Contributors

Chester Himes was born in Missouri in 1909 and died in Spain in 1984. He wrote several acclaimed Harlem thrillers and novels, including The Crazy Kill, The Real Cool Killers, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Lovely Crusade and an autobiography, The Quality of Hurt.

Frances Cairncross is a senior writer at The Economist, where she is presently the Management Editor. Her previous books include The Death of Distance (14,000 copies sold) and Costing the Earth (20,000 copies sold). She is regularly on radio and speaks at business conferences worldwide.

Seth Lloyd is Nam P. Suh Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Programming the Universe (Knopf, 2006), the only science book on the New York Times list of best books of the year for 2006.

Adam Ockelford is Professor of Music at Roehampton University, where he directs the Applied Music Research Centre. He is Secretary of the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), founder of The Amber Trust, a charity that supports blind children in their pursuit of music, and chair of Soundabout, a music charity for children with complex needs and autism. He is the author of a number of books, including In the Key of Genius, a biography of the musical savant Derek Paravicini. A regular on radio and television, Ockelford's TED Talk with Paravicini has been viewed over one million times and been translated into twenty-five languages. He lives in London and is a composer and pianist.

Pat Long is Head of News Development for The Times and The Sunday Times, following more than a decade as a music journalist. He has written about his illness for The Times and The Sunday Times, and his piece for Mosaic on déjà vu was picked up around the world. Pat is 40 and lives in London.

Born in Madagascar in1949, novelist and journalist Jean Hatzfeld worked for several years as foreign correspondent for French daily newspaper Libération, covering both the conflict in Yugoslavia, where he was wounded by machine-gun fire in 1992, and the Rwandan genocide. He lives in Paris. 45

Ann Wroe trained as a medieval historian. She joined The Economist in 1976 to cover American politics, and has been Books and Arts Editor (1988-1992), American Editor (1992-2000) and is currently Special Reports and Obituaries Editor. She is also the author of several highly acclaimed books: Being Shelley, Pilate and Perkin.

Stefan Zehle is a business planning consultant, specialising in telecommunications, media and technology.

Mina Toksoz has been a consultant on country risk and emerging markets for almost thirty years, including as head of country risk at Standard Bank, and director of Country Risk Service at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Gilbert Toppin is an independent strategic advisor and non-executive specialising in mergers and acquisitions and revenue generation. He has held a succession of senior roles in consulting services, including COO for European Consulting at Deloitte, and CEO at EEF, the manufacturer's organisation.

Aidan Manktelow is Director of the Economist's Corporate Network in Europe.

Jason Karaian is Senior Europe Correspondent at Quartz, where he writes about business, finance and economics. He previously covered the financial services industry for The Economist Intelligence Unit and served as deputy editor of the European edition of CFO magazine.