Authors
OUR BESTSELLING AUTHORS
Michael Bayler
Michael Bayler is a renowned business thinker, speaker, consultant and leadership mentor, inspiring strategic transformation across enterprise, technology and marketing.
He has ignited change programmes for many of the world’s largest brands. His clients have included Coca-Cola, the BBC, Unilever, Diageo, Telefonica, Egg, FremantleMedia, PayPal, Bacardi Global Brands, Warner Bros., BSkyB, SABMiller, British Telecom, Sony Music, Robbie Williams and Simon Cowell.
Michael is the co-author of Promiscuous Customers: Invisible Brands – Delivering Value in Digital Markets (Capstone, Oxford, 2002).
Raymond Blake
Raymond Blake is one of Ireland’s leading wine writers. His enthusiasm for wine is boundless and as an independent voice his judgement and opinions are widely respected. He is Wine Editor of the highly regarded Food & Wine Magazine, a position he has held since its launch in 1997. As such his travels take him to most of the far-flung corners of the wine world, though his spiritual home is Burgundy. He writes for numerous other publications and is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. In 2006 he was inducted as a Chevalier du Tastevin in Burgundy.
Anne-Marie Cockburn
Anne-Marie Cockburn lives in Oxford. From an early age, she has used writing to try to make sense of her life. The tragic loss of her daughter propelled her out of the shadows and gave her the confidence to share her writing with the world in her first book, 5,742 days. She has already started writing her second book, which follows her continuing journey alongside her grief.
Catherine Cooper
Catherine Cooper was a primary school teacher for twenty-nine years before deciding to write for children. Catherine’s love of history, myths and legends and the Shropshire countryside where she lives, shines through in her charming stories. She is the author of four books in the acclaimed Jack Brenin series. In 2014, Catherine was appointed as the ‘Patron of Reading’ for Minsterley Primary School until 2017.
Catherine is the author of The Golden Acorn, Glasruhen Gate, Silver Hill, The Lost Treasure of Annwn, The Oak Lord and The Book of Dragon Lore.
Stuart Crainer
Stuart Crainer is a co-founder of the Thinkers 50 (www.thinkers50.com) – the original global ranking of business thought leaders. His work in this area led Management Today to describe him and his business partner, Des Dearlove as “market makers par excellence”.
Stuart is an adjunct professor at IE Business School in Madrid, a former columnist for The Times, contributing editor to the American magazine Strategy+Business, and editor of the bestselling Financial Times Handbook of Management. His books (co-authored with Des Dearlove) include The Management Century, Gravy Training, Generation Entrepreneur and What we mean when we talk about leadership.
Stuart was editor of the award winning Business Strategy Review for 15 years. Personnel Today called him one of the most influential people in British people management.
Des Dearlove
Des Dearlove is a co-founder of the Thinkers 50 (www.thinkers50.com) – the original global ranking of business thought leaders. His work in this area led Management Today to describe him and his business partner, Stuart Crainer as “market makers par excellence”.
Des is an adjunct professor at IE Business School in Madrid, a former columnist for The Times, contributing editor to the American magazine Strategy+Business, and editor of the bestselling Financial Times Handbook of Management. His books (co-authored with Stuart Crainer) include The Management Century, Gravy Training, Generation Entrepreneur and What we mean when we talk about leadership.
Des is an associate fellow of Saïd Business School at Oxford University and author of a bestselling study of the leadership style of Richard Branson. He is also a bestselling children’s author.
Sarah Jane Evans MW
Sarah Jane Evans MW is an award winning wine-writer, journalist and speaker at conferences worldwide. She is co-Chairman of the Decanter World Wine Awards panel for Spain and for sherry. She judges at wine shows internationally. She is currently Chair of the Institute of Masters of Wine and she was made a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros de Vino. She has twice been named Communicator of the Year for Spain, and last year received an Outstanding Contribution award from Wines of Rioja.
Nicholas Faith
Nicholas Faith was for many years a senior editor on the business pages of newspapers including the Sunday Times and The Economist and was a regular contributor to the Financial Times. He is best known however, for the books and hundreds of articles he has written on wines and spirits over the past thirty years. His first book, The Winemasters, won the André Simon award. He also edited the prestigious magazine L’Amateur de Bordeaux. In 1996 he founded the International Spirits Challenge, now recognised as the world’s leading competition devoted to alcoholic spirits of every description. In September 2010 Nicholas Faith was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Bureau National Interprofessional de Cognac.
Nicholas is the author of Cognac.
Elizabeth Gabay MW
Elizabeth Gabay MW has been in the wine trade since 1986. She has written about and lectured on rosé wines extensively, and has judged at Decanter’s annual World Wine Awards as well as at many other competitions, including the Mondial de Rosé, the Guide de Vins de Provence and for magazine panel tastings for Decanter and Drinks Business.
Michael Garner
Michael Garner has worked in the wine business for more than 30 years and has specialised in Italian wine for more than 25. He is the co-author of Barolo: Tar and Roses, is a regular contributor to Decanter, and has taught for the WSET. Garner has been a Decanter World Wine Awards judge since 2007.
Rosemary George MW
Rosemary George was lured into the wine trade by a glass of the Wine Society’s champagne at a job interview and subsequently became one of the first women to become a Master of Wine, back in 1979.
She has been a freelance wine writer since 1981 and is the author of twelve books, including French Country Wine, which first took her to the south of France. Back in the mid-1980s, she realized that this was a region of enormous potential and consequently went on to write The Wines of the South of France, which was published in 2001, and covers the vineyards from Banyuls to Bellet – from the Spanish to the Italian border – and also Corsica. This was the beginning of her enthusiasm for the Languedoc, which she has followed up most recently with The wines of Faugères. She now has a holiday home in the Languedoc and writes a blog on the region: Taste Languedoc. Rosemary contributes to various magazines such as Decanter, Sommelier India and Zester Daily. She is also the panel chair for Languedoc-Roussillon for Decanter’s World Wine Awards and President of the Circle of Wine Writers.
Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb became a Master of Wine in 2015, graduating top in her class. Until 2015 she was the editor of wine web site Wine-Searcher, based in Auckland. She is a former UK Young Wine Writer of the Year and Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer of the Year. Rebecca was features editor of Harpers, wine editor of Le Pan and has written for Decanter, Wine Business International, Imbibe, Food & Travel and Sommelier Journal.
