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Born in Sapporo in 1966, Takuya Asakura graduated from the University of Tokyo. He won the first ‘This Mystery is Amazing!’ Grand Prize in 2002 for Yokkakan no Kiseki (The Miracle of Four Days), which was subsequently made into a film and sold over 1.3 million copies. Takuya is also a translator and translated Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library from English into Japanese.

V. S. Alexander is an ardent student of history and the arts and loves writing historical fiction with strong women protagonists. The author of several novels and short stories, Alexander’s first novel for Kensington Publishing was The Magdalen Girls, an Amazon best seller, set in 1962 Dublin. The author lives in South Florida where summer is never far away.

Foluso Agbaje has been writing stories since she first learned to write. She loves London but calls Lagos home, and her stories are shaped by these two cities that have captured her heart. When not curled up with her Kindle, you’ll find her in a bookshop, museum, or restaurant. She is a big fan of period dramas and has watched every episode of Downton Abbey more times than she’s willing to admit.

After graduating from the Faber Academy in 2022, Foluso completed her debut novel, The Parlour Wife. She has a Master’s degree in Management and Human Resources from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Loughborough University.

A storyteller at heart, Foluso is always drawn to narratives that explore identity, culture, and resilience. She continues to write, inspired by the complexities of the human experience.

A self-confessed reading addict, Ella Allbright writes commercial women’s fiction set in her beautiful home county of Dorset. Her first novel in this genre, The Last Charm, was published in August 2020 by One More Chapter, an imprint of HarperCollins. Ella is represented by agent Hattie Grünewald at The Blair Partnership, who represent J.K. Rowling.

Ella also writes as Nikki Moore, the author of the popular #LoveLondon romance series.

Ingrid Alexandra is based in Sydney. Her work has previously been long-listed for the Ampersand Prize and while living in London, she had the privilege of being mentored by the Guardian First Novel Award shortlisted and Nestlé Prize winning author Daren King. THE NEW GIRL is her first psychological thriller.

You can find Ingrid on Twitter @ingridwrites

Ola Awonubi was born in London to Nigerian parents. She grew up and attended school in Brighton and lived in Nigeria before returning to England in 1992. An avid reader, she enrolled in writing classes and went on obtain an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East London.

Her short stories have first prize in both the National Words of Colour competition and the Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2009.

This is her first historical novel.

Patricia Adrian always wanted to write books, ever since she penned (literally, with a pen) her dozen-page long ‘novel’ in fifth grade. Her interests also include history (especially women in history), skulking around social media for much longer than she should, and reading, particularly when she’s on a tight deadline and should be writing instead.

Malka Adler was born in a small village near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.

She began her work as an author when she turned 50. After taking a creative writing course, she fell in love with the art.

Malka has written six books, four of which are about the Holocaust. She obtained her undergraduate and graduate degrees in educational counselling at Bar Ilan University and is a family and couples’ therapist, writer and facilitator of several reading clubs.