I wanted to attend almost all the courses - but had to make some hard decisions! As usual, very well run and managed.
I wanted to attend almost all the courses - but had to make some hard decisions! As usual, very well run and managed.
Steve Hartley is the author of the Danny Baker Record Breaker series published by Macmillan Children's Books. The World's Biggest Bogey was long-listed for the 2010 Waterstones' Book Prize. A brand new series will be published by Macmillan in 2013.
He has presented at numerous events throughout the UK and Ireland, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Northern Children's Book Festival, as well as dozens of other festival, school and library visits.
Born and bred in Manchester, he now lives in Lancashire with his wife and daughter. He shoots arrows for fun, and takes silliness very seriously.
Visit Steve's website
Sharon Kendrick has telling stories ever since she can remember. Written on lined paper at the age of twelve, her first book was a gripping tale of identical twins (with dark, Cleopatra bobs) fighting evil at their boarding school and was titled: NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. She still loves that title.
She left school way too early and had jobs as diverse as walking up and down Hounslow High Street wearing a sandwich board, to being PA to an eccentric cardiologist. She's been a nurse and a waitress, a cook and a shop assistant and all these jobs have proved invaluable when it comes to writing novels - because the best research comes from life.
Her first book for Harlequin Mills & Boon was published without a single change - something she now puts down to beginner's luck - and she has gone on to write over eighty more. People always ask if she doesn-t ever run out of ideas - but how could she? Writing romance is about a love affair between two people and people are unique - so there's infinite material out there. She considers herself very lucky to earn her living doing something she loves so much and she's currently seeking inspiration in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside where the Swanwick Writers' school is held!
Visit Sharon's website
David started writing on That was the week that was in 1963. He wrote for The Frost Report, The Two Ronnies, Ken Dodd, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howard and Les Dawson. His many television series include:The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, A Bit of a Do, Fairly Secret Army and Love on a Branch Line.
David has had 18 novels published, including four Reginald Perrin and four Henry Pratt books.
Visit David's website
Alan Samson is Publisher of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, part of the Hachette-owned Orion Publishing Group, the largest in Britain. Regarded as one of the UK's leading publishers, he joined Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2003, after 12 years as Editorial Director of Little, Brown. Prior to that he worked for Michael Joseph and Macmillan. He has earned a reputation in the industry for negotiating some of the most high-profile book deals in recent years, including the world rights to a collection of John Lennon's letters, and is regularly invited to speak about his experience of publishing in the genre of biographies and celebrity memoirs. He was shortlisted for the Imprint and Editor of the Year Award at last year's Bookseller Industry Awards.
Alan enjoys publishing history, politics, sport, A-list celebrities, literary fiction and idea-driven books of all kinds. His list of non-fiction authors includes Julie Walters, Helen Mirren, Sean Connery, Antony Beevor, Antonia Fraser, AA Gill, Catherine Deneuve and Keith Richards. He has also published books by David Hockney, Edwina Currie, John McEnroe and Nick Leeson, as well as Anita Shreve, Edna O'Brien, and Orange Prize-winner, Valerie Martin.
Alan appeared on BBC TV's Mastermind when he worked at Macmillan and chose the life and times of Harold Macmillan as his specialist subject. He is a member of the Publishing Advisory Board for the postgraduate Publishing MA course run by Kingston University, London. The Board's members have a very hands-on role, including running masterclasses and helping with work placements.
Seen by many as the highlight of the Swanwick week, our after-dinner speakers are always eagerly anticipated. There is a different speaker each evening at 8:30pm in the Main Conference Hall, followed by book sales and signings where appropriate. Previous years' speakers have included:
"One huge THANK YOU from me for making Swanwick such a wonderful, lovely, happy experience. I loved every minute of it, was overwhelmed by the feeling of friendship - and simply stunned by the fun of it all."
(Christina Jones, Speaker 2010)
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