Barry Gibbons
Barry Gibbons is a legend. Twice recognised as a ‘Turnaround Champ’ by Fortune magazine, he was Global Chairman/CEO of Burger King. He is the author of a succession of best-selling business titles including Dream Merchants and Howboys and If you Want to Make God Really Laugh, Show Him your Business Plan.
Barry is the author of Speak easy, The initiate’s blog and Five loaves, two fishes and six chicken nuggets.
Caroline Gilby MW
Caroline Gilby MW (1992) worked as a wine buyer for 7 years before starting her own business as a consultant and freelance wine writer in 1995. She writes for Decanter, Harpers and The Drinks Business, as well as Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, The Wine Opus, Oxford Companion to Wine and Wines of the world. She judges regularly at international wine competitions including Decanter’s World Wine Awards and has lectured for the WSET at Diploma level and for OIV’s MSc in Wine Management.
Jan Gillett
Jan Gillett co-founded Deming-based consultancy and training firm, Process Management International, in the UK in 1990 and for another twenty years led its development in working with clients in every sector, and in every continent. He has also been a non-executive director in several organisations, helping them rethink their strategies and policies to adjust to changing circumstances.
In writing Making your work work Jan Gillett brings together more than forty years of experience in leading, managing and consulting across many different organisations. For the first twenty years he worked in large manufacturing and service companies, including seven years as Managing Director. In the late 1980s, having met quality guru Dr W. Edwards Deming, he led a quality transformation involving 2,000 people, and experienced first hand the remarkable benefits to be had when focusing the work on the customer, involving everyone in learning how it flows, and getting the results on target with minimum variation.
Charles Hampden-Turner
Charles Hampden-Turner is a management philosopher and Senior Research Associate at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. He is the creator of Dilemma Theory and co-founder and Director of Research and Development at the Trompenaars Hampden-Turner Group in Amsterdam.
Julian Jeffs
Julian Jeffs is a leading writer and authority on European wine, and has written several books on Spanish and Portuguese wine. He began his career as a barrister in 1958, working as a QC, Bencher and a deputy High Court Judge. He was a founder of the Cambridge University Wine and Food Society and President of the Circle of Wine Writers. He has written extensively about the Sherry trade.
Anne Krebiehl MW
German-born but London-based, Anne Krebiehl MW is a wine writer and lecturer. Her work has been published in many trade and consumer publications. She lectures, particularly on German wine, consults for London restaurants and translates wine-related texts. Anne also judges at international wine competitions. Her interests are German, Austrian, Italian and New Zealand wines, with a particular focus on Pinot Noir, Riesling and traditional method sparkling wines.
Konstantinos Lazarakis MW
Konstantinos Lazarakis, a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Masters of Wine, became the first Greek Master of Wine in 2002. He co-founded Wine & Spirits Professional Center, an educational organization that runs Wine & Spirits Education Trust and the Court of Master Sommeliers courses throughout Greece. He consults widely for the Hellenic Exports Organization, Aegean Airlines and Costa Navarino and for wine producers, restaurants and hotels all over the world.
Richard Mayson
Richard Mayson is an expert on port and Portuguese wines. He is the author of Portugal’s Wine and Winemakers and The Wines and Vineyards of Portugal and is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Wine and Larousse Encyclopaedia of Wine as well as to Decanter and Wine International. In 2014 Richard won the Louis Roederer award for International Wine Feature Writer of the Year
Richard is the author of Port and the Douro, Richard Mayson’s Guide to Vintage Port and the forthcoming Madeira.
Rod Phillips
Rod Phillips is a professor of history at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He has written a number of books on European history, and since the late 1990s have been working on the history of food and drink. His books in these areas include A Short History of Wine (London: Penguin, 2000; New York: HarperCollins, 2001; six foreign-language editions), Alcohol: A History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014; French and Korean editions published, other foreign language editions in production, and named a Book of the Year for 2014 on Jancis Robinson’s web site), French Wine: A History (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming October 2016). In addition he is General Editor of Bloomsbury’s forthcoming six-volume A Cultural History of Alcohol. He writes on wine for the popular and trade wine media and also judges in wine competitions in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere.
Mark Ridgwell
During the 30 years he dedicated his life and liver to the corporate world of spirits Mark Ridgwell was inspired by years of fun at I.D.V. He was energized at Hiram Walker, taking tequila, bourbon and liqueurs out of their comfort zones in America and into the world beyond and finally rewarded with the pleasure of talking to anyone, all over the world, who cared to hear about Kentucky’s little gem, Makers Mark. In 1999 Mark left and set up Taste & Flavour, a network of speakers, all passionate about spirits and keen to share their knowledge with those wanting to enjoy spirits as products of nature and not as the manufacture of marketers, as luxuries to enhance their drinking experiences and not alcohol to abuse, as products of pleasure and not instruments of destruction, as potentially memorable drinking experiences and not the route to oblivion. Taste & Flavour has since developed brand champions into product authorities, top bartenders into opinion formers and has empowered them to make informed choices about the spirits they sell. Mark is a a Musketeer of Armagnac, an appointed Cognac Educator, a Consul of Tequila and a WSET Approved Programme Provider. (Lewes, England)
Mark is the author of Spirits distilled
Anthony Rose
Award-winning wine and sake critic Anthony Rose writes for Decanter, The World of Fine Wine, Financial Times How to Spend It online and The Oxford Companion to Wine. He is co-chair of the Australia panel at the Decanter World Wine Awards and the Sake International Challenge in Tokyo and teaches a sake consumer course at Sake No Hana in London. A founder of The Wine Gang (www.thewinegang.com), he was the wine correspondent of the print version of the Independent from start to finish (1986–2016).
Fons Trompenaars
Fons Trompenaars is a world expert on international management and the author of the global best seller, Riding the waves of culture. He is the co-author with Charles Hampden-Turner of six other books on cross-cultural business and organizational issues.
Fons is the co-author of 100+ Management Models, Innovating in a global crisis, Servant leadership across cultures and The global M&A tango.
Monty Waldin
Monty Waldin is the first wine writer to dedicate himself to organic, biodynamic, and natural wine-growing. He has made wine in both hemispheres and has worked in conventional (‘chemical’), organic, biodynamic and natural vineyards and wineries and is uniquely positioned to to compare the pros and cons of each. These experiences have allowed Monty to get behind the muck, magic and mystery of wine, giving him a distinctive and respected voice amongst wine growers, wine makers and wine consumers.
ALL OUR AUTHORS
Tania Ahsan
Tania Ahsan is a lifestyle journalist and editor on a variety of publications. She is also the former editor of Predictions magazine, and has a lifelong interest in mind, body and spirit topics. Tania runs journalism workshops on health and personal well-being subjects, and is also an artist, specialising in Spellstones.
