Contributors

Bethan Roberts was born in Abingdon. Her first novel The Pools was published in 2007 and won a Jerwood/Arvon Young Writers' Award. Her second, The Good Plain Cook, published in 2008, was serialized on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and was chosen as one of Time Out's books of the year. Two further novels, My Policeman and Mother Island, followed. Bethan has worked in television documentary, and has taught Creative Writing at Chichester University and Goldsmiths College, London. She lives in Brighton with her family.

Knud Romer, the author of this autobiographical novel, was born in 1960 in Falster, 'a town so small that it is over before it starts'. His studies include the theory of fiction and he has written on subjects as diverse as mint lozenges and auto-erotic suicide. When not writing, he acts. His credits include The Idiots by Lars von Trier and Allegro by Christopher Boe.

Larry Robertson founded leadership and communication consultancy Robertson Burns in 1993. A Brit who settled in Australia after an early career as an Army officer and in advertising, he has been working with executives from some of the world's largest organisations, including Ashurst, AstraZeneca, BHP, Boston Consulting Group, Coutts & Co, Fujitsu, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, PwC, Qantas and The Royal Bank of Canada.

Joe Roman is a conservation biologist, marine ecologist, and editor 'n' chef of eattheinvaders.org. Winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award for Listed: Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act, Roman has written for the New York Times, Science, Slate, and other publications. He is a fellow and writer in residence at the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont.

Simon Rich has written for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, and he worked on Inside Out for Pixar. He is the creator and showrunner of TV series Man Seeking Woman (based on THE LAST GIRLFRIEND ON EARTH) and the forthcoming Miracle Workers, starring Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe, which is based on his novel WHAT IN GOD'S NAME. His other collections include Spoiled Brats and The World of Simon Rich. He is a contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4.

Ren Richards is the pen name for New York Times and USA Today Bestselling YA author Lauren DeStefano. DeStefano has published seven YA novels, four middle-grade novels and the psychological thriller, The Broken Ones.

Denis Robert is a French journalist, novelist, essayist and film director, who is renowned for uncovering political and financial scandals and for his unconventional journalism. Happiness is his first novel.

C. E. Riley is a writer and director of the literary festival, Primadonna, which is described as 'books, with a little bit of rock'n'roll' – a festival that showcases established and emerging voices that aren't heard enough in the mainstream. She lives in London, and has previously published two works of non-fiction. Is This Love? is her debut novel.