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.

Tom is the author of fifteen books of fantasy, SF and historical fiction – including the Twilight Reign series, The God Fragments and his latest series, The Devil Diaries. 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.

Sylvia named Coopers Oxford Marmalade Factory, ‘the Jam Factory’ when she established an Art and Antiques Centre with café, bookshop and repair services. The name has stuck! She’s best known locally for the ten year Oxford Castaway series in The Oxford Times. It brought together people who would usually never meet and she made it diverse which was rare then. Her novel, Sculpting the Elephant, is half set in Jericho and half in India. Sylvia is a campaigner for libraries and recently, with friends and the help of Korky Paul raised the money to build the first community library in west Kenya where her novel Not so Black and White is partly set. Her best-selling Brushstrokes in Time is a historical novel which tells the story of the courageous Stars artists (Beijing 1979). Her memoir has been endorsed by the journalist, Yasmin Alibhai Brown, the international poet Sudeep Sen and the history professor, Rana Mitter (Oxford and Harvard).

I’ve written more than a few books, but writing about myself might be the hardest thing of all. Let’s start simply. I was born in Jamaica. No, I can’t run or sing, and if I tried, it wouldn’t be pretty.

My love of books began as soon as I could read on my own and discovered the power of stories. Surprisingly, it was my father who taught me to read, despite being dyslexic himself. He taught himself using newspapers and abandoned catalogues from the resorts where he worked as a carpenter. That’s where my love of words began.

As a teenager, I turned to reading to escape the emotional upheaval of my parents’ breakup. Writing soon followed, becoming a way to say the things I couldn’t speak aloud. I’m naturally shy, and writing became my voice.

For years, writing stayed a hobby. That changed when I returned to university to study English Literature and finally began taking my work seriously. Over the last two years, I’ve written and self-published around fourteen novels and novellas.

I write romance because happy endings gave me hope during difficult times, and I want to pass that feeling on. I write science fiction because, as a lifelong Trekkie and a Black woman, I rarely saw myself in the worlds I loved, so I created my own. I write around real life with a husband, two boys, work, and the PTA, usually at night when it’s quiet. And if I ever met an alien, I’d run. Jamaican style.

If you love heart, humour, romance, and a touch of sci‑fi chaos, I hope you’ll try one of my stories.

MY MEOW PUBLISHING is an Independent Publisher of Fine Artists’ high-quality illustrated and sewn Casebound Gift Books for everyone from five to eighty-five. Our first release is The Kitten Who Lost His Meow – a playful fable illustrated by Oxfordshire artist Patricia Broughton and written with Oxford musician, Francis Rockliff. The original drawings and story celebrate family, friendship and cats with landscapes inspired by the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire. The book is dedicated to the Samaritans for the emotional support it gives to many and the Blue Cross for its animal welfare work. The book can be obtained from the Broad Canvas Art & Craft Shop in Broad Street, Oxford and the Madhatter Bookstore in High Street, Burford. The book is also available online from our website.

‘I can see your book has been made with great love and care and the book’s website has a lovely touch of humour and is fun! I know wit x cat content, in general, is popular and charming and can convert to books nicely.’

Laura Higginson – Publishing Director Ebury Penguin / Gift Books for all occasions including Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (10M Copies) and the Horse and Johanna Basford’s The Secret Garden (Adult Colouring Book x 20M Copies).

The Oxford Independent Authors are a mutually supportive group of writers who meet to share expertise, preserving independence and joining together at collaborative events. The focus of this group is on marketing, promoting, selling and raising the profile of our writers.

If you are an independent author or working towards becoming one and would like more information please send an email to oxfordindieauthors@gmail.com.