Tania is the author of The brilliant book of calm.
Nicholas Bate
Nicholas Bate runs Strategic Edge Ltd, a consultancy that enables individuals to realise and release their full potential. He works extensively with individuals and teams in organisations as similar and different as Microsoft, Marks & Spencer, Philips Electronics, Hudson Global, Intel – as well as many non-corporate organisations, even primary schools.
Nicholas is the author of Unplugged and Have it your way.
Linda Bird
Linda Bird has been deputy editor of health and beauty magazine Zest, and senior editor of She. She specialises in lifestyle, health and wellbeing issues.
Linda is the author of Look gorgeous always and co-author of Cellulite solutions.
Paul Blake
Paul Blake lectures widely on a variety of family history and related subjects, contributing to the best-selling Explore your family’s past and co-author of Who was your Granny’s Granny.
Paul is a co-author of Discover your roots.
Bas Blekkingh
Bas W. Blekkingh is a director of Authentiek Leiderschap BV, a Dutch consultancy which specialises in leadership and organizational development. Bas unleashes and connects the hidden authentic potential of leaders, their teams and organizations, making them more successful and fulfilled. The Netherlands.
Darren Bridger
Darren Bridger is a neuroscientist whose interests include brain-imaging and human performance. Darren is a co-founder and producer at Mind Masterclass Films, a company which produces educational DVDs on mind improvement. Additionally, Darren acts as an associate director of Neuroco, which uses neuroscience to understand people’s reactions to new product designs and advertising, and The Mind Lab, which measures the mental and physical responses of people in almost any situation or environment.
Darren is the author of Boost your memory.
Peter Brook
In co-founding REL Sales Consulting Peter Brook brought with him 20 years of experience with four major FMCG businesses which had taken him to over 35 countries. Immediately prior to establishing REL Sales Consulting, Peter embedded a significant global change programme focused on equipping a market-leading business to achieve outstanding customer and consumer results through a highly effective 6000 strong, international sales team.
Peter is the author of Turn your sales force into profit heroes.
Stephen Brook
Stephen Brook is a distinguished author of numerous books on wine, especially on the wines of Bordeaux and California, and an award-winning wine journalist. He writes regularly for four international wine magazines, lectures on wine at Christie’s Education in London, and is in demand as a guest judge at wine competitions around the world.
Sally Brown
Sally Brown has been a journalist for 23 years, specialising in health and fitness. She was deputy editor of Zest magazine and lifestyle editor of The Sunday Times. She has become increasingly interested in (her friends say obsessed with!) anti-ageing strategies.
Sally is the author of Live longer.
Tsjalle van der Burg
Dr. Tsjalle van der Burg teaches economics at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. He has a special interest in popularizing economics and has published on economic subjects in national newspapers and spoken on radio and television. Van der Burg, is a lifetime supporter of Feyenoord. Click here for more infomation about the author.
Dr Tsjalle van der Burg is the author of Football business.
Richard Burton
Richard Burton is a publisher. He was introduced to the poetry of Basil Bunting while completing his PhD on the early poetry of W. B. Yeats. He has for many years lamented the neglect of this important poet and with A strong song tows us aims to revive interest in Bunting’s precise, beautiful, expertly crafted poems. He lives in Oxford.
Eve Cameron
Eve Cameron started her career in journalism in the trade press, moving into consumer journalism on Cosmopolitan, where she specialised in health and beauty. She is the former editor of Zest and She magazines. Her many TV appearances include Sky News, GMTV and How to Look Good Naked. She is the author of numerous heath, beauty, diet and fitness books. Eve currently writes for Good Housekeeping as its Beauty Director and also has an editorial and brand consultancy.
Eve is the author of Lose weight and stay slim.
Dr Ruth Chambers
Dr Ruth Chambers has been a GP for more than 20 years and has written over 60 books. Ruth is currently a partner in a GP practice, and also Clinical Director of Practice Development and Performance for NHS Stoke on Trent Clinical Commissioning Group.
Ruth is the author of Beat back pain and Healthy heart.
Susannah Clarke
Susannah Clarke is Managing Partner at Process Management International (PMI) and a specialist in the field of Executive and Performance Coaching. Susannah has worked extensively in the learning and development sector, starting her career with NatWest Markets in the City before spending 17-years with GSK as a consultant. In 2011 Susannah joined Oracle University as Partner Director for EMEA and in 2013 joined PMI as Managing Partner. As co-author of Implementing ISO 9001:2015 she brings together more than 35 years’ experience leading, managing and consulting across different organisations. Susannah has written several blogs and published many articles in leading process and Quality focused publications.
Piet-Hein Coebergh
Piet-Hein Coebergh is an expert in formulating and communicating corporate strategy. He is a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, Leiden, and managing consultant at Coebergh Communications & PR. Piet Hein is author and co-author of a dozen books and articles on communication, governance and e-commerce.
Piet-Hein Coebergh is the co-author of 100+ Management Models.
Jeremy Coller
Jeremy Coller is widely recognised as a pioneer and innovator in the world of private equity. His firm, Coller Capital, has invested billions of dollars in over 3000 private companies worldwide. Jeremy is regularly cited in lists of the most influential people in private equity and finance. He holds a BSc in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology, and an MA in Philosophy from Sussex University.
Jeremy is the author of The lives, loves and deaths of splendidly unreasonable inventors.
Kate Cook
Kate Cook is a nutritional therapist and Director of The Nutrition Coach. She trained at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, founded by Patrick Holford. She is also an accredited life coach. Kate’s approach is to make healthy living fun and achievable by breaking it down into small stages.
Kate is the author of Get healthy for good and co-author of Be incredibly healthy.
Peter Cross
Peter Cross has written for The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Daily Express and Sunday Express and The Independent on Sunday.
Peter is the co-author of Raise pre-teens, Re-energise your relationship, Stop smoking and Quit smoking for good.
Cat Dean
Cat Dean is a journalist and copywriter with a passion for writing about health and personal development. She is also a trained Powerchange Gold Coach.
Cat is the co-author of Fertile thinking.
Dr Sabina Dosani
Dr Sabina Dosani is consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and co-editor of the British Medical Journal’s Career Focus section. Sabina has also written for the Sunday Express, the Guardian, Times 2 and Saga magazine. She has specialised in helping adults and young people overcome a range of psychiatric problems.
Sabina is the co-author of Defeat depression, Bullying and Calm your hyperactive child and is co-author of Raise pre-teens, Re-energise your relationship and Perfect romance.
