I am a children’s author, age group 8-12. I am delighted to be returning to the Oxford Indie Book Fair and look forward to meeting you.

For the past five years I have had the pleasure to write stories about an astonishing place. This place, at the very edge of the world, is the mysterious, undiscovered Island of Animaux. Full of the strangest creatures having crazy, mad, funny adventures.

I would love to introduce you to the principal characters: Aubrey the Turkey; Clifford Platypus; and Walli Hog. They’re firm friends, although Clifford and Walli always need to keep an eye on the infamous Aubrey, as he plans his next dastardly adventure.

The series contains six books, each with five separate tales:
• The Island of Animaux
• Monsieur Le Chef
• A Surprise Party
• Coffee and Ice Cream
• The Other Side
• Who’s There?

I think you will really enjoy the stories. And don’t be afraid to laugh, particularly at Aubrey’s expense. But please, please, please – remember to keep the latest location of the island top secret!

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.

Sarah Lustig is the author of the Westminster Mysteries series, which follow the adventures of Theo Duncan, the Prime Minister’s son, as he tries to solve mysteries that have baffled Parliament.

The first book in the series, Mystery in the Palace of Westminster, was awarded Highly Commended in the Selfies Children’s Book Award 2023 and it is a Wishing Shelf Book Awards finalist. The second book in the series, Body in the Thames, was also shortlisted for the Selfies Book Awards, 2025. The series finale, Murder at Speaker’s House, published in September 2026.

Sarah been a book editor for over 15 years and lives in Buckinghamshire, where she spends her time reading, writing and pottering on her balcony garden.

Prof. Elena Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu teaches and researches in the fields of Late Antiquity and Medieval Studies (Philosophy, Art History, History of Ideas). Most recently her work has focused on Mediterranean culture.

She has a DPhil/PhD in Arts from the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Dr. Vasilescu is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences.

She has published books and articles with Oxford University Press, Palgrave, Routledge, Peeters and Vasilescu Academic Oxford (her own publishing house).

Among her latest books are ‘Michelangelo, the Byzantines, and Plato’ (2021, second revised edition 2025); ‘Byzantine and Medieval Cappadocia’ (2024), ‘Creation and Time. Byzantine and Moder’ (2021), ‘Glimpses into Byzantium. Its Philosophy and Arts’ (an anthology of peer-reviewed articles).

Dr. Vasilescu has also published chapters in collective volumes published by Ashgate, Routledge and other well-known publishers. Moreover, Elena Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu published three volumes of poems: ‘Bucuria Verii cu Fluturi/A Summer with Butterflies’ (2025); ‘Tot despre cuvinte’/’About Words Again’ (2026), and ‘E Dreptul Meu’ [‘It is my Right’]

She directed two films: one is titled “Ieşirea din Labirint”/”Escape from the Labyrinth” and the other is based on Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and is titled as such. The latter had its premiere on the 2nd of May, 2026, at the Ultimate Picture Palace cinema in Oxford.

Francis Towne’s Lake District Sketchbook, published by the Winterbourne Press in a limited edition, is a beautifully crafted book. The exquisite watercolour illustrations, reproduced at actual size from the 1786 originals, are accompanied by an Introduction and Commentary. A two-volume signed and numbered special edition, hand-bound in a slip case, will also be available at the fair at a cut price, as long as stocks last.