Alexander Halford is a surrealist fiction writer based in Wapping, London, where the tides, cobbled streets and slow river light have become quiet companions to his creative life. A physicist by training and a tech professional by trade, he arrived at fiction by a wonderfully unlikely route—what began as a sudden spark of curiosity grew into a full creative pursuit.

His debut novel, Venus in Chains, blends his fascination with philosophy, the human mind, and the hidden codes behind human behaviour. First drafted at his favourite window table in a small café overlooking the docks, the book carries the imprint of that landscape: still water, changing skies, and the sense that meaning can be uncovered in the ordinary if you look long enough.

Influenced strongly by the psychological richness of Russian writers such as Nabokov, Dostoevsky and Turgenev, Alexander approaches fiction as an excavation of inner worlds. He is currently working on his second novel, which continues this journey through themes of identity and self.

Liisa is author of The Five-fold Chronicles fantasy series. The Cocoon Within, is Liisa’s debut fantasy adventure novel and the first book in the series which also won Readers Choice award in October 2025, from the Open Book Awards.

Liisa loves writing epic fantasy adventure stories and she published book 2 in the series last year and is expected to launch book 3 in the series by the end of summer 2026.

In her spare time Liisa loves to journal and writes stories fuelled by her vivid imagination and inspiration from the world around her. Born in Bedfordshire, she spent her formative childhood years there until the age of ten, when she emigrated with her family to West Africa, where she spent the next four years, before returning to the UK.

Liisa is half Finnish and half Ghanaian by heritage, she has a passion for travel, too much coffee and a love for animals, especially those roaring big cats… lions! Her Christian faith influences her fantasy writing, with themes of the spiritual battle of good vs evil and adversity and challenge that the characters strive to overcome.

Liisa is fascinated by the human psyche and has a strong belief that the human mind is capable of so much more than we know, she likes to read books about personal development, mindset, and transforming the way that we think.

I hope to display 3 books this time, one a personal account of living in and visiting Japan entitled ‘An Affair with a Village — the work of social anthropological fieldwork and the long-term relationships built up’. The other two are novels: the first the tale of a 1960s escapee from the expectation that a girl, even with a degree, should quickly settle down, marry and have children.

The book, ‘Sharing Worlds’, recounts the exciting life she discovers between Mexico and Scotland, a fascinating job she finds, but still the conflict with wanting eventually to fulfil that expectation.

The second novel, to be launched at the Fair, is a sequel, and recounts the peripatetic life of a young woman whose travels and troubles are symbolised by the book’s title, ‘Born at Sea’. Set in the last three decades of the 20th century, it touches on cultural conflicts, the (recovering) plight of indigenous languages, and the early days of Climate Change, all presented through the eyes of a girl growing up. Spolier alert/ promise: both novels draw on some of my own experience as a social anthropologist, but the second is an entirely invented story.

Geoffrey was born in East London in 1948 and grew up with his parents and two brothers in Winchmore Hill. He attended St Pauls C of E Primary School and, having failed his 11+, moved on to Winchmore Secondary Modern School. Here he studied for his O and A Level GCEs before taking up a place at City University to read Civil Engineering. A career with Consulting Engineers, Contractors but primarily Local Government served him well and now retired he lives with his wife in Buckinghamshire.

J. N. Fox is of Caribbean descent. She was born in Wiltshire and grew up in a small town there. Maternally she is related to Jamaicans who fought for Britain in both the first and second world wars. She lives in Oxford with her husband and writes full-time.

She has featured in the Sunday Times. Been the subject of a BBC Documentary and has written content for The Times and Telegraph.
She is the author of The Battle of Ignorance trilogy. Three Voices, Nine Night and Two Ladies. A fictional series of contemporary literary novels that deal with integration and interracial relationships. Using fun relatable characters, she raises awareness of topical issues.

Peter Tickler is an established writer of crime fiction, mostly set in and around Oxford. He has been much praised for the authenticity of his Oxford (‘a wonderful gift of creating geographically factual settings for his fictional characters’ – Oxford Times) as well as the pace of his stories (‘deliciously thrilling and wildly unpredictable’ – Oxford Today).

He studied classics at Keble College, and later settled with his wife and family in South Oxford. He worked in the IT dept of the Potato Marking Board in Between Towns Road, and from the computer room he looked down into the carpark of the Cowley police station. So it was inevitable that his irascible protagonist DI Susan Holden was based there. He loves setting his crimes in places he knows, and describes himself as ‘town, not gown’.

His latest (and 10th) crime story is Death in the Sea Pool, set in Bude where he has spent many off-season holidays. He insists that ‘sometimes I need a change of scene!’.

He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association, and gives talks at festivals, libraries, U3As, Women’s Institutes and even at one of His Majesty’s Prisons. (They let him out eventually!).

His great-grandfather founded Tickler’s Jam Company, which supplied jam to the British troops and became a household name in the First World War. This was the inspiration for his novel The Tickler’s Jam Murders.

Peter Lovesey (winner of 3 CWA daggers) emailed him: “I was bamboozled by the solution to the puzzle. Bravo.”