Contributors

Shaun Walker is an international correspondent for The Guardian. He reported from Moscow for more than a decade and is the author of The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past. His coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine was shortlisted for the Foreign Reporter of the Year category at the British 2023 Press Awards, and he has appeared as a commentator on Russia and Ukraine for various television and radio programmes. He currently divides his time between Warsaw, Kyiv and London.

Emily Usher is an author and award-winning short story writer, originally from West Yorkshire. She gained a 1st Class BA Honours Degree in Media and Performing Arts at the University of Salford and went on to live in Sheffield and London before relocating to Australia.

Emily also works as a freelance writer specialising in the not-for-profit sector, and teaches creative writing in prisons and secure centres.

Emma Jane Unsworth is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her first novel, Animals, now a major motion picture, for which Unsworth wrote the screenplay. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2019. She also writes for television and various magazines. Her latest novel, Adults, has been heralded 'hilarious' (Dolly Alderton), 'tender' (Jessie Burton) and 'dazzling' (Marian Keyes) and is a Sunday Times bestseller.

Danielle Valentine writes bestselling YA horror under the name Danielle Vega. Her work, which includes The Merciless series and How To Survive Your Murder, has been optioned for film and television by Lionsgate and Warner Brothers, and has been translated into dozens of languages worldwide. Danielle lives outside of New York City with her husband and daughter. Delicate Condition is her first adult novel.

Cathi Unsworth began a career in journalism at nineteen on the music weekly Sounds, and has since worked for many music, arts, film and alternative lifestyle journals. She is the author of four other novels, Weirdo[9781846687938] The Not Knowing [9781852428921], The Singer [9781846686405] and Bad Penny Blues[9781846686788], and the editor of the award-winning crime compendium London Noir, all published by Serpent's Tail. She lives in London.

V.L. Valentine is a senior science editor at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., where she has led award-winning coverage of global disease outbreaks including Ebola and the Zika virus. She has a master's in the history of medicine from University College London and her non-fiction work has been published by NPR, The New York Times, The Smithsonian Channel and Science Magazine. She is the author of two novels, The Plague Letters and Begars Abbey.

Dr Merritt Turetsky is an internationally acclaimed climate scientist, renowned for her research and teaching on bogs. She's published hundreds of scientific articles on bogs' importance to global climate and provides counsel to governments, northern communities, and professional networks from around the world to better understand the importance of bogs to the global climate. Turetsky is a founding member and advisory board member of the international Permafrost Carbon Network, an advisor to NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, and from 2020-2022 she was named a Web of Science's Highly Cited Researcher. In addition to her published academic research, Dr Turetsky serves as the science advisor to the magazine EOS, has written for The Conversation, and regularly appears on TV including on CNN, PBS Newshour, BBC, and her own science program on Canada's CTV.

Vivien Twaddle is an eminent member of the Cognitive Therapy Centre in Newcastle and a consultant clinical psychologist for the NHS.

Joyce Tyldesley's books include acclaimed biographies of Rameses the Great, and the queens Hatchepsut and Nefertiti. She is the author of Egypt: How a Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered, which accompanied a major BBC television series. Her books have been published all over the world. She lives in Bolton, Lancashire.

Sally Urwin is (probably) the shortest farmer in England and lives with her family and a lot of sheep in Northumberland. She used to work in the most depressing job in the world – marketing manager for a bankruptcy practitioner – but made a bid for freedom after nabbing farmer Steve from the Dating Direct website in 2001.

Simon Van Der Velde has worked variously as a barman, labourer, teacher, caterer and lawyer, as well as travelling throughout Europe and South America collecting characters and insights for his award-winning stories. Since completing a creative writing MA in 2010, Simon's work has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards including the CWA Gold Dagger Award. He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Federico Varese is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories.