Authors & Chairs A-Z 2026

Brian Beacom maintains that the stress produced while working with The Herald for the past 30 years (during which time he picked up several Arts Writer of the Year awards), while writing several showbiz biographies (including a Sunday Times bestseller - The Real Mrs Brown), and even when coming up with a weekly column, has never created anything like the anxiety endured while appearing in panto, as Buttons, in the Glasgow Pavilion production of Cinderella.

Professor Lady Sue Black is one of the world’s leading anatomists and forensic anthropologists. She is President of John’s College, Oxford and previously Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She was the lead anthropologist for the British Forensic Team in the war crimes investigations in Kosovo, and one of the first forensic scientists to travel to Thailand following the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Sue was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to forensic anthropology and is a Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle. She is the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Sunday Times bestsellers All That Remains and Written in Bone.

Chris Brookmyre is an award-winning Scottish author best known for his sharp, darkly comic crime thrillers. His bestselling novels include Quite Ugly One Morning, Black Widow and The Cut. With a distinctive blend of suspense, humour and social commentary, Brookmyre has become one of Scotland’s most popular contemporary crime writers. His latest book is Quite Ugly One Evening.

Ian Buxton has been working in and around the drinks industry for close to 30 years, but has been drinking professionally for a good deal longer. He writes in a variety of trade and consumer titles here and abroad, and lives near Worcester.

Alice Clark-Platts is the author of the psychological thrillers The Cove and the best-selling The Flower Girls. She is also the author of the police procedurals Bitter Fruits and The Taken – the latter of which was shortlisted for the Dead Good Best Police Procedural Award. Her short fiction has been published in numerous works.

Alice teaches creative writing at LaSalle College of the Arts. In a former life she was a human rights litigator who worked for the UN Tribunal on the Rwandan Genocide and whose previous cases involved Winnie Mandela and the rapper Snoop Dogg. She has two daughters.

Mhairi Collie OBE is a consultant surgeon in Edinburgh. Since 2001 she has regularly undertaken surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa to treat women with childbirth injuries. She initially worked for Médecins sans frontières, then co-founded the charity Uganda Childbirth Injury Fund. She is married, with two children and a very naughty springer spaniel.

As a passionate advocate of lifelong learning, Frances Crawford was delighted to graduate age 60 with MLitt (Distinction) Creative Writing from Glasgow University. In 2023, she won Bloody Scotland/ Glencairn Crime Short Story Competition and the first chapters of her debut novel, A Bad, Bad Place, won Highly Commended in Moniack Mohr Emerging Writer 2024. Frances grew up in North Glasgow, and credits the people of Possilpark and Milton as her writing inspiration. She still lives in Glasgow with her family, and likes libraries and punk rock.

Charles Cumming was born in Scotland. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he was approached by the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and used his experiences as the basis for his debut novel, A Spy By Nature which has been adapted for film by BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee John Hodge (Trainspotting), with Paul Mescal (Normal People) attached to the lead role.

Cumming’s espionage fiction has since won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year, and his novels have been translated into fourteen languages. The Observer has described Charles as ‘the best of the new generation of British spy writers who are taking over where John le Carré and Len Deighton left off’.

Charles is available for interview and to write features. He has been interviewed for the likes of BBC News and BBC Radio 4 and has written for publications including The Telegraph, The Week and The Mail on Sunday.

Gavin Esler is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, and author known for his work with the BBC, where he was a presenter for Newsnight and Dateline London. He has written five novels, a non-fiction book, and several other publications on American discontent and leadership. Esler's career includes reporting for the Belfast Telegraph and the BBC, serving as the BBC's Chief North America Correspondent, and writing for major newspapers. He has interviewed world leaders and is an award-winning presenter with honors such as a BAFTA membership and a Sony Gold Award.

David Goodman is an author of espionage and speculative fiction. He lives in East Lothian, Scotland with his family. You can learn more about David and his writing at his website, www.davidgoodman.net

Brian Groom is a journalist and a leading expert on British regional and national affairs. His career was spent mainly at the Financial Times, where he was assistant editor. He is also a former editor of Scotland on Sunday, which he launched as deputy editor and which won many awards. Brian’s first book, Northerners, was a Waterstones History Book of the Year and his second, Made in Manchester, was a Financial Times Book of the Year. He lives in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester.

Ayesha Hazarika MBE is a columnist and broadcaster who is known for her insightful and witty opinions and observations on current affairs and politics. She hosts the weekend drivetime show on Times Radio every Saturday and Sunday from 4 till 7pm, where she dissects the weeks news and events across Westminster and beyond with a plethora of interesting and engaging guests. In 2019 she took over as Editor of The Londoner, the Evening Standard’s Daily Diary section. In 2022, Ayesha began co-hosting Take on Tomorrow, the latest podcast series produced by PwC aiming to understand the role business can play in solving some of the biggest issues facing society today.

