Donald Lamont Jack was born in Radcliffe, England,on December 6, 1924. He attended Bury Grammar School in Lancashire, and later Marr College, Troon (from which he was briefly evicted after writing an injudicious letter to the editor).

From 1943 to 1947 he served in the Royal Air Force as an AC, or aircraftsman, working in radio communications. During his military service Jack was stationed in a variety of locales, though he concentrated on places beginning with the letter ‘B’: Belgium, Berlin, and Bahrain. After de-mobbing, he participated in amateur dramatics with The Ellis Players, and worked for several years in Britain, but he had by then grown weary of ‘B’-countries and decided to move on to the ‘C’s. Thus, in 1951, Jack emigrated to Canada.

In 1962 he published his first novel, Three Cheers for Me, about fictional Canadian First World War air-ace Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy. Three Cheers for Me won the Leacock Medal for Humour in 1963, but additional volumes did not appear until a decade later when a revised version of the book was published, along with a second volume, That’s Me in the Middle, which won Jack a second Leacock Medal in 1974. He received a third award in 1980 for Me Bandy, You Cissie.

Jack returned to live in England in 1986, where he continued to work on additional volumes in the Bandy series. He died on June 2, 2003. His final novel, Stalin vs. Me, was first published posthumously in 2005.

Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) is one of the most revered names in SF and fantasy. During his lifetime he was honoured with numerous prizes, including six Hugo and three Nebula Awards. He wrote more than fifty books, including the Amber novels, Lord of Light, and A Night in the Lonesome October. 

Tim Dorsey was born in Indiana, moved to Florida at the age of one, and grew up in a small town about an hour north of Miami called Riviera Beach. He worked as a reporter and editor for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999, after which he left to write full time.

He lives in Tampa with his family.

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Hamilton Crane is the pseudonym used by Sarah J. Mason when writing for the Miss Seeton series. She has also written detective fiction under her own name, but should not be confused with the Sarah Mason (no middle initial) who writes a rather different kind of book.

After half a century in Hertfordshire (if we ignore four years in Scotland and one in New Zealand), Sarah J. Mason now lives in Somerset—within easy reach of the beautiful city of Wells, and just far enough from Glastonbury to avoid the annual traffic jams.

William Marshall worked as a playwright, journalist, proofreader and morgue attendant, and was a teacher in an Irish prison. He was also the author of several series of police novels set across the globe and in various centuries.

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1944, he lived in Hong Kong, Switzerland, Wales, Ireland and the USA, before returning to Australia in 1983 with his wife and daughter. He died in 2003.

Hampton Charles was a pseudonym of English crime writer Peter Martin (1931–2014). Born a London cockney, he preferred for a number of years to live and write his books in a remote village even smaller than Miss Emily Seeton’s Plummergen.

He wrote three Miss Seeton titles: Advantage Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton at the Helm, and Miss Seeton, By Appointment.

Paul Flower was born and raised in Michigan and still resides there. He has been writing professionally for more than 37 years. While much of his career has been spent in advertising and marketing, he worked in broadcasting for a short time. Paul has one previously published novel to his credit, and his writing has appeared in national and regional magazines. He and his wife have four grown children and a rapidly evolving number of incredibly beautiful and intelligent grandchildren.

Gabby Hutchinson Crouch (Horrible Histories, Newzoids, The News Quiz, The Now Show) has a background in satire, and with the global political climate as it is, believes that now is an important time to explore themes of authoritarianism and intolerance in comedy and fiction. The Darkwood Series does so in a funny, engaging way that never loses the warmth of humanity, even as its villainous Huntsmen try to dehumanise their victims as well as anonymising and dehumanising themselves. Drawing on inspiration from other satirical stories set in a magical universe such as Shrek and the Discworld novels, the Darkwood adventures create a world where readers can enjoy more grown-up versions of fairytales, while also holding up a mirror to our own society.

Born in Pontypool in Wales, and raised in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, Gabby moved to Canterbury at 18 to study at the University of Kent and ended up staying and having a family there.