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.

Mario Coelho is a award wining children’s book illustrator based in Oxford with several mainstream picture book publications including with the prestigious Oxford University Press and several independent publications with the very well known and acclaimed children’s poet John foster.

Very recently I have worked alongside the great illustrator Korky Paul for a publishing project with Epic Tales where we both illustrated several titles.

I am a freelance artist and self-publisher of small illustrated books. My books range from experimental mark-marking to short, dark, humorous tales. More recently I have focused on themes of nature and horror… still with an amusing slant! My latest book, created in collaboration with writer Claire Blakemore, introduces you to the otherworldly.

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.”

Nicholas House is an independent author writing primarily Science Fiction and Paranormal Thrillers but is happy to turn his hand to whatever genre takes his interest.

He was born in Southern England but moved to North Wales at a young age and took up writing early. Inspired by the works of Jules Verne, Greek mythology and the Welsh valleys, he wrote about wizards and fantasy whilst dabbling in some poetry.

Encouraged by the mountains he grew up surrounded by, Nicholas would embrace his love of the outdoors and study Geoscience at University. Afforded the chance to travel during his studies, Nicholas found a renewed inspiration in the varied cultures and landscapes he would encounter.

After his studies, he would move to Oxfordshire with his wife and son, using his knowledge of Geology and an interest in space to write articles for an astronomy magazine and produce scripted videos for his personal YouTube channel.

Russ Barr writes character-led fiction with heart and soul, sometimes dark, sometimes funny, but always trying to scratch beneath the surface of the human condition.

His debut novel, War Inc., is a darkly comic story about our insatiable appetite for content, and people who turn chaos into opportunity. He is also the author of the short story Crybully, published in 2024.

His current novel, Ten-Pound Note, is set in 1990s London and follows a single imperfect ten-pound note as it passes from person to person, revealing a chain of connected lives, bad decisions and unexpected consequences.

Russ is drawn to flawed characters, broken systems and the absurdity that often sits just beneath the surface of serious things.