Artists and Contributors to 2011 Festival

Michael Arnold lives in Petersfield. After childhood holidays spent visiting castles and battlefields, he developed a lifelong fascination with the English Civil Wars. 'Traitor's Blood' was his debut novel, the first in a planned series of ten books that will follow the fortunes of Captain Stryker through one of the most treacherous periods of British history. The second Stryker novel, 'Devil's charge' is published in August 2011.

Alison Baverstock is a hugely experienced publisher, trainer and writer on all aspects of publishing, marketing and reading. She is the Course Leader for MA Publishing at Kingston University.

During the 2009 Havant Literary Festival, Alison gave a talk on 'Blogging and the Art of Success'.

Denise Bennett was born in Southsea and now lives in Havant. Denise has an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) and runs poetry workshops and creative writing classes in community settings. She is also secretary of Portsmouth Poetry Society.

Her work has appeared in many magazines including: Acumen, Envoi, Equinox, Gabriel, The Interpreter's House, Other Poetry, South, Smoke et al. In 2010, her poem 'Planting The Snow Queen' won first prize in the Rhyme and Reason poetry competition and has become the title poem of her first full length collection, published by Oversteps Books in April 2011.

Dick Bird lived in Havant for many years. He took his A Levels at Havant College before graduation in Drama from Goldsmith's College in London. From his many years of work as a director, designer and performer in a wide range of community theatre projects in London, Dick launched his current career as a stage designer of theatre, opera and ballet.

In 2006 he designed Noel Coward's 'Tonight at 8.30' for the Minerva in Chichester. His recent work has included Bizet's 'The Pearl Fishers' for English National Opera, 'Othello' for the Globe Theatre and Janacek's 'From The House of the Dead' for Opera North.

Mark Blaney, along with producing partner Jackie Sheppard, runs Emsworth based production company Footprint Films. Established in 1994, the company produces mainstream, inspiring, crowd-pleasing films, for cinema and television that bring to life stories of courage and redemption. Their cinema feature film productions include the recent, critically acclaimed, 'Africa United' (Pathé, BBC Films, UK Film Council), as well as previous features, 'The Darkest Light' (Pathé, BBC Films, Studio Canal, Yorkshire Media), 'This Is Not A Love Song' (UK Film Council, Footprint), Fran Lea's much acclaimed, 'Everyone's Happy' (Footprint/Yorkshire Media) and Kim Hopkins' native American cop feature, 'Wanted' (UK Film Council, 'A&E' [USA], WDR [Germany], Soros Documentary Fund [USA]). They have also produced a number of award-winning short films.

Andy started writing with his brother Peter Briggs, working on movie projects such as 'Judge Dread', 'Freddy Vs. Jason' and 'Foreverman' for Spiderman creator Stan Lee and legendary producer Robert Evans. Andy went on to work with Gregory Novac and Bruce Timm on Warner Bros. 'Aquaman' - while at the same time landing an eight-book deal with Oxford university Press for 'Hero.com' and 'Villain.net'. Currently, Andy is reworking the Tarzan franchise for a new generation and working with Disney XD on 'Inventory X' amongst several other exciting TV and feature projects, including Merian C. Cooper's 'War Eagles'.

Mark Cocker lives deep in the Norfolk countryside with his wife Mary Muir and their two daughters. He is one of Britain's foremost writers on nature and contributes regularly to the Guardian and other publications. All of his books deal with modern responses to wilderness, whether found in landscape, human societies or in other species. 'Birds Britannica' was published in 2005. His last work, 'Crow Country', was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2008 and won the New Angle Prize for Literature 2009. For the last five years he has being working on a major new book with photographer David Tipling. 'Birds and People' (Jonathan Cape) is a worldwide survey of the cultural importance of birds and is due out in 2013.

Emma Darwin was born and brought up in London. She read Drama at the University of Birmingham, and she spent some years in academic publishing. But when she had two small children she started writing again, and eventually earned an MPhil in Writing at the University of Glamorgan.

The novel she wrote for the degree became 'The Mathematics of Love', which was sold to Headline Review, as the first of a two-book deal. As a child, her family spent many holidays on the Essex/Suffolk border, where much of the novel is set.

'The Mathematics of Love' was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Best First Book Award for the Europe and South Asia region.

