Established in 2017 and based at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre, ignitionpress is an award-winning poetry pamphlet press with an international outlook which publishes original, arresting poetry from emerging poets.

The press won the Michael Marks Publishers’ Award in 2021, and six of our pamphlets have been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award, with one winning the Michael Marks Environmental Poetry Pamphlet Award in 2026. Six of our pamphlets have also been Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice selections.

Born in Lancashire, Paul joined the British Army at 16 and served for thirteen years before leaving to pursue a career.

In 2022, Paul published his debut novel, The Stone of Radnor, a YA fantasy and the first in the Guardian of the Stone trilogy. He has gone onto to complete the series and in August of this year he published his fourth novel, a Fantasy / Sci-Fi thriller called The Emerald Passage.

Paul works full time as a cybersecurity consultant and aside from writing in his spare time, Paul enjoys country walks and helping his partner with her horses and ponies. He currently lives in Hampshire with his two teenage children and a very annoying cat.

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.

Chris publishes his fiction under the nom de plume Chris Foster Tolley, reserving Chris Walklett for his work on using music in education, particularly English Language Teaching.

Although Chris has been writing across various genres for years, Trip ’89 marks his debut novel. Born out of extra time brought on by lockdown, the idea began with a desire to explore a pivotal historical era and soak the narrative in the spirit of the times. Blending rigorous research with personal memories of the eighties – and particularly 1989, a landmark year by any standard – the narrative evolved over six years into Trip ’89: vibrant, rich in memorable characters, humour, and historical insight. What emerged has been described as possibly the world’s first ‘multimedia novel’, complemented as it is by explanatory notes, socio-culturally focused book club questions, and two curated playlists.

Alongside his fiction, Chris is widely recognized as a prominent figure in ELT, specializing in the use of music and songs in the classroom. Under his Teaching Tracks umbrella, he published the widely acclaimed, ‘timeless’ Top Ten series, dedicated to harnessing the power of songs, song lyrics, and music in language learning and education.

Through Tracks Publications, Chris unites his creative and educational work under a single vision: exploring how music, history and culture shape our lives. He will be exhibiting both his brand-new novel Trip ’89 as well as a selection of Teaching Tracks materials.

I am a writer of humorous speculative fiction, children’s fiction and short stories. Successes include winning the Writers’ Forum Magazine short story competition, and having a story highly commended in the Yeovil Literary Festival international short story competition.

Until the world catches up with the idea that I’m a writer, I work in a pharmacy.

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.