Penny Ferguson
Abandoned, bullied and abused throughout her life, Penny finally decided to take matters in hand as she approached her 50th birthday. Today, Penny is the living embodiment of successful transformation and is passionate about helping others become the people they want to be. She has helped thousands of people take responsibility for their own lives.
Penny is the author of Transform your life and The living leader.
Richard Fox
Richard Fox is an experienced public speaker, trainer, qualified coach and a master NLP practitioner. He has spent his career in consulting, culminating as a partner at KPMG, and his 20 years as founding director of a pan-European consultancy specialising in developing people. Richard Fox is an expert in personal effectiveness and personal leadership, visioning, managing change, and career planning.
Richard is the author of Creating a purposeful life.
Mandy Francis
Mandy Francis is former editor of Femail, Here’s Health and BBC Good Health. Now a freelance writer, she is a regular contributor to The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times Style magazine and many other women’s magazines.
Mandy is the author of Healthy children’s lunches.
Leo Gough
Leo Gough is an experienced investment writer and dedicated private investor. He is the author of 20 books and is the editor of a number of financial newsletters.
Leo is the author of C. Northcote Parkinson’s Parkinson’s Law, Fred Schwed’s Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? and Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings.
Barbara Griggs
Barbara Griggs has been researching and writing about herbal medicine for over 20 years. She is the author of Green Pharmacy: A History of Herbal Medicine which is acknowledged as the standard work on the subject and used as a course book at schools of herbal medicine around the world. She is a regular contributor to radio, TV and newspaper columns on alternative health, including The Sun. She has been Health Editor of Country Living since its launch in 1986.
Barbara is the author of Helpful herbs for health and beauty.
Molly Harvey
Molly Harvey leads corporations and their people to new levels of leadership. Molly’s clients include Bank of America, Barclaycard, Nestlé, 3M and over 200 other leading organisations. She lectures regularly at universities throughout the UK and is an honorary member of the Women Rising Group. She was the first woman President and Fellow of the Professional Speakers Association.
Molly is the author of Outstanding leadership.
Lisa Helmanis
Lisa Helmanis is a lifestyle journalist specialising in food, travel, interiors and trends. As well as holding the position of lifestyle editor on Living Etc, She and Brides magazine, she has written for The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, GQ, Vogue Entertaining and The Sunday Times ‘Style’ magazine.
Lisa is the author of Master dating and Perfect weddings.
Steve Hemsley
Steve Hemsley is a freelance journalist who has written for The Sunday Times, The Times and the Guardian as well as many magazines. He is a parent governor at a primary school in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and has two young children whose confidence has been boosted massively through the ideas in his book. Steve has also attended the Academy of Creative Training.
Steve is the author of Boost your child’s confidence.
Dr Rob Hicks
Dr Rob Hicks has been a GP for more than ten years and now works part-time in general practice and also as a hospital clinical assistant in sexual health medicine. He takes a holistic approach to healthcare, being a firm believer that prevention is better than cure. Rob is a radio doctor for Classic FM and Talk Sport radio stations, and regularly appears on television. He also contributes to several lifestyle magazines, medical journals, newspapers and Internet sites, and is the medical script advisor for the BBC drama Doctors.
Rob is the author of Beat your allergies and Control your blood pressure.
Jackee Holder
Jackee Holder is the director of Life Work In Progress which delivers workshops, seminars and training courses to the corporate sector, creative industries, the general public, mind, body and spirit groups and well-being sectors. She has worked with hundreds of professionals as a life coach and inspired people across the globe with her work as a teacher and coach.
Jackee is the author of Be your own best life coach.
Andrew Holmes
Andrew Holmes has been working in a variety of organizations and industries for the last twenty-five years. He has been a civil servant, IT professional, project and programme manager, and management consultant. He is currently Business Implementation Director with Silicon Valley Bank.
Andrew is the author of Pass your exams, Carl von Clausewitz’s On War and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-reliance.
Steve E. Holmes
Steve Holmes is an ex-punk whose band once supported the Boomtown Rats. The anarchy may have died but his adventurous spirit remains. Steve got into two wheels via a Lambretta SX200 but nowadays rides a Ducati 749s—chalk and cheese. His other passions include skiing, water skiing, Manchester United and Stella Artois.
Steve is the author of To infinity and beyond.
Clive Hopwood
Clive Hopwood has written over 100 books, including many TV spin-offs. He coordinates and runs the Writers in Prison Network in 20 prisons, which has given him real insights into addictions.
Clive is the co-author of Stop smoking and Quit smoking for good.
Lynn Huggins-Cooper
Lynn Huggins-Cooper is a widely published author with well over 90 books in print. She has also written for the Times Educational Supplement, Nursery Education, Prima and BBC Learning Magazine and is a qualified primary school teacher.
Lynn is the author of Blooming pregnancy, Downshift to the good-life and Raising teenagers.
Infinite Ideas
Infinite Ideas was the brainchild of Richard Burton and David Grant and launched in 2004. We’re privileged to have a network of top authors who understand how to communicate with readers the world over. They are experts in their subject areas but they write in a friendly, informative and often amusing voice. The result is a unique blend of expertise and informal approach, giving readers the chance to pick the brains of a pro, whilst enjoying a chuckle with a chum.
Phil Johnston
Phil Johnston is the Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of GET Interactive, which includes the Biscuitville restaurant chain. He has been CEO of ten venture-backed companies – three of which became public companies.
Phil is the author of Biscuitville.
Nicolas King
Nicolas King is a specialist in entrepreneurship and finance for early stage businesses. He co-founded a high tech consultancy company and has been a launch team member of a publishing venture. He has a BSc in Psychology from the University of London and an MBA from INSEAD. Nicolas has written several successful business titles include Corporate Venturing, Enterprise Express, and Exit Strategies.
Nicolas King is the author of Networking: Work your contacts to supercharge your career.
Giles Kime
Giles Kime has been editor of Decanter magazine, one of the world’s leading specialist wine titles, and has written the wine column for The Sunday Telegraph, for which he now contributes wine recommendations. His day job is executive editor of Homes & Gardens magazine.
Giles Kime is the author of Secrets of wine and Decorate to speculate.
Ken Langdon
Ken Langdon is a consultant and author of several best-selling business books, including The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams.
Ken is the author of Cultivate a cool career and Knockout interview answers and co-author of Find your dream job and Sort out your money. His new book, Easy Business Finance, will be available as an ebook soon.
