Contributors

Tim Parks has lived in Italy since 1981. He is the author of eleven novels, three accounts of life in Italy, two collections of essays and many translations of Italian writers.

Matthew Parris worked for the Foreign Office before serving as an MP. He now writes as a columnist for The Times and the Spectator, and in 2011 won the Best Columnist award at the British Press Awards. He is the author of several books, including his autobiography Chance Witness and the bestselling The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase.

Frank Partnoy was a trader at Morgan Stanley before turning from gamekeeper to poacher and becoming professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego. He is one of the world's leading experts on the complexities of modern finance and financial market regulation and writes regularly for the Financial Times. He is the author ofF.I.A.S.C.O. [9781846682384], The Match King [9781861979384] and Infectious Greed [9781846682933].

Uttama Kirit Patel is a writer who has lived in twelve cities across three continents. She holds an MPhil in Psychology from the University of Cambridge, has been a semi-finalist in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, and was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.

Penny Parks developed her Parks Inner Child Therapy from her own experience of recovery from childhood abuse. She later refined the PICT model to work with childhood abuse victims or anyone experiencing Post Traumatic Stress. Penny Parks passed away in July 2020. Visit the Penny Parks Foundation website for more information on PICT.

After leaving Brixton Academy, Simon Parkes went on to run The Coronet in Elephant and Castle, as well as numerous other projects. He also got his life back, got married, had three sons, and did all the things he couldn't do when he was running the Brixton Academy. He and his family still live in Brixton.

Simon Parkin is an award-winning writer and journalist from England. A sought-after video game pundit, Parkin has been a guest on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and his criticism and journalism has featured in numerous high-profile publications, including the New Yorker, Guardian and New Statesman.

Ned Palmer first experienced great cheese at Borough Market, helping to sell Trethowan's Gorwydd Caerphilly (still one of his all-time favourite cheeses). He then learnt his craft at Neal's Yard Dairy, who dispatched him to farms and dairies across Britain and Ireland. It was during one such visit, to Mary Holbrook's farm in Somerset, that he came up with the idea for a Cheesemonger's History, realising that her fresh Sleightlett cheese was just what a Neolithic farmer would make. There followed many more trips – from Hawes Yorkshire Wensleydale to Milleens at the tip of County Cork – as well as long hours in the British Library, immersed in Celtic cheese folklore, monastic account books and unearthing tales of cheese piracy, cheese magic and Queen Victoria's giant birthday Cheddar.

Ned lives in London with his wife, the novelist Imogen Robertson, many, many books about cheese, and a piano. He set up the Cheese Tasting Company in 2014, to spread the gospel.

Rithy Panh was born in Cambodia in 1965. He is a film-maker whose documentaries, including Rice People, S 21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell have achieved an international reputation.

Harry Parker is the author of Anatomy of a Soldier (2016), translated in eight languages. He grew up in Wiltshire, and was educated at Falmouth College of Art and University College London. He joined the British Army when he was 23 and served in Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2009 as a Captain. He is now a writer and artist and lives in London.

Vikram Paralkar was born and raised in Mumbai, and now lives in Philadelphia in the United States. He works as a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, where he treats patients with leukaemia and conducts research into the genetic mutations responsible for the illness.

Mark Palmer has written for national newspapers and magazines for more than thirty years. He was formerly with theDaily Telegraph and is now with the Daily Mail. He has written the authorised history of Clarks shoes.