Contributors

Valerie Martin is the author of eleven novels, including I Give It To You, Italian Fever and Property, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has also written three collections of short fiction and a biography of Saint Francis of Assisi, Salvation. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly.

Steve Martin is the co-author of the New York Times International bestseller Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion. His work in the field of persuasion science has featured widely in the global media. His regular business columns for the British Airways in-flight magazine and the Harvard Business Review are read by over 2 million people each month. He is a guest lecturer at the London Business School and the University of Cambridge.

Gerry Martin is an industrialist who has made the history of glass technology his hobby.

Paul Marshall is chairman of Marshall Wace and of the management committee of CentreForum.

Bob Marshall-Andrews joined the Labour Party in 1971. He entered Parliament as the member for Medway in 1997 and quickly gained a reputation on the libertarian left by repeated rebellions against the government especially on legal issues. He is a frequent panellist on the satirical news quiz Have I Got News For You and a regular contributor to the national press. He is a barrister, was appointed QC in 1987 and has prosecuted and defended most forms of serious crime.

Jeffrey Marsh (they/them) is an American, non-binary writer, LGBT activist and social influencer with more than a quarter billion views across social media. Known for their inspirational messages of compassion and inclusivity, Jeffrey is a precepted facilitator in the Soto Zen tradition of Buddhism, as well as a host, actor, singer, songwriter, dancer and comedian.

Andrew Martin is a rail expert and author. His previous titles include Underground, Overground, Night Trains, Belles & Whistles, Steam Trains Today and Train Teasers. He is also the author of Seats of London, a field guide to Transport for London's iconic moquette patterns.

John Marincowitz began his career as a history teacher at a secondary school in a deprived area of Cape Town. He returned to London to pursue his interest in historical research and was awarded a PhD at SOAS in 1985. In that year he joined the History Department at Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet. He worked at the school for 26 years during which time the focus of his attentions shifted increasingly to matters of pedagogy, school management and leadership. He was Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth's from 1999 to 2011. His various other positions of responsibility in education included the Chairmanships of the Governors of Little Heath primary school, the Management Committee of the Adolescent Education Unit at Edgware Psychiatric Hospital and Barnet Council's Schools' Finance Committee. This book, which reflects his abiding interest in history and education, is the product of research he conducted over eight years following his retirement as Headmaster.

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Dr Adriana Marais is an award-winning theoretical physicist and internationally renowned advocate for off-world exploration. Her PhD and postdoctoral work in quantum biology focused on photosynthesis and the origins of the building blocks of life in space.

She was Head of Innovation at SAP Africa between 2017 and 2019, and is currently a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa. Their Africa2Moon mission has been selected for launch to the Moon with China's Chang'e-8 mission is scheduled for 2029, and Marais is Head of Science for the mission.

In 2020, she was among 5 global finalists for Women in Tech's the Most Disruptive Woman in Tech Award, and was one of 100 candidates selected for Mars One. In 2025 she received Forbes Africa's Award for Academic Excellence at the Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit, as well as the Most Disruptive Award at the Women in Tech Global Awards Ceremony in Paris.

Eliza Manningham-Buller joined MI5 in 1974. During her career she worked to counter the full range of security threats facing the UK, her main focus being counterterrorism. She led the section responsible for investigating international terrorism at the time of the Lockerbie bombing. Later she was posted to Washington as the senior liaison officer from MI5 to the US intelligence community, a period that coincided with the first Gulf War in 1991. On her return to London the following year she established and led a new section responsible for countering Irish terrorism on the British mainland.
Manningham-Buller was promoted to the MI5 management board in 1993. She was appointed Deputy Director-General in 1997. She became Director-General in 2002 and led MI5 through major changes in the wake of 9/11 while dealing with a greatly increased terrorist threat. Under her leadership the service nearly doubled in size and opened a network of new offices around the UK.
She retired in 2007, after thirty-three years at MI5. She now sits on the crossbenches in the House of Lords where she is a member of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and the Privileges and Conduct Committee. She chairs the Sub-Committee on Lord's Conduct. She is also Chair of the Council of Imperial College and a Governor of the Wellcome Trust.

Frederic Manning was born in Sydney, Australia in 1882. He moved to England in 1903 where he pursued a literary career, reviewing and writing poetry. He enlisted in 1915 in the Shropshire Light Infantry and went to France in 1916 as 'Private 19022.' The Shropshires saw heavy fighting on the Somme and Manning's four months there provided the background to Her Privates We. He died in 1935.

Benoit Mandelbrot was Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University. He was the inventor of fractal geometry, a leading figure in James Gleick's Chaos and has received the Wolf Prize in Physics, the Japan Prize in science and technology and numerous other awards.