Michael Lee
Michael Lee is CEO of the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) a global trade association with over 2500 members in 60 countries. He is also an internationally renowned futurist and founder and chairman of the South African chapter of the World Future Society.
Michael is the author of Knowing our future and Codebreaking our future.
Maggie Loughran
Maggie Loughran is an administrator of the Federation of Family History Societies, an association of more than 200 family history societies. Maggie regularly contributes articles on family and local history to various journals and magazines and lectures on family and local history related subjects. She has also been an expert advisor for the History Channel’s Family History Project.
Maggie is the co-author of Discover your roots.
Cherry Maslen
Cherry Maslen is a freelance writer and editor. She currently writes health and property features for The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday and edits a consumer gardening magazine.
Cherry is the author of Cellulite Solutions and co-author of Shape up your bum.
Karen McCreadie
Karen McCreadie is a freelance writer. She has written books for business executives and international speakers on topics ranging from sales, coaching and wealth creation to the mind/body connection and psychological profiling.
Karen is the author of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, Frank Bettger’s How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success, George S. Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, Robert Collier’s The Secret of the Ages and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
John Middleton
John Middleton is an accomplished speaker and coach with over twenty-five years’ experience in the personal development field. He has given career guidance and support to over 2,000 people, from senior directors to front line staff. He has written over twenty self-help books on business start-ups, communication, strategy and e-business. He has particular expertise in self employment and work-life balance issues.
John is the author of Detox your finances, High-impact CVs and Upgrade your brain.
Eilidh Milnes
In recent years Eilidh has delivered keynote speeches to thousands of people across four continents. She has two decades of training and coaching experience, working with people from Aberdeen to Adelaide. Eilidh is a Director and Fellow of the PSA (Professional Speaking Association) and is PSA National President in 2013. She is a columnist, regular radio guest and contributor on media chat shows.
Eilidh is the co-author of The diversity dashboard.
Millicent Monks
Born into the legendary Carnegie family, in which serious mental illness has affected four generations of women, Millicent Monks’ early childhood was lonely and difficult. After a career in music she married and spent a year at Cambridge University where her husband was a Fiske scholar. Her search for answers led her to Jungian analysis, meditation and sutras which have helped her to find a delicate peace amid the effects of her devastating family inheritance.
Millicent is the author of Songs of three islands.
Lara Morgan
Lara Morgan was the founder and CEO of Pacific Direct. Basically a soap saleswoman with a massive belief in people, she revolutionised the hotel amenities market, bringing together some of the most famous brands in the world, such as Bulgari, Aveda, The White Company and Penhaligon’s. She was a founder member of the Young Entrepreneurs Organisation, now EO, and a finalist in the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year Award, and has also been a three times finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Lara is the author of More balls than most.
Lucy Morgans
Lucy Morgans trained as an actress at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and made her West End debut at the age of 9. As well as a television role in Brookside Lucy has also enjoyed UK chart success as a vocalist with several dance acts. Lucy is a qualified drama teacher and in 2003 set up the All the Arts theatre school where she runs drama and performance classes to improve children’s confidence.
Lucy is the co-author of Boost your child’s confidence.
Chandran Nair
Chandran Nair is the founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), an independent social venture think tank dedicated to advancing understanding of the impacts of globalisation. Chandran was chairman of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in Asia Pacific until 2004, establishing the company as Asia’s leading environmental consultancy. In addition to his work for GIFT and ERM, Chandran continues to provide strategic management advice and coaching to business leaders.
Chandran is the author of Consumptionomics.
Keith Nelson
Keith Nelson is CEO of Your Total Coach. He is also a highly experienced coach, providing executive coaching for directors and senior managers from the public, private and voluntary sectors. He developed and designed the programme for the Certificate in Coaching at Cambridge University where he is course director and coaches the managers in the Luminus Group.
Keith is the author of Your total coach.
Torquil Norman
Old Etonian, graduate of Harvard and Cambridge, and self-made toy millionaire, Torquil is a businessman, aircraft enthusiast, and arts philanthropist. He bought the derelict Roundhouse arts venue for £3 million in 1996. As founder and chairman of the Roundhouse Trust he then raised £27 million from public and private sources to restore the crumbling Victorian former railway repair shed. He was knighted in 2007 for his services to the arts and to disadvantaged young people.
Torquil is the author of Kick the tyres, light the fires.
Michael Payne
Michael Payne has spent the past 25 years as a senior executive within the sports marketing industry, negotiating multi-billion dollar broadcast and sponsorship contracts. In 1983, he was hired to create the first ever global marketing strategy for the Olympic Games – the TOP Programme, which became one of the most successful marketing programmes in the world. During his Olympic career, Michael oversaw the marketing of 15 Olympic Winter and Summer Games.
Michael is the author of Olympic turnaround.
Marcelle Perks
Author and journalist Marcelle Perks has written for a range of publications including the Guardian, British Horror Cinema, Fangoria and Kamera. She has also worked within the erotic world, in film and as a writer of short stories and non-fiction.
Marcelle is the author of Incredible orgasms, Secrets of porn star sex and The user’s guide to the Rabbit, and she co-wrote The little book of big Os.
Vicky Perrett
Vicky Perrett is a trained psychotherapist who has helped many patients navigate the divorce process.
She is the author of Survive divorce.
Tim Phillips
Tim Phillips has been a freelance journalist since 1990, writing about business, technology, social change and innovation. He has written for The Wall Street Journal Europe, The International Herald Tribune, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Independent and The Daily Express among others. For two years he was a technology and Internet columnist for the Guardian.
Tim is the author of Beat the odds, Bertrand Russell’s The Conquest of Happiness, Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and co-author of Strategy power plays.
Steve Pipe
Steve Pipe is one of the world’s leading strategists for accountants. A former UK Entrepreneur of the year, his writing credits include the 8 part BBC TV series ‘Easy money’, the book 101 ways to make more profits, and in 2009 the accounting web online community of accountants voted him as the best contributor and best blogger.
Steve is the co-author of Stress-proof your business and your life.
Helena Frith Powell
Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden, educated in England and lives in France where she works as a writer and journalist. She is a regular contributor to The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday, Harpers & Queen and Tatler magazine.
She is the author of Be incredibly sexy: 52 brilliant ideas for sizzling sensuality.
Dorothy Purdew
Dorothy Purdew opened her first health farm, Frimleys, in 1970. With her son Stephen, she went on to buy Henlow Grange, Springs, Forest Mere and finally Champneys, where her clients have included David and Victoria Beckham, Barbara Windsor and Naomi Campbell. The chain is now valued at £100m and is one of the largest spa companies in the world.
