Steve Sheppard was born and grew up in Surrey before moving to Buckinghamshire and then to Oxfordshire, where he spent a quarter of a century living in an idiosyncratic village that was the affectionate inspiration for his fourth book, Lazytown. He now lives in Hampshire. He spent forty years starting to write books but not finishing them, until belatedly realising that the key is not to give up. The other thing he has since learned is that he should have become a celebrity before writing a book, as this would have made selling it much easier.

False Connections, Steve’s fifth book, was published in June and is the first to be written as a straight thriller and not primarily as a comedy although, don’t worry, there’s still quite a lot of humour in it. He hopes it will be the first of a series featuring feisty, funny but flawed ex-MI5 agent, Mel Milano. He also has three spy thrillers with laughs to his name, all published by Claret Press: A Very Important Teapot (2019), set in Australia, Bored to Death in the Baltics (2021), not set in Australia, and Poor Table Manners (2024), which takes place in Cape Town. These feature an initially fairly hapless hero, Dawson, and a considerably less hapless heroine, Lucy, together with varied supporting casts, most of whom are not who they claim to be. Steve’s fourth book (as mentioned above) is an out-and-out comedy-murder-mystery, Lazytown (2025).

Breakthrough is a collective of authors that has created an innovative, award-winning independent publisher putting freedom and fairness for creatives – and quality and originality for readers – at the heart of its ethos. A diverse and eclectic list includes fiction and non-fiction, debuts and series, YA and adult sci-fi/fantasy, love stories, mysteries and thrillers, humour and satire, business books and short story anthologies.

Recent launches include Awakenings: why neopaganism and the folklore renaissance matter by Stevyn Colgan (who will be on stand), Curious Events Lately Occurring in this Neighbourhood by the Sunday Times bestselling Tom Cox, the award-winning surreal satire collection from Zena Barrie (also on stand) and romcom The Earth Husband by Dan Brotzel (also at the fair!) among nearly 20 other titles.

“Jared Cade is the Amazon number one bestselling author of Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, which is being released as a major film in 2027 starring two-time Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, French cinematic icon Vincent Cassel and Game of Thrones’ star Alfie Allen.

During an appearance on the British television quiz The $64,000 Question, Jared Cade won the top prize on his specialist subject of Agatha Christie’s novels. He is a former tour guide for a bespoke luxury travel company, escorting parties around Agatha Christie’s former home Greenway, in Devon, which is open to the public courtesy of the National Trust.

Jared Cade is also the multi award-winning creator of the crime-solving duo of actor Lyle Revel and cellist Hermione Bradbury. The couple take centre stage in a series of British cosy murder mysteries that blend classic Golden Age influences with contemporary crime storytelling. Key titles in the series include The Elusive Dietrich, Murder on London Underground and Deadly Fortune.

Jared Cade’s authoritative two-volume magnum-opus began with the publication of Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives, which was nominated for the prestigious ALCS Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction in 2025. The highly anticipated concluding tome Agatha Christie’s Spotlight on Murder is set for release in November 2026.”

I’m the author of the Blood and Shadows trilogy and an upcoming RomCom. I may or may not bring prerelease copies of the RomCom that is scheduled to release in December. I also run an indie author only bookstore called ISBNuk, Indie Supporters Book Nook, which contains everything you need as an indie author.

Josie Jaffrey (she/her) writes about lost worlds, dystopian societies and morally-ambiguous monsters (vampires are her favourite). Her queer vampire detective novel May Day won the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award 2021. She is the founding editor of fantasy magazine Indie Bites and writer of the urban fantasy podcast Jack Valentine, Vampire Detective.

‘Life is serious, but is not to be lived too seriously’. Serious or humorous, my poems are always good-natured.

I write when I have something to say, and I feel I have found the right way to say it. It’s about having fun with words and meaning, using words skilfully to say things differently, and saying the familiar in unfamiliar ways.

In 2017 I self-published a collection of poetry and wit as Particles of Light, with a 2nd edition in 2025. The book has been well received and has sold well in my local bookshops.

Intersecting Lines, my second collection, was traditionally published by indie publisher Beercott Books in 2021. In 2025 Beercott Books published my third collection, titled Reflections. These two collections continue to reflect my interest in people, love, the natural world, and the human condition.

In 2025 I also compiled together the sections of wit from my 3 collections and published it as Wit ‘n Word. There are poems to move you, to surprise you, and to make you laugh. The humorous poems and one-liners are there for entertainment, to be enjoyed, though they often contain a ‘sting in the tail’. I hope readers will enjoy reading my poems and will feel I am putting their own experiences and emotions into words.

I read regularly at poetry ‘open mics’ and at local literary events, and I give talks about my poetry to community groups.