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.

The Berthe the Witch series of books consists of 14 books in French and 2 translated into Spanish for children learning those languages. The stories are about a green witch called Berthe and her cat, who loves ice cream. The language is simple and is based on the themes covered in school: description, weather, clothes, family, a visit to a restaurant, shop or Paris etc.. As the author I have had fifty years of teaching languages to children to know what to include and try to make them fun.

Each book contains a story, a word search, a game to make and a list of vocabulary. Each French book has a QR code on the back which links to the story being read. There are also two quizzes on my website for each book.

The books are used in schools across the country and abroad and featured in an article in the Scholastic Junior Education Plus magazine under the title Ten of the Best MFL Resources. They were the only storybooks mentioned.

Most importantly, children say that they enjoy the stories because they can understand them and they make them laugh.

After 40 years (and counting!) of writing scientific papers, books and patents where almost every sentence needs to be justified with a reference, I suppose I longed for being able to write something which did not have any boundaries. Having recently become a part-time consultant scientist and with all four children having now left our house, there is some time for me to let my mind wander through those things that do not need to be proved; do not have to be true. But the scientist in me hasn’t allowed me to stray that far from the truth or reality and that’s pretty much how I ended up writing ‘A Painkiller to Die For’ (2025). This was my second published novel after ‘A Practical Arrangement’ which came out towards the end of 2023 under the nom de plume of Verity Trevethan.

My third novel, ‘The Disappearance of Sarah Griffiths,’ has a publication date of 28th November and also has a smattering of science running through the plot. My editor has labelled this book as ‘Gone Girl meets Breaking Bad’ and I think I can see where she is coming from. It is a dark, domestic noir based around a young married couple whose comfortable existence is crumbling around them. The life changing events lead to the wife’s disappearance and a criminal investigation looking into the death of a small-time drug dealer. The novel asks questions to just how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love and the lives we’ve built and what we become when they start to fall apart.

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!

Marian Eastwood is the founder of the Oxford Poetry Circle in Oxford, UK and hosts monthly poetry and open mic events with featured poets.

Her debut poetry collection. Secret Codes was published last June 2025.

She served as a Labour Attaché for the Philippine Mission to the United Nations and other International Orgsnisations for seven years in Geneva, Switzerland after being the Welfare Officer for the Philippine Consulate in Milan Italy.

She founded the Boracay Paraw Regatta and International Arts Festival and managed it for seven years from 1992-1998, on Boracay Island in the Philippines.

My interest in the Mind-Body problem was inspired by reading Daniel Dennett’s “Consciousness Explained”. He proposes that qualitative experiences, such as a feeling of pain, do not exist. Although it /seems/ that we have this phenomenology, we do not actually do so. He also denies that we have conscious agency. I find these claims absurd, but his book made me realise that any explanation of mind in terms of physics must be extremely difficult.

I wrote a draft manuscript on /panpsychism/, which is the position that mind exists – in extremely primitive form – everywhere in the universe. I completed an MA degree at the University of Reading, writing my thesis on the Mind-Body problem, and used it to improve my manuscript, which was published as ‘Panpsychism’, 2011.

In my 2022 book, ‘Mind, Quantum, and Free Will’, my ideas are closely bound to contemporary physics. This gives my ideas credibility. Part II discusses science. Particular attention is paid to quantum theory, where I go back to the original papers of Einstein, Schrödinger, Bohr, and others, where they debate entanglement. I argue that Einstein made many significant contributions to this theory.

Over the years I’ve given talks and other presentations at international conferences. Please visit my table, N34, if you would like to discuss science, philosophy, or the Mind-Body problem, from any point of view. Your ideas and insights are most welcome.