Dorothy is the author The long road to Champneys.
Paul Rankin
As well as appearing on a number of TV shows, Paul Rankin runs a successful restaurant business, the Rankin Group, in his native Belfast. Paul’s restaurant group includes restaurants, cafés and also a revival of Paul’s original restaurant Roscoff. Paul also hosted three series of The Rankin Challenge, with numerous appearances on Masterchef, Who’ll do the Pudding?, and The Good Food Show.
Paul is the co-author of The people’s cookbook.
Jay Rayner
Jay Rayner is an award-winning journalist, writer, broadcaster and food critic. Currently the Observer‘s restaurant critic, Jay was named critic of the year in the British Press Awards in 2006. He has written for a wide range of newspapers and magazines such as GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, the New Statesman and Granta. He is also the food reporter on the BBC magazine programme The One Show and appears on the panels of Eating with the Enemy, and performs a similar role on MasterChef.
Jay is the author of Desert island dishes
James Robinson
James Robinson is a freelance writer. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
James is the author of Wallace D. Wattles’ The Science of Getting Rich.
Rikky Rooksby
Rikky Rooksby is a guitar teacher, songwriter, music journalist and the author of several best selling books for guitar players. A guitar columnist for Making Music, Rikky has also written for Guitar Techniques, Bassist, and other magazines. He has also written chord songbooks for Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, The Stone Roses and Catatonia.
Rikky is the author of Play great guitar.
Brad Rosser
Brad Rosser worked alongside Australia’s most successful entrepreneur (and national icon), Alan Bond, and the nation’s best deal maker, Peter Beckwith. After leaving Bond Corporation Rosser joined the London office of McKinsey & Co., and then became a part of the inner sanctum at Virgin as Sir Richard Branson’s right-hand man, dealing with all new start-ups.
Brad is the author of Better, stronger, faster.
Colin Salter
Colin Salter has a degree in the history and practise of applied arts and was a working ceramicist and theatrical props-maker for many years. He was later employed by Cumbria County Council as a Crafts Event Development Officer, where his duties included the organisation of exhibitions and selling opportunities for 500 small crafts businesses in that county.
Colin is the author of Crafting creativity.
Kate Santon
Kate Santon is a writer, specializing in practical non-fiction and focusing on food, diet and cooking. She is the author of many books on different aspects of diet. She is also an editor of food and cookery books, and a keen blogger.
Kate is the author of Living gluten-free and Gluten-free kids.
Steve Shipside
Steve Shipside is a qualified diving and fitness instructor, an ultrarunner and an IronMan triathlete. His sporting highlights have seen him paraglide over the Andes, abseil off Table Mountain and run 250km across the Kalahari with a rucksack on his back. He has become a renowned journalist in the fields of new technology and fitness.
Steve is the author of Adventure sports, Getting away with it, Power-up Pilates and Win at the gym.
Jag Shoker
Jag Shoker is a regional business development director for Barclays and a passionate self-development coach outside of work. He wrote Playing the beautiful game to express the ideas and insights he has used to help a number of senior leaders and professionals to achieve a greater and more sustainable level of success in both their work and personal lives.
Jag is the author of Playing the beautiful game.
Paul Simpson
Paul Simpson is the co-author of Implementing ISO 9001:2015. He is Head of Quality at Network Rail National Supply Chain. He has worked in quality and management systems all his working life in a range of organisations including Pirelli, Perkins Engines, the British Standards Institution and the Chartered Quality Institute. With a first degree in engineering, Paul has extended his postgraduate qualifications into fields of marketing and business as well as professional areas of auditing, health and safety and quality. Paul contributes to Standards Development and the quality profession through participation in UK and International committees as a UK Technical Expert on quality management and auditing, writing articles for industry magazines and volunteer roles.
Anya Sizer
Anya Sizer is a fertility coach and mother of two IVF children who were born after a six year battle against the 1 in 125,000 odds doctors gave her of being able to conceive. She works from the London Women’s Clinic on Harley Street, is a trustee for the Infertility Network and runs the central London support group.
Anya is the co-author of Fertile thinking.
Jon Smith
Jon Smith was involved in the start up of amazon.co.uk, kitbag.com and The Florist Exchange. As a consultant for the venture capital firm Chase Episode 1, he improved and researched business plans submitted by companies looking for investment. In 2002 he launched Toytopia, an online specialist toyshop, and since 2003 Jon has been managing director of Inpress, an organisation that provides sales, marketing and technical support to independent publishers.
Jon is the author of Get into bed with Google, Google AdWords that work, Smarter business start-ups, Web sites that work and co-author of Dominate your market with Twitter.
Alexander Gordon Smith
Alexander Gordon Smith has published more than 300 books, short stories and articles and runs workshops and information classes for all ages, helping numerous people into print. He has also seen writing from the dark side, as managing director of Egg Box Publishing, one of the country’s most innovative independent publishing houses. He knows exactly what those obstinate buggers called publishers want to see in a manuscript.
Alexander is the author of Inspired creative writing and Writing bestselling children’s books.
Cathy Struthers
Cathy Struthers is a snow and extreme sports addict. When she’s not on the slopes she is a freelance journalist writing for a wide range of publications including The Times, Style, the Guardian, The Daily Mail and various in-flight and travel magazines including the snowboarding magazine White Lines. She is also editor of Cooler, a surfing and board sports magazine for women.
Cathy is the author of Skiing and snowboarding.
Dr Deborah Swallow
For the last fifteen years, Deborah has worked in over forty countries helping organisations and individuals to work internationally across multiple cultures to gain an authentic competitive edge. She has worked with senior executives and diplomats on cross-cultural communication skills, with middle managers on building empowered global teams and with marketing departments on finding the ‘cultural code’. She won the UK National Training Award as an individual and her businesses have won several industry awards.
Deborah is the co-author of The diversity dashboard.
Peter Taylor
Peter Taylor is a dynamic and commercially astute professional who has achieved notable success in business. He is also an accomplished communicator, leader and professional speaker, popular around the world for keynotes and as an event host.
Peter is the author of The lazy project manager and The lazy winner.
Monica Troughton
Monica Troughton is a mother and grandmother, as well as a full time journalist, writing on education, travel, relationships, and women’s issues for several national newspapers and consumer magazines, including Woman’s Own, Eve, She, Prima, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Closer, Take A Break, Chat, Best, The Daily Mirror, and The Independent. Before she turned to writing full time Monica was a teacher and FE lecturer, and has also worked as a playwright, actor and director.
