Chris Tutton

Chris Tutton is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of eight collections of poetry, the most recent being ‘Short Chapters From Sunset’. Coined by Ned Sherrin as “the master of the short poem” his work has also been described as “absolutely beautiful” by Alexander Waugh with Iain Anderson of BBC Scotland noting that it was “philosophy in poetry form” and the Sunday Times commenting on its “dramatic passion and dignity”.

Lucy Nolan

Lucy Nolan is an award-winning International  harpist, passionate about challenging and evolving new styles of harp playing through collaboration, composition and performance. Featured on Radio 3 and 4 she has also played on Hollyoaks and ITV’s drama, ‘Victoria’. She plays for the UK’s leading orchestras, including the BBC Concert Orchestra, The Hallé and the Royal Northern Sinfonia and has enjoyed performing worldwide, including at the Royal Albert Hall, Lambeth Palace, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Jaipur Literature Festival and st the World Harp Congress in Hong Kong 

Pat Herriott

Pat has been writing in journals for nearly 50 years and they are in several boxes in the loft having travelled with her everywhere–from the U S of A to Norfolk, Norfolk to Hampshire, Hampshire to Berkshire, Berkshire to Shropshire and Shropshire to Powys.  She has not re-read them and has no intention of doing so but can’t bear to throw them out.

The journals hold joy and grief, excitement and fear, hope and disappointment, many lists, boring reports of what she’s done on such and such a day, many questions and some answers.  They call out her creativity and hold her life.  She can’t imagine not having at least two empty ones on the bookshelf ready and waiting. Join her workshop to learn more about journalling.

Kathy Biggs

Kathy Biggs is originally from Yorkshire, where she trained to be a nurse. She took a summer job in Mid Wales with her husband in 1985 – and never left. They bought a derelict cottage and lived ‘off grid’ for 14 years. During this time she started a family, trained to be a homeopath and took up Samba drumming. She has lived in her current location for the last 23 years: working and raising her family. She is a keen gardener and leads a local samba band. After being made redundant in 2017 she completed several Creative Writing courses provided by Aberystwyth University and discovered a passion for writing. Attention All Shipping is her third novel.

Peter Stevenson

Peter is a storyteller, book illustrator, folklorist and writer for children and grown-ups, who has written many books about Welsh and World folk tales, illustrated countless collections of fairy tales and was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Children’s Literature in 2026. He has told tales on Broadway, in Central Park, in a Maori marae in Aotearoa New Zealand, across the Appalachian mountains, amongst the bee orchids in the dunes at Rosslare ferry port, on story walks around Wales, and has made independent films about Welsh folk tales which have been shown at festivals across the world. 

   He uses crankies in his storytelling, a large wooden box like a big picture frame that contains a long illustrated scroll which is turned by a handle to create a moving panorama to illustrate the story. Peter can tell Welsh folk tales with his crankie box and tun workshops to show how to make mini crankies using a matchbox.

Karen Bartlett

Karen is a best-selling authorwho began her career for an international education organisation working in the UK and South Africa – organising a conference on democracy in southern Africa with President Nelson Mandela.

As a journalist Karen worked for The Times, Channel 4 News and the BBC on Radio 4 World at One, PM, The World Tonight and The Daily Politics. She has contributed to WIRED, TIME and Newsweek, writing features from Europe, Africa, India and the US.

Jo Jukes

Jo Jukes is an artist, poet, songwriter and author focusing on connection to landscape. Jo’s visual eye translates into her evocative nature writing making the land come alive in a sensory way to build a relationship for the reader to experience.

Paul Evans, The Guardian Country Diarist said this;

‘Archaeologists may try to explain the construction, function and meaning of hillforts but Jo’s digging into their mystery is an archaeology of the soul – it uncovers a different sense of belonging-to, a dwelling-with these rings of earth that at once enclose and reveal some still, sacred point in an ever-turning world – to venture there is to journey beyond time and to discover a home there is an act of love.’ 

Manda Scott

Based in the borderlands between England and Wales—but a Scot at heart — Manda has been, variously, a veterinary surgeon, podcaster, acupuncturist, regenerative smallholder, columnist, homoeopath,  blogger, life coach, renegade economist, contemporary shamanic teacher  – and author of 16 novels, several screenplays and one non-fiction book.

Felicity Spector

A senior producer for Channel 4 News, Felicity Spector has been a television journalist for 34 years, starting her career covering the fall of the Communist bloc and the end of the old Soviet Union. She was appointed as ITN Moscow producer in 1990-91 and visited Ukraine when it declared independence. An influential Instagrammer and Substacker, she has built a following of more than 130,000 with a fascinating account that depicts her after work adventures in restaurants and home baking. @felicityspector