, which also features her story ‘Visit to the Psychotherapist’. Her first poetry collection Slug Language was published in 2008 by Happenstance.