Monica is the author of Magical menopause.
Carol Velthuis
Carol Velthuis started her career at Unilever managing brands like Boursin and Lipton. After working as a strategy and marketing consultant at Arthur D. Little she founded Quintel Strategy Consulting which works with large clients in dramatically changing markets such as health care, telecoms, energy and logistics. Carol helps companies with fundamental strategic issues including market focus and positioning.
Carol is the author of Surfing the long summer.
Professor Robin Wilson
Professor Robin Wilson is currently Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, Gresham Professor of Geometry in London (England’s oldest Chair of Mathematics) and a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. He is a well-known populariser of mathematics as well as the author of Four Colours Suffice, the bestselling account of the famous and controversial map-colouring problem. He is the author and editor of 30 books on subjects ranging from history to mathematics.
Robin is the author of How to solve sudoku.
Elisabeth Wilson
Elisabeth Wilson has written widely for the national press including The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail, and was health and wellbeing editor at She magazine for ten years.
Elisabeth is the author of Boundless energy, Re-energise your sex life and Stress proof your life, and she compiled and edited Goddess and Relax and enjoy life.
Antony Worrall Thompson
Antony Worrall Thompson is a restaurateur and TV chef. He presented the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and was a regular guest chef on Ready Steady Cook. Antony’s career as a chef began in 1978 when he started work as a sous-chef at Brinkley’s Restaurant. One month later, he was head chef and in 1981 Antony opened his own restaurant in London, which was notorious for only serving starters and puddings. Since then, the restaurants he’s been involved with have been heaped with accolades and he has worked on several popular television cookery shows.
Antony is the co-author of The people’s cookbook.
Tim Wright
Tim Wright has been a journalist and editor on various magazines and newspapers. In 1999, Tim and his creative collaborator Rob Bevan formed XPT, an award winning digital media company. Tim has been the lead writer on two BAFTA-winning interactive projects.
Tim is the co-author of Unleash your creativity.
Mona Hammami
Mona Hammami is a Senior Project Manager at the Office of Strategic Affairs, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court. Her role includes analysis of social and economic developments, globally and locally, and drafting of publications and white papers to influence policy making.
Prior to joining the Crown Prince Court Mona was a lead associate at Booz & Company as part of the public sector practice team, focusing on a wide range of public policy issues including: social and labour policies, macroeconomic policy, governance frameworks, organization restructuring, agriculture policy reform, and structuring PPP projects among other areas. She also worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where she co-authored a paper on the determinants of Public Private Partnerships, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) where she worked on the effect of the WTO’s TRIPS agreement on Middle East and North African Countries.
Mona holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, and a Master in Public Administration International Development from HarvardKennedySchool. She is a recipient of both the H.R.H. Princess Banderi Al-Faisal Public Service Fellowship and Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri International Public Service Fellowship.
Michel Khoury
Michel Khoury is a Senior Manager at the Office of Strategic Affairs, part of The Court of The Crown Prince in Abu Dhabi, responsible for providing advisory service to senior stakeholders. Previously, Michel served as a senior consultant for Booz & Company in Abu Dhabi where he worked extensively with government bodies focusing on strategic planning and performance management, governance, organization restructuring and large scale transformation, public administration modernization, policy formulation, new operating model enactment and program management. Michel has a Master of Science in Management from the HEC School of Management, France, and a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from ESIB in Lebanon.
Rabih Abouchakra
Rabih Abouchakra is the founder and Managing Director of the Office of Strategic Affairs at the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court since 2009, providing socioeconomic thought leadership and strategic advice. Previously, he was a Partner of Booz & Company based in the firm’s Abu Dhabi office. Rabih served as the head of the Organization and Strategy practice in the Middle East focusing on public administration modernization, policy formulation, large scale transformation, and economic planning. Prior to that Rabih was a Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Rabih sits on the boards of Al-Qattara Investments and Al-Ain Club Investment Companies and the non-profit Teach for Lebanon. He is also a member of the advisory boards of INSEAD, Abu Dhabi and University of Zurich Departments of Economics. His publications include Leading Smart Transformation: A Roadmap for World Class Government published in 2010, and a series of perspective papers and articles addressing emerging public sector strategic challenges.
Rabih holds an MBA from INSEAD, and a Master of Telecommunication Engineering and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering with Top of Class honors from McGill University in Canada. He was awarded a British Medal of Great Distinction in 1995.
Hao Yazhou
Hao Yazhou is a business and financial journalist with more than 10 years’ experience. Focusing on management innovation, he has published many influential articles and blogs. He was the chief writer for PKU Business Review, senior editor of CEIBS Business Review, and senior researcher for CKGSB. These days he is a financial writer and independent scholar. He is the author of Zhang Ruimin on Management Fit for the Times and A preface to Knowledge Theory: The Practical Wisdom of Zhang Ruimin. Hao Yazhou is the co-author of Haier purpose.
Richard Mark James
Richard Mark James is a writer, web publisher, translator and wine tutor. He blogs at www.winewriting.com and www.frenchmediterraneanwine.com, where there are many producer profiles, wine recommendations and features. He lives in Northern Ireland.
Stephen Skelton MW
Stephen Skelton has been involved with growing vines and making wine since 1975. In 1989 he wrote his first book, The Vineyards of England, and in 2001 his second, The Wines of Britain and Ireland, which won the André Simon Award for Drinks Book of the Year. He has written two editions of industry bible The UK Vineyards Guide and in 2014 he wrote Wine Growing in Great Britain, a complete guide to growing grapes for wine production in cool climates, which is helping growers, both in the UK and cool climates overseas, get to grips with the practicalities, both economic and viticultural, of establishing their vineyards. He is the English and Welsh vineyards contributor to the annual wine guides written by Hugh Johnson and Oz Clarke and wrote the sections on English and Welsh wine in the seventh edition of The World Atlas of Wine and the fourth edition of Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine.
Stephen was a director of the English Vineyards Association and of its successor organization, the United Kingdom Vineyards Association (UKVA), from 1982 to 2003.
Matt Walls
Award-winning wine writer Matt Walls has a special interest in the Rhône, an area on which he is recognized as a global authority. He is Panel Chair for the Rhône at the Decanter World Wine Awards, and covers the region for Decanter. He has written about the region extensively for other titles such as Imbibe, Le Pan and Living France, and has produced a 65-page report on the new vintage for Tim Atkin MW every year since the 2012 vintage. Matt speaks on the wines of the Rhône to wine trade professionals with the backing of regional marketing body InterRhone. He visits the region twice a year and is in regular contact with some of its most respected winemakers.