Shedman is John Davies, the writer and poet based in Brighton. A poet who goes round the country putting up sheds where people come and talk to him, Shedman celebrates that very English phenomenon, the shed, and puts it in a global context. He creates amazing interactive experiences and lively events that explore the place of the garden shed in everyone's hearts.

Following her success as our Writer in Residence at the 2009 Festival, we are pleased to say that Stella has agreed to become a Patron of the Havant Literary Festival. More

Neil Griffiths, was a Primary School headteacher for 13 years before taking on the role of director of a National Literacy Project for the Basic Skills Agency, working with schools and communities throughout the U.K. After six years, Neil began to devote all of his energies to the project and set up what is now the worldwide, highly acclaimed, and award-winning Storysack® phenomenon. He has created award-winning play resources, written a nursery curriculum, and imaginative material for the Early Learning Centre. Neil also finds time to write his own children's picture books, published exclusively by Red Robin Books. They feature strong storylines, memorable characters, enchanting language, and arresting illustrations. They charm children and have sold in the thousands. Neil loves to tell a story and a story time with him is a rare and highly entertaining event. He is known internationally for his unique delivery, exceptional energy, and his rare storytelling gift.

Miriam Halahmy writes for children, teens and adults: both fiction and poetry. A former special needs teacher, she has produced publications for children with cancer and adults with learning difficulties. Her work has been published by the BBC as well as mainstream publishers. Miriam is also a reviewer and freelance journalist.

Her cycle of three teen novels set on Hayling Island was published by Meadowside Books in March 2011.

On her own website [http://tattybogle.co.uk], Sandra says this about herself:

I grew up in Sussex but now live in Southampton with my husband, three grown-up children and lots of geraniums. I began to write stories, poems, and plays when I was still at school. It still gives me as much joy as it did then.

When I grew up, I went to a writing class and met a group of people who have become good friends. We meet regularly to read our work to each other and eat chocolate biscuits. My first picture book was 'Tattybogle' - the story of a happy scarecrow. It has now been made into a musical for schools, by Ruth Kenward at Starshine Music!

'In Voice And Verse' are Lance Pierson - Actor, Belinda Yates - Soprano, and Heather Chamberlain - Keyboards. As established professionals, they came together as 'In Voice and Verse' to produce and perform themed programmes of music and the spoken word. You can read more about them at www.invoiceandverse.co.uk

Steve Jones worked for many years at Havant Museum and is an expert on Havant's history. He co-wrote 'Havant: The Golden Years' and has led many guided walks around the borough. Following a period working for the Records Office in Winchester , Steve currently works at Waterlooville Library.

Born in South London on 28 January 1935, Professor David Lodge is a graduate and Honorary Fellow of University College London. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham, where he taught from 1960 until 1987, when he retired to write full-time.

He was Harkness Fellow in the United States (1964-5), Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1969) and Henfield Creative Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia (1977). More

Richard describes himself as "a workaholic writer journalist and speaker." He also gives training in using the media. Richard writes on a wide range of subjects from science to history. At the 2009 Havant Literary Festival, he gave a talk on his book 'Best of Enemies' about the propaganda war between Britain and Germany.

Fred Pearce was recently described by The Times as one of Britain's finest science writers. He is a freelance author and journalist based in London and has reported on environment, science and development issues from 64 countries over the past 20 years. Trained as a geographer, he has been environment consultant of New Scientist magazine since 1992. He writes regularly for the Guardian newspaper, including the weekly Greenwash column. Fred's books include 'When the Rivers Run Dry', 'Confessions of an Eco Sinner' [shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize], 'Earth: Then and Now', 'The Last Generation', 'Deep Jungle'. 'Peoplequake' was published in February this year. Fred recently published 'The Climate Files', an investigation of the 'climategate' emails affair at the University of East Anglia.

While Kay Sexton's ambition as a child was to be a librarian, in fact, she became a charity administrator. While serving as Company Secretary for the World Humanity Action Trust (WHAT) she studied Politics, Philosophy and History as a mature student. After WHAT, she became Chief Executive of the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability and then ran The International Tree Foundation. She has presented at the UN and travelled the world examining the causes, and potential solutions, to global problems such as food security, over-population, urbanisation, global warming and animal and plant extinction.