Alan Johnson was General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union before entering Parliament as Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle in 1997. He served as Home Secretary after filling a wide variety of cabinet positions.

His childhood memoir This Boy was published in 2013. It won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, and the Orwell Prize, Britain's top political writing award. His second volume of memoirs, Please, Mister Postman, won the National Book Club award for Best Biography. It was followed by The Long and Winding Road, which won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Memoir. A fourth memoir about his love of music In my Life – A Music Memoir was published in 2018. Three years later, Alan’s first novel, The Late Train to Gipsy Hill was published by Wildfire. It was followed by One of Our Ministers is Missing and Death on the Thames, which completed his trilogy of thrillers featuring DCS Louise Mangan. Alan’s concise biography of Harold Wilson was published by Swift Press in September 2024, and it won the prize of ‘Best Biography’ at the Westminster Book Awards.

Having spent eight years on the BBC’s This Week sofa with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo, Alan then appeared regularly with Steph McGovern on Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch and is continuing his addiction to live television with appearances on ITV’s This Mornin

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She has published three collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; two poetry collections, Fiere and Bantam; and a memoir, Red Dust Road. From 2016 to 2021 she was the third modern Maker, the National Poet for Scotland.She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.

Carol Kirkwood is one of our most loved TV personalities. Millions of viewers and listeners know her for her weather reports on BBC Breakfast and Wimbledon fortnight, and for waltzing into our hearts on Strictly Come Dancing. Carol was inspired to write her first book by her passion for travel and her love of Hollywood glamour. Her Sunday Times bestselling novels include Under a Greek Moon, The Hotel on the Riviera and Secrets of the Villa Amore. Off-screen, Carol loves walking with her husband in the countryside near their home and planning their next holiday to somewhere exciting.

Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet and playwright. She was appointed Edinburgh Makar in November 2021, is an associate artist with the National Theatre of Scotland and one of the winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award. She is the author of two poetry collections, Blood Salt Spring and Unwritten Woman. She lives in Dunbar.

Rory Lawson is a former Scotland international rugby player and captain who won 31 caps as a scrum-half. He played professionally for Edinburgh, Gloucester and Newcastle Falcons. Grandson of legendary rugby commentator Bill McLaren, Rory has since forged a career in broadcasting, coaching and leadership, drawing on his experiences at the highest level.

Fiona Lindsay is a trusted presence at leading literature festivals. She brings marquee names to life with intimate, thoughtful conversations creating a relaxed atmosphere where even A-list guests they can open up.

Over the past decade, Fiona has developed and co-produced conversation shows in London's West End as well as being a longstanding collaborator with BBC Radio, Audible and Fane Productions. She has hosted backstage for The Olivier Awards, and partnered with Waterstones and Anthropologie, engaging celebrities on stage and on the red carpet. With Tim Minchin, she delivered what one critic called 'a masterclass in interview technique', uncovering heartfelt honesty and original revelations.

Kirsty Lockwood is a leading columnist and political commentator based in Glasgow, Scotland. Lockwood has featured on Good Morning Scotland, Scotland Tonight, election night coverage for the BBC and BBC Radio 5 Live. Her work has been featured in publications including The Independent, The Observer, The Herald and Scotland on Sunday.

Andrew Lownie's books include: the prize-winning Stalin's Englishman: The Life of Guy Burgess; the top ten Sunday Times bestsellers The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves and Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.

He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Union, before taking his Master's and doctorate at Edinburgh University.

Marcas Mac an Tuairneir is a multi-award- winning poet, translator, editor and singer-songwriter, based in Edinburgh. He is the only winner of the Gaelic (2017) and International (2024) Poetry Prizes at Wigtown and was the recipient of a National Gaelic Award for Arts and Culture. Polaris was shortlisted for the Derick Thomson Prize, a Saboteur Award and the Saltire Society's Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award.

Colin MacIntyre’s debut novel The Letters of Ivor Punch (W&N) won the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award and he adapted it for the stage as The Origins of Ivor Punch at A Play, A Pie & A Pint, running to sold out theatre audiences in Glasgow & Edinburgh’s Traverse. The novel was shortlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. Mull’s local hero status secured, Colin – whose late father, Kenny Macintyre, was the hugely respected BBC Scotland Political & Industrial Correspondent – it was his sudden death that inspired Loss – has been celebrated globally. He has been voted Scotland's Top Creative Talent at the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards, as well #12 in the Greatest Scottish Artists of All Time public poll, and his single Watching Xanadu made STV’s ’Scottish Greatest Album'. Colin has performed around the world and at all the major UK and European Festivals, and has collaborated with a range of leading musicians.

