Contributors

Dr Ken Thompson teaches on the Kew Horticulture Diploma, and was for twenty years a lecturer in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. He writes regularly on gardening for various publications. He is the author of Where Do Camels Belong? and Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants.

David Thomson, 'without doubt, the greatest living film historian' (LA Times), is the author of the seminal New Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its sixth edition, Have You Seen … ?, Nicole Kidman and The Big Screen. Born in London, Thomson now lives in San Francisco.

Molly Suber Thorpe designs custom lettering for brands and individuals around the world, digital assets for lettering artists, and tools for creative freelancers.

She has worked with clients including Google Arts & Culture, Michael Kors, Martha Stewart, Lonely Planet, and Fendi. Her work has been featured in such publications as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Weddings, Los Angeles Times, and Buzzfeed.

She is the author of three books about calligraphy.

Kim Thúy has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer and restaurant owner. In 2010 Thúy won the Governor General's Award for French language fiction. She lives in Montreal, where she devotes herself to writing.

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.

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.

Glen E. Swanson is a historian of space exploration and former Chief Historian of
NASA's Johnson Space Center, where he led the digitization of the Apollo mission transcripts
and served as a consultant to astronauts, authors, and filmmakers.

A Fellow of The Explorers Club, Swanson is the author of Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek (Schiffer, 2025) as well as numerous essays on NASA history and the culture of spaceflight.

His research sheds light on how the Golden Record emerged from NASA's post-Apollo environment, an era of budgetary restriction and necessary innovation, and how the Voyagers' journey reshaped humanity's sense of itself.

Susan Stryker is an award-winning historian and filmmaker whose work has shaped conversation on gender and feminism for decades. She holds a visiting Professorship at Stanford University. Previous works include Transgender History, Gay by the Bay and the Emmy Award-winning documentary Screaming Queens.

Ruby Tandoh is an author and journalist who writes for, among others, the Guardian, Elle and Vice. A finalist on the 2013 Great British Bake Off, she has published Eat Up, a book about the pleasure of eating, as well as two cookery books, Crumb and Flavour. She lives in Brixton.

Kressmann Taylor was living in New York with her husband and working as a copywriter when Address Unknown was published in Story magazine. She later taught at Gettysburg College and is also known for her novel Until That Day. She died in 1996.

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.

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.