Tom Lloyd was born in 1979 in Berkshire. After a degree in International Relations he went straight into publishing where he still works. He never received the memo about suitable jobs for writers and consequently has never been a kitchen-hand, hospital porter, pigeon hunter, or secret agent. He lives in Oxford, isn’t one of those authors who gives a damn about the history of the font used in his books and only believes in forms of exercise that allow him to hit something.

Visit him online at http://www.tomlloyd.co.uk.

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.”

The Grail Twins – A Cathar Legacy

More than a story – a mystery school initiation

A tale of dragons, an ancient bloodline, and the hidden wisdom of Sophia.

When Oxford doctor Annie Morgan turns to hypnotherapy to quiet her night terrors, she unlocks memories she cannot explain – glimpses of a Cathar girl fleeing Montségur, sacred relics entrusted to her care, and a treasure buried high above the monastery at Montserrat. As her visions lead her through Atlantis, Egypt, Druid Wales, Avalon, and Rosslyn Chapel, Annie pieces together the story of Anna and Dewi – twins born of Magdalene and Yeshua, protectors of Sophia’s flame, trained by Merlin and Taliesin, and guarded by dragons. In their Atlantean lifetime, their destiny is to restore balance after the Fall, healing the rift between light and shadow – a harmony that will one day awaken the true Grail. Now, as Annie walks the ancient stones and meets the man her soul has known for millennia, she learns what it truly means to be the Grail’s keeper in a world that has forgotten.

A story of love, remembrance, and the return of Sophia’s wisdom, The Grail Twins invites readers on a journey through history, myth, and the light within.

Big issues, intimate lens. Tidewater Press publishes adult fiction that explores topi­cal themes and non-fiction titles that illuminate contemporary issues on the international stage.

Martin Baker is a writer and children’s book illustrator. These include Wellington the Tin Soldier, Rhymes with Berti, Girls in Front, The Pie-Eyed Piper, Parodies Lost, and The daring aerobat. His adult books include, Lady Ironthigh’s Black Book – Sex Scandals of a Sick Century, “I, God!” autobiographies of the biblical, and Parodies Lost.

He contributed features on classical music, poetry and art history to the BBC, The Times, and also many academic publications in the UK and USA.

For many years he worked for the classical record company, Deutsche Grammophon, researching and writing musicological texts.His latest book is a translation of a 1947 Holocaust survivor’s book, Oh, my chosen people!

My father from China is his disingenuous justification for living a colourful life.

I am a self published author and ‘The Weekend Warrior’ is my first book. It is about my last season playing British American Football, a sport I played on and off for twenty years.

I am a married man with five grown up children.