Helen Grant was born in London. She read classics at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and then worked in marketing for ten years. In 2001 she and her family moved to Bad Münstereifel in Germany, and it was exploring the legends of this beautiful town that inspired her to write her first novel. She now lives in Brussels.

"Since graduating from University College London, Louise Candlish has had various jobs in publishing and journalism, most recently working as a copywriter. She left to spend time in Italy, where she wrote Prickly Heat, and now lives in London with her partner and young daughter."

Malcolm Knox was born in 1966. He grew up in Sydney and studied in Sydney and Scotland, where his one-act play, POLEMARCHUS, was performed in St Andrews and Edinburgh. His first novel SUMMERLAND was published to great acclaim in the UK, US, Australia and Europe in 2000. In 2001 Malcolm was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian novelists. He lives in Sydney with his wife Wenona and 2 kids.

R.S.Downie won the Fay Weldon section of BBC 3’s End of Story competition; and she was also runner-up in the Mail on Sunday’s ‘Start a Novel’ competition. She has written two novels. She is married with two sons and lives in Buckinghamshire.

Ruso and the Demented Doctor is the second in the Medicus series by R S Downie. The books are set in Roman-occupied Britain, in the north near Hadrian's Wall, in the time before Hadrian’s Wall was built.

Nicholas Drayson was born in England and has lived in Australia since 1982, where he studied zoology and a PhD in 19th century Australian natural history writing. He has worked as a journalist in the UK, Kenya and Australia, writing for publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Australian Geographic. From 1998 to 2001 he wrote for the National Museum of Australia.