Matt was awarded Best Newcomer at the 2013 Fortnum and Mason Food & Drink Awards for his first book and has won numerous industry awards, including The Drinks Business Awards Communicator of the Year 2013 and the International Wine & Spirit Competition Blogger of the Year 2015.

Peter Yeung
Peter Yeung is Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Kosta Browne Winery and Realm Cellars, both in California, where he develops and executes strategic marketing techniques and sales and marketing plans. He was a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company. He holds a MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Liz Thach MW
Dr. Liz Thach MW is the Distinguished Professor of Wine and a Professor of Management at Sonoma State University where she teaches in both the undergraduate and Wine MBA programs. She is an award winning author who has published over 130 articles and eight wine books. Thach holds a PhD. From Texas A&M. She also works as a wine judge in various competitions, and has served on many non-profit wine boards. She became a Master of Wine in 2011.
Lisa Granik MW
Lisa Granik MW has a wine career that includes work in retail, import and distribution channels in the United States. In her current business, she advises wine companies and regions seeking to improve their sales in the United States. Lisa became a Master of Wine in 2006, and was a Professor of Wine at the New York Institute of Technology from 2013–15. She continues to speak about wine internationally, and judge in international wine competitions. She has written for publications such as the New York Times, The World of Fine Wine and Sommelier Journal, and has an ongoing column in Revista de Vinhos.
Mark Davidson
Mark Davidson has more than 35 years of experience in the wine business. He is an annual judge at the TEXSOM International Wine Awards, Sunset Magazine and LA International wine competitions. He developed a wine education course for Simon Fraser University Global Asset and Wealth Management MBA program. Mark has worked for Wine Australia for over ten years, creating inspiring programming for trade and consumers worldwide. He is currently Head of Education for Wine Australia, North America.
Jim Clarke
Jim Clarke is the Domaines Ott* International Feature Writer Of The Year 2020. He has written about wine for more than twelve years in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, World of Fine Wine, and NPR. He was a sommelier and wine director in New York City for several years. He specializes in the wines of South Africa, and for the past five years has been the US Marketing Manager for Wines of South Africa.
Charles Chasie
Charles Chasie is a Kohima-based author and independent researcher. A former editor and journalist in Nagaland, he is a past winner of the prestigious Assam Media Trust Award. He has contributed to various journals and publications, both in India and abroad, for over three decades and also authored and co-authored several books. Previous works include The Naga Imbroglio, A Personal Perspective and The State Strikes Back: India and the Naga Insurgency (with Sanjoy Hazarika).
Harry Fecitt
Harry Fecitt MBE TD is a former British Army Infantry Officer. In his retirement he takes a keen interest in the less-well-known incidents in British military history, researching and writing for several military journals. His aim is to emphasize the forgotten contributions and sacrifices made by the soldiers of former British Imperial territories who volunteered to serve the British Crown. He is the author of Sideshows of the Indian Army in World War I and Distant Battlefields: The Indian Army in the Second World War.
Jessica Dupuy
Jessica Dupuy is wine and spirits columnist for Texas Monthly magazine. Her work has also appeared in Imbibe, SevenFifty Daily and Wine Enthusiast. She is a Certified Sommelier, an Advanced certificate holder of the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust, and a Certified Specialist of Wine and Spirits with the Society of Wine Educators. Dupuy’s background in traditional journalism began after she earned a Masters degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2003.
David Way
David Way has been engaged with Italian wine for the last fifteen years. His spends as much time as possible with wine producers in situ talking to them about their grape growing, their winemaking and the styles of wine they are trying to produce. He has written extensively about these experiences on his website, winefriend.org which has been his platform since he began as a wine blogger in 2009. He works for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, based in London, which provides wine education to more than 100,000 students around the world. He is one of the two principal writers who worked on a completely new online textbook for the WSET Diploma in Wine, the highest level WSET qualification, first issued to students in 2019. His focus now is on continuing to develop and update the textbook. He is the researcher as well as the writer for the Italian section.
Elaine Chukan Brown
Elaine Chukan Brown is a writer, speaker, and illustrator. She is the American wine specialist at jancisrobinson.com and a contributing writer with Wine & Spirits Magazine. She speaks on wine at events worldwide alongside running Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews, which has been rated among the world’s leading wine blogs. Her influence can be seen through her contributions to the multi-award-winning Oxford Companion to Wine, the Lonely Planet Wine Trails: United States & Canada and the World Atlas of Wine. Brown has led seminars in China, New Zealand, Germany, Canada and throughout the United States, and has been a celebrated guest at leading talks about wine around the world, including the Women in Wine Leadership Symposium, Pinot Noir NZ, Texsom and ProWein.
Mary Gorman-McAdams MW
Mary Gorman-McAdams MW, is a wine educator, wine judge and wine business strategist/marketer. She is the director at New York’s International Wine Center and between 2014 and 2019 she was the North American market advisor for the Bordeaux Wine Council, where she led its marketing and educational programmes. She is a regular wine judge and seminar speaker at the TEXSOM International Wine Awards, and has also judged at the Decanter World Wine Awards and the Ultimate Wine Challenge.
Beverley Blanning MW
Beverley Blanning MW is an independent writer, judge, tour guide, speaker and educator. She is the author of Teach Yourself Wine Tasting and Biodynamics in Wine and has written for numerous publications globally. She became a Master of Wine in 2001 and won the Villa Maria and Errazuriz Awards for papers on viticulture and the business of wine.
S. C. Weiss
S. C. Weiss is a writer and director who has worked as a photographer, videographer and reporter in Africa, Asia, the Balkans and Russia. His documentaries have been shown internationally. In 2001, he won the Frans Vinkh Prize for international journalism, awarded by the European Commission. His Pulitzer Prize-nominated stage play Butterflies of Uganda premiered in 2007 in Los Angeles and won several prestigious theatre awards. Weiss has directed more than 30 professional stage productions in the US, Russia and Africa as well as several film documentaries.
The Classic Wine Library
The Classic Wine Library is a premium source of information for students of wine, sommeliers and others who work in the wine industry, but can easily be enjoyed by anybody with an enthusiasm for wine. All authors are expert in their subject, with years of experience in the wine industry, and many are Masters of Wine. The series is curated by an editorial board made up of Sarah Jane Evans MW, Richard Mayson and James Tidwell MS. All the chapters in this book originally appeared in one of the Classic Wine Library books.