Martin Manser
Martin Manser is a professional writer and researcher. He is responsible for ‘The Penguin Wordmaster’ and ‘The Guinness Book of Words’.
Author
Matt Rudd
Matt Rudd is senior writer at the Sunday Times. In the name of journalism, he has worn a short skirt in public, had a tour of a £300,000 lettuce shredder and stood outside Pippa Middleton’s book launch for six hours in the freezing cold. In the name of this book, he has spent the last two years on the road with binoculars, a notebook and many Red Bulls. He lives in Kent with his family. Follow him @mattrudd.
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sister authors. Her novels are considered masterpieces of English literature – the most famous of which is Jane Eyre.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 and died on the 30th November 1900. He was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest.
Christina Lamb
Christina Lamb is US editor for the Sunday Times. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious Prix Bayeux Calvados for her reporting from Afghanistan. She won the Foreign Press Association Award for Story of the Year in 2007, and was also named Foreign Correspondent of the Year. She is the author of the best-selling ‘The Africa House’, ‘The Sewing Circles of Herat’, and ‘I Am Malala’, co-authored with Malala Yousafzai.
Daniel Clay
Daniel Clay is thirty-eight years old and married with no children. He lives in Hampshire in the UK. ‘Swap’ is his second novel.
Cristina Odone
Cristina Odone writes a Tuesday opinion column in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ as well as ‘Posh but Poor’ which has appeared on Wednesdays since August 2006. For the past six years she has written a column in the ‘Observer’. A former deputy editor of the ‘New Statesman’ and media critic of the ‘Guardian’, Cristina broadcasts regularly on television and radio. She is the author of two novels, ‘The Dilemmas of Harriet Carew’ and ‘The Good Divorce Guide’.
Johanna Moran
Johanna Moran lives in Florida with her husband, John. She has travelled extensively, working as a Pan Am stewardess, and has visited all the places mentioned in this book. She first came across this story through her father, a professor of law. The Wives of Henry Oadesis her first book.