The Maclean Brothers – Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan – are three Scottish brothers raised on a sense of adventure. They first made global headlines in 2019 when they became the fastest trio to row across the Atlantic Ocean, covering 3,000 miles in 35 days and breaking the previous speed record by nearly a week. Determined to keep working together for causes they believed in, they founded The Maclean Foundation, with a mission to raise funds for clean water projects. In 2025 they set the Fastest Known Time for rowing the full Pacific Ocean, raising over £1 million for communities in Madagascar.

One of the UK’s most accomplished and respected novelists, number one bestseller Val McDermid has sold over 19 million books to date across the globe and her work has been translated into more than 40 languages. She has written five series of crime novels as well as several award-winning standalone novels, books of non-fiction, short story collections and a children’s picture book, My Granny is a Pirate. Her new Karen Pirie novel, Silent Bones, publishes in October 2025. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and has been a judge for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, as well as chairing the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is also the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford and a Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Clark McGinn, from Ayr and educated at University of Glasgow, is a leading advisor in the global mission-critical helicopter industry. He is a respected scholar in Robert Burns Studies with seven published books (one shortlisted for the 2025 Saltire Research Book of the Year). His Board directorships include the Caledonian Club, London.

Arts writer and broadcaster Nicola Meighan has interviewed names like Dolly Parton, Joan Collins, Martha Reeves, Judas Priest and Russell Crowe on her BBC Radio Scotland show (Friday Afternoons, 2-4pm), along with contributions to Radio 4, 6 Music, STV, The Herald, The List, MOJO, the Quietus and more. She's also worked at Monorail Music, the Arches, The Tron Theatre, Triptych festival (Grace Jones, Herbie Hancock, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Candi Staton), and with Nick Cave, Goldfrapp and Depeche Mode at Mute Records. A Kick Up The Arts is her Scottish Arts and Culture podcast: previous guests include Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Michael Pedersen, David Keenan and Deacon Blue. Listen via akickupthearts.org

Wild at heart, wise by choice. Former Management Today columnist, entrepreneur and CEO coach Avril Millar is 74 and has five careers behind her. She has built and lost businesses. Trashed and regained her health. Married, divorced, been heartbroken and raged at life. Now, in her seventies, she is happy, healthy, working at her highest level and loving everything life throws at her.

Paddy O'Connell is an English television and radio presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme and Newsnight. He is also an occasional presenter of the PM programme. He also regularly chairs the First Wednesday discussions hosted by the Frontline Club in West London, in which experts and key figures debate current geopolitical events happening around the world.

Bill Paterson was born in Dennistoun, Glasgow, in 1945. He has had a long-established career spanning theatre, film, radio and television is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Scottish BAFTAs. He is an Honorary Doctor of Glasgow University and a Fellow of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Len Pennie is a poet who writes predominantly in the Scots language. She writes passionately about the promotion of minoritised languages, survivors of domestic abuse and the destigmatisation of mental illness.

Robert Peston is ITV's political editor, presenter of the politics show Peston, co-presenter of The Rest is Money podcast, founder of the education charity, Futures for All and vice president of Hospice UK. His first thriller, The Whistleblower, published by Zaffre, was 'brilliant' according to the Guardian and called 'a rollicking read' by the Evening Standard. Its sequel, The Crash, was praised as 'clever' by The Times and as 'fast paced' by the Financial Times. He has written five critically acclaimed non-fiction books, How Do We Fix This Mess?, Who Runs Britain?, Brown's Britain, How To Run Britain and WTF?. For a decade until the end of 2015, he was at the BBC, as economics editor and business editor, and in the 1990s he was at the Financial Times, as political editor, financial editor and head of investigations. At the BBC he played a prominent role in exposing the causes and consequences of the credit crunch, banking crisis and Great Recession. Peston has won more than 30 awards for his journalism, including Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year (twice) from the Royal Television Society. He hosts a podcastwith Steph McGovern, The Rest is Money.

Murray Pittock MAE FRSE is Scotland’s leading cultural historian. His books include Culloden, Enlightenment in a Smart City, The Myth of the Jacobite Clans, and Robert Burns in Global Culture.

Hugh Pym is Health Editor for BBC News. He has covered the field for more than a decade and was part of the BBC team covering the COVID pandemic. Prior to that he was Chief Economics Correspondent, covering the banking crisis and its aftermath. Earlier in his career he was ITN's Scotland Correspondent and stories included international developments after the Lockerbie disaster.

Marcus Railton is a journalist and communications specialist, having worked in just about every type of media going. He was Weekend Editor at LBC radio and a broadcast journalist for BBC Radio Scotland before moving into television in a variety of production roles. He currently produces and presents the ScotsCare podcast, a highly successful talk show that charts all over the world in the Apple not for profit podcast chart.