In 2003, Kay was invited to write a short story about trees for a charity anthology. The project never got off the ground but she needed to produce some return for the two days leave that her trustees had given her to write it, so she sent it to a magazine. It was accepted. Somewhat sceptical, she wrote another and emailed it to a different magazine. It too, was accepted. Three weeks later she handed in her notice, telling the charity's trustees that she was off to become a writer. It has never been that easy since. Kay has had several hundred short stories and articles published. She divides her time between writing, running, and tending her allotment. She's still quite obsessive about global problems and is the only person she knows who reads UNEP and UNHCR reports for pleasure.

Dr. Michael Sherborne is the Head of the English and Humanities Department at Luton Sixth Form College. He is the former editor of The Wellsian and chairman of the H.G. Wells Society.

Michael is an expert on the life and work of H. G. Wells. His biography, 'H. G. Wells: Another Kind of Life' was published in 2010. It was praised by the TLS as 'authoritative' and the Sunday Telegraph as 'brilliant ... packed with facts and discreetly witty'.

Jules and Tim describe themselves as freelance environmental artists and conservation gardeners. Jules has a Degree in Fine Art History and various qualifications in horticulture/ceramics and waste prevention with 20 years teaching experience as a freelance artist. Tim is also a qualified Waste Prevention Adviser (WPA) for West Sussex and has a background in industry and commercial photography, giving him a broad view of how our society works economically and its problems for the long term.

When describing what they do, Jules and Tim say "We make art out of rubbish in an attempt to amuse, engage and educate the public about the risks and responsibility we have regarding our environment and life on the planet. The plastic bag dropped on a beach here could be the reason for the death of a turtle on the other side of the world; this careless act can have tragic consequences for other species." Recent projects have been seen at the Stanstead Garden show and the Water Festival at Staunton Park.

Jane is the author of twenty books including 'Red Sky at Night', 'Britain from the Air' and 'Literary Britain and Ireland'. Her latest book, 'Beside the Seaside', is bursting with facts, fables, history and mystery about Britain's seaside and coast. Jane will discuss her books and her writing answering such questions as what to look for in rock pools, which are the best knots and how to avoid being cursed by a mermaid!

David Swann was born four doors up the street from the novelist Jeanette Winterson, who was fond of scaring him stiff with spooky stories. Later, he was given the even more frightening task of reporting on Accrington Stanley's football matches for the local newspaper. After a three-year stint as a journalist in the Netherlands, he returned to England to take an M.A. in Creative Writing at Lancaster University, which he passed with Distinction. From 1996 to 1997, he was Writer in Residence at H.M. Nottingham Prison.

David now teaches modules in Creative Writing, Journalism, and Screenwriting at University of Chichester, where he also runs the popular 'Tongues and Strings' literary cabaret with his colleague Hugh Dunkerley. David's short stories and poems have been widely published. In 2003, his story, 'The Last Days of Johnny North' came third in the Bridport Prize, judged by Rose Tremain, while his poem 'Bunker' was awarded first prize by Mimi Kalvhati in the Pitshanger Open Poetry Competition. Two other stories, 'In That Brilliant Village' and 'The Collector of Small Town Secrets' were also awarded first prizes in national competitions in 2003. Dave's debut short story collection, 'The Boggart Hole', is forthcoming from Elastic Press.

Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist, best known for her popular book 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.' After university in 1977, she joined the Radio Times as a sub-editor before moving in 1978 to the Times Higher Education Supplement as the deputy literary editor. She began freelance writing at the same time. Lynne was Literary Editor of The Listener (1986-90) and was an arts and books reviewer for The Independent on Sunday before joining The Times in 1991, where first she spent six years writing television criticism, followed by four years as a sports columnist. More

Born in the UK, Precious is of Sierra Leonean and Nigerian descent and she has lived in London and in New York. Precious was first published aged eight when her poem took first prize in a poetry competition (she won £2). She studied English Language & Literature at Oxford and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Periodical Journalism from the London College of Printing. More

Jayne Woodhouse is the author of many highly successful non-fiction books and curriculum resources for children and schools, including the 'Life and Work' and 'Lives and Times' series. Her publishers include BBC Active, 'Ginn', Heinemann, Longman, and PCET. Her first children's novel, 'The Stephensons' Rocket', tells the story of Rocky, a former racing greyhound and his impact on a troubled family, and is endorsed by The Retired Greyhound Trust. She has also been a primary school teacher and teacher trainer. She was born in Brierley Hill, West Mids, and now lives in Southampton with her daughter.