Contributors

Leah Thomas is an eco-communicator (an environmentalist with a love for writing and creativity), based in California. She's passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism. She first wrote about Intersectional Environmentalism in 2019, but gained international following after her post 'Environmentalists for Black Lives Matter' in 2020. She has written for Vogue and Elle, among other places, and has been featured in Harper's Bazaar, W Magazine, Domino, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and on numerous podcasts. She studied environmental science, and worked for the US National Park Service and Patagonia before becoming a full-time activist. This is her first book.

Olivia Swarthout is the creator and curator of the internet sensation Weird Medieval Guys. A lifelong aficionado for all things strange and obscure, Olivia's work centres around unearthing the most unexpected and entertaining stories from the annals of human history. Her first book, Weird Medieval Guys, was a love letter to the creativity, hilarity, and timeless appeal of art from the Middle Ages. Swarthout is a surname of Middle Dutch origin that roughly translates to 'Black Forest'. It probably originated near a Frisian forest of the same name, but neither the woods nor their inhabitants are around to say for sure. Olivia grew up between Montana and Berlin before settling in London.

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, winner of the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her debut, The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for The Whitbread Biography Award. The Wicked Boy, published in 2016, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Her latest book, The Haunting of Alma Fielding, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. She lives in north London.

Daniel Tammet is the subject of the award-winning television documentary, The Boy with the Incredible Brain, as well as a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Two Poets (with Les Murray) and the Kate Bush song, Pi. He is the author of nine books, including the memoir Born on a Blue Day, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; two collections of essays, Thinking in Numbers, a New Yorker recommendation, and Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing, a Booklist Editors' Choice and Listener Magazine Book of the Year; a bilingual poetry collection in English and French, Portraits, and a novel written in French, Mishenka. His writing has appeared in Esquire, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Aeon and Quadrant, and his books have been translated into thirty languages. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2012, and awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, The Open University, in 2023. Daniel Tammet lives in Paris.

Dr Lixing Sun first studied at East China Normal University in Shanghai before completing a PhD in ecology, behavior and evolution at the State University of New York and Syracuse University. He is currently a Distinguished Research Professor at Central Washington University. He has authored or coauthored over 60 research articles in scientific journals, and contributed extensively to a number of academic books, as well as authoring three non-trade books, the most recent of which was selected as a Book of the Week by the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. He was awarded a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship in 2024.

Joe Studwell is a researcher and consultant. He is the Senior Visiting Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London, and holds a PhD in global business and development from the University of Cambridge. Previous titles include How Asia Works and The China Dream.

Julie Summers is the author of Jambusters: the story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War, which inspired ITV's 2015 hugely successful drama Home Fires, now into a second series. She also wrote When the Children Came Home and Stranger in the House, among others. Fashion on the Ration appeared in March 2015. She lives in Oxford.

Jonathan Sumption is a British judge and historian, who served as a Supreme Court Justice from 2012 – 2018. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Trials of the State, Law in a Time of Crisis, and Divided Houses, which won the 2009 Wolfson History Prize.

John Sutherland is Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. He has published twenty books (including Is Heathcliff a Murderer? Great Puzzles in 19th Century Fiction) and writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He was chairman of the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Wendy Syfret is an award-winning, Melbourne-based journalist, writer and editor, contributing to publications all over the world, including Guardian, Vice and Man Repeller. Her previous roles include Managing Editor of Vice Asia, Head of Editorial for Vice Australia and Australia Editor for i-D Magazine.

Michel Syrett has combined a career as a journalist and writer on business and management in publications such as The Times, The Sunday Times, Management Today, Director, Asian Business and the South China Morning Post with academic research on management topics for business schools in Britain and Asia. He has authored twenty books and reports, including three Economist titles Successful Innovation, Successful Strategy Execution and Managing Uncertainty.

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin to the West.

Bokyeong Sunim was ordained at Songgwangsa, one of South Korea's most prestigious and ancient temples. He has spent over a decade at Beopryeonsa Temple in Seoul. He is also the author of Time Spent Reading a Cat and The Happiness Cats Bring.

Rachel Syme has covered fashion, style, and other cultural subjects for The New Yorker since 2012, where she is now a staff writer. Her cultural criticism and reported features focus primarily on the intersections of women's lives, artistic production, history, and fame. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and now resides in Brooklyn.