Contributors

Constance Debré is the author of Love Me Tender, which won the Prix Littéraire des Inrockuptibles in 2020 and Playboy, which won the Prix de la Coupole in 2018. Her novella Offences, based on her work as a defence attorney, is forthcoming from Tuskar Rock.

Marion Devine is a research associate for Ashridge Business School. She is the author or co-author of several management reports and books, including three Economist titles, Successful Mergers, Managing Uncertainty and A Sense of Mission.

Charles Dickens was born on 7th February 1812 in Portsmouth and grew up in London and Kent. His father was sent to a debtor's prison following financial difficulties and the young Dickens was sent temporarily to work in a boot blacking factory, until an inheritance allowed his return to school – however, he never forgot this formative experience. Dickens wrote many novels including A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers, A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations. A leading celebrity of the Victorian Age, his short story The Signalman was likely based on a crash involving a train that Dickens was travelling on, with his mistress. Charles Dickens died in 1870.

David Dickson is Professor in Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin and has published extensively on the social, economic and cultural history of Ireland. He was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2006.

Andrew Dickson has been an arts editor at the Guardian and is now a freelance writer and critic, who has also written for the New Statesman and Sight and Sound among other publications. He has contributed to The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare (2010) and is currently an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. He is a regular on BBC radio as a presenter and reviewer, and is author of the forthcoming Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe, a book about Shakespeare's global influence.

Dr Luisa Dillner is a doctor and a publishing director at the British Medical Journal Publishing Group. Published by the Guardian, the Observer, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Elle, she has also written for the famous Mumsnet website where her letters for mothers have been sent out for seven years. She has four children, lives in London and most importantly has a perfect long term relationship…

Dr Sarah Davies is an author, chartered counselling psychologist and trauma therapist who specialises in narcissistic abuse, co-dependency and related trauma. She is the author of How to Leave a Narcissist … For Good and has been featured in publications including the Guardian, Daily Mail and Sunday Times.

Dr Bella DePaulo is an acclaimed social scientist, author and leading expert on single life. She lectures internationally and has been featured in The New York Times, Time, the Atlantic and the Guardian. She is currently an academic affiliate at the University of California.

Dr Mikel Maria Delgado is a cat behaviour consultant and animal behaviour scientist. She is co-author, with Jackson Galaxy, of the book Total Cat Mojo. Her research on cat behaviour has appeared in cat journals and veterinary textbooks, and she has been featured in The New York Times and the BBC, among other outlets.

Max Décharné was a member of the band Gallon Drunk, and has been with The Flaming Stars since 1994. An authority on the 1950s and 1960s counterculture, he is the author of Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of British Slang, as well as A Rocket in My Pocket and Hardboiled Hollywood . He lives in London.