Hugo Rifkind is a columnist, critic and leader writer for The Times and a presenter on Times Radio, having formerly been a columnist for the Spectator, GQ and the Herald. He is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s comedy show The News Quiz, and an occasional guest on television shows that aren’t supposed to be funny at all. He was born and raised in Edinburgh, studied in Cambridge, and now lives in North London in a house where everybody else speaks German, including the dog.

Christina Riley was born in Florida and grew up in Ayrshire on Scotland’s west coast, where she now resides. With a focus on coastal waters, her work draws attention to small details – a particular species, object or place – to shift perspectives and encourage new ways of seeing and experiencing our surroundings, natural and otherwise. Longlisted for Canongate’s Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing, her photo artist’s book, The Beach Today, was produced in 2021. In 2019 she started The Nature Library, a travelling library exploring the role of literature in times of climate crisis, which opened a long-term premises in 2024.

Gareth Russell is an historian and broadcaster. His books include Young and Damned and Fair, The Ship of Dreams, Do Let’s Have Another Drink and The Palace. He is the host of the podcast Single Malt History with Gareth Russell and he divides his time between Belfast and London.

Jo Sharp is the current Geographer Royal for Scotland, a title she has held since 2022, as well as Professor of Geography at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of 100 publications, including 13 books, on geopolitics, development and global health and co-editor of the 2020 book Imagine a Country (with Val McDermid), was born out of a frustration at the shrinking of political debate and aimed to nurture a space within which people could engage with a range of views, listen to and understand other’s perspectives, and converse in a way that is respectful of difference.

Jo splits her time between Edinburgh and the East Neuk, and is rarely happier than when on her kayak in the Firth of Forth.

For as long as he can remember, Gordon Simpson wanted to be a sports writer. For this to happen just a few months short of his 18th birthday was nothing short of remarkable. Since that happy day, sport has consumed his life. Over the years, Gordon has been privileged to meet and work with many of the world’s greatest athletes and sporting figures, leading to a conviction that he’s never had a real job.

Sport and language had always wrestled for priority but the combination has been central to the plot of his debut crime novel, Four Deadly Swings. He worked for the Press Association in Glasgow, writing on a wide range of sports, before a spell with the Daily Mail, sandwiched in between two stints with the Daily Record, the latter as Golf Correspondent. Based at Wentworth Golf Club, Surrey, he graduated from Press Officer to Communications Director for the PGA EuropeanTour and Media Centre Manager for the Ryder Cup. On leaving the Tour, Gordon spent six years as a self-employed Sports Consultant, specialising on golf. As he says… it’s been a joyful ride, and all thanks to sport.

Kenneth Steven is a writer of faith with some 50 titles behind him. He’s best-known as a poet and wider writer for his work inspired by the island of Iona and the Celtic Christian story. His book Atoms of Delight is published by Saraband and available both here and in North America. It comprises ten essays celebrating the wild world, nine of these in Scotland. They tell the stories of going to St Columba’s Bay on Iona to search for pebbles of serpentine, of looking for cloudberries on the slopes of Schiehallion in Highland Perthshire, of searching for the Northern Lights.

Alice Strang was a Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, before becoming an Associate Director at Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers. She has curated numerous major exhibitions, accompanied by publications, on subjects including modern Scottish women artists, 20th-century Scottish art, modern British art, and individually on the Scottish Colourists S.J. Peploe, J.D. Fergusson and F.C.B. Cadell. Alice is a Saltire Society Outstanding Woman of Scotland and a BBC Expert Woman. She lectures widely, including for universities and public galleries, and publishes her research in a variety of titles. She is a Trustee of the Hugo Burge Foundation, Lund Humphries Foundation for Visual Arts and the Scottish Society for Art History. Alice has been described as ʻone of the most cultured minds on Scotland’s art sceneʼ (Scottish Field, March 2026).

Harriet Tyce grew up in Edinburgh and studied English at Oxford University before doing a law conversion course at City University. She practised as a criminal barrister in London for nearly a decade, and subsequently completed an MA in Creative Writing - Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She lives in north London. Her first novel, Blood Orange, published in 2019 to huge critical acclaim and her second, third and fourth novels The Lies You Told, It Ends at Midnight and A Lesson in Cruelty have been Sunday Times bestsellers. Witch Trial is her fifth novel.

Louise Welsh is an award-winning author of ten novels. The Cutting Room, her debut novel, won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was awarded the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. In 2022 she published The Second Cut, which was a finalist for the McIlvanney Prize for Crime Book of the Year and named by The Times as their Crime Book of the Year.