Contributors

Alice Albinia is the prize-winning author of two books, Empires of the Indus and Leela's Book: A Novel. RLF Fellow at King's College London, she has spent the past seven years living in and traveling around the edges of Britain, from Orkney to Anglesey, discovering female-centred epic stories which have inspired this novel and a work of non-fiction, The Britannias, due to be published by Allen Lane in 2022.

André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His debut novel, Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His previous books include Asylum, Beauty and Sadness, Ingrid & the Wolf, and Pastoral, which was also nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Fifteen Dogs won the 2016 Giller Prize, and The Hidden Keys was published in 2017.

The company behind AQA is IssueBits Ltd. which was set up by Colly Myers, former CEO of Symbian and MD of Psion PLC, together with Bill Batchelor and Paul Cockerton. They are assisted by more than 600 researchers who answer the question texted to AQA

Kathy Abernethy works as part of an award winning menopause team in London and at a private clinic in South West London. She holds a Masters degree in reproductive women's health and speaks and writes regularly on the topic of menopause. She has authored a book for nurses on Menopause and HRT as well as numerous articles for women themselves, which have appeared in Woman's Weekly, Now, Essentials, Saga and Yours magazines. Kathy raises awareness of the impact of menopause at work by delivering workplace sessions to staff and managers of various organistions throughout the UK and in 2017, was elected as chair of the British Menopause Society, the lead professional organisation for those working in menopause, having been an active member since its inception in 1989.

Jean-Francois Abgrall was an adjutant in the Rennes homicide squad when he started investigating the murder of Aline Perez. By the time it was over he was famous throughout France. His book, Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer, was made into a successful drama by French television, with the actor Thierry Fremont winning an Emmy for best international actor. After leaving the police force, Abgrall he set up as one of the only French private detectives licensed to investigate serious crime. He has worked on other celebrated cases since the Heaulmes affair – including tracking down another serial killer in the South of France – and also lectures on criminal psychology at the University of Rennes.

Daron Acemolgu is an Institute Professor at MIT, Faculty Co-Director of MIT's Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, and a Research Affiliate at MIT's newly established Blueprint Labs.

He has been awarded several prizes for this work, including the John Bates Clark Medal, the Nemmers Prize, the BBVA Frontiers Award, and the Global Economy Prize. Most recently, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024.

Acemoglu's work and writing has been featured in leading publications, including, among others, the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Prospect, TIME, and WIRED magazines.

Acemoglu is the author of six books, including Why Nations Fail with James A. Robinson, for which they were jointly awarded the 2024 Nobel Economics Prize.

Johnny 'Lord' Acton is a writer who specialises in digging up obscure nuggets of information and making complex subjects accessible. He has written books on everything from food (Preserved with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) to the history of balloons (The Man who touched the Sky).

Anjana Ahuja is the Financial Times science columnist and holds a PhD in space physics.

Alexandra Aikhenvald is a professor at the James Cook University in Australia. Born in the USSR, she has lived and worked in the Amazon region of Brazil and Papua New Guinea, and speaks (among others) Estonian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Tariana, French, German, Yiddish and Tok Pisin, a Papuan language in which she occasionally dreams.

John Aitchison is a wildlife filmmaker. His many awards include a joint BAFTA and a joint Primetime Creative Emmy both for the cinematography of the BBC series Frozen Planet.

Ash Ali is an award-winning serial tech entrepreneur and investor. As the first marketing director of Just Eat UK, a FTSE 100 startup that IPO'd for £1.5 billion, and with over 20 years of hands-on experience in launching, growing and advising startups, he is an outspoken patron of social mobility and continuous education. The Unfair Advantage is his first book.

Tom Allan has been working as a thatcher since 2012. Based in South Devon, he also writes for the Guardian (often about thatching) and the travel section of the Financial Times.