Ian Rankin is a British author and one of the best-selling crime writers in the United Kingdom. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels.

Lionel Shriver is a journalist and author.

She won the 2005 Orange Prize for her seventh published novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, a thriller and close study of maternal ambivalence, and the role it might have played in the title character's decision to murder seven of his classmates in a school shooting. The book created a lot of controversy, and achieved success through word-of-mouth.

Her eighth novel, The Post-Birthday World, was released in March 2007 by HarperCollins.

Biography from Wikipedia article. Photo by walnut whippet.

David Quantick is a freelance journalist, writer and critic who specialises in music and comedy.

He began writing for the music publication NME in 1983, and contributed to many of the humorous snippet sections in the paper. He gained a reputation for incisive and witty observations on popular culture and music. Alongside rock journalism he was also submitting gags and sketches to British comedy shows such as Spitting Image.

More recently, he has written for Brass Eye and That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

Clarissa Dickson Wright is an English celebrity chef who is best known as one half of the Two Fat Ladies. Having trained as a lawyer, she was also the youngest woman ever to be called to the Bar.

Dickson Wright has campaigned for the Countryside Alliance and was the first female Rector of the University of Aberdeen. Her autobiography, Spilling The Beans, was published in 2007.