MARJACQ - Key Persons
Adam Pearson is an award-winning actor, presenter and campaigner. Adam was nominated as UK Documentary Presenter of the Year at the 2016 Grierson Awards.
Adam worked as a researcher for the BBC and Channel 4 before becoming a strand presenter on the first series of Beauty And The Beast: The Ugly Face Of Prejudice on Channel 4. He was also one of the team who developed Beauty And The Beast and consulted on the Dutch version of the series. Adam has worked on all series of The Undateables (Channel 4) as the casting researcher. Adam has fronted the critically acclaimed documentaries Horizon: My Amazing Twin (BBC Two), The Ugly Face Of Disability Hate Crime (BBC Three) and Adam Pearson: Freak Show (BBC Three) as well as being a reporter on Tricks Of The Restaurant Trade Series 1 & 2 (Channel 4) and The One Show (BBC One).
Adam appeared in the BAFTA-nominated film, Under The Skin, directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson. He also played himself in the independent feature, DRIB, which premiered at SXSW.
Adam is an experienced speaker and gave a talk as part of TEDxKalamata. He is also an ambassador for Jeans For Genes and The Childhood Tumour Trust. Adam has won a RADAR Award and a Diana Award for his campaigning work.
Since becoming a joint winner of the W.H. Smith Plays for Children Award with Burning Everest, Adrian has published many original dramas and adaptations of classics for young adults and children. These include a much-performed adaptation of Gillian Cross's novel The Demon Headmaster and an increasingly popular play based on the true story of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany, The White Rose and the Swastika. Most recently, he's written adaptations of H.G. Well's The Invisible Man and Marcus Sedgwick's My Swordhand is Singing for the Oxford University Press.
When not writing for young adults, Adrian is a long-standing scriptwriter for Radio 4' s ‘The Archers' . (For true fans, he started just after John Archer's death in a tractor accident and has had a hand in all the major stories since then.)
Alice Peterson is the bestselling author of two non-fiction books and eight novels. What makes Alice's writing stand out is her talent to write hard-hitting and thought-provoking themes within her storylines. Her protagonists often have to overcome adversity, based on Alice's own experience of a professional tennis career cut short aged eighteen when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. This gives her a unique perspective on real life issues that she translates with compassion, empathy and humour.
Alya Mooro is an Egyptian born, London raised freelance journalist. She has written for publications including Grazia, Refinery29, The Washington Post and The Telegraph on everything from social commentary, fashion to lifestyle. She holds a BA in Sociology and Psychology from City University and a Masters in Journalism from Westminster.
Alya runs cult-blog alyamooro.com and has collaborated with brands including Nike, ASOS and Absolut. She has guested on numerous national radio stations including BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 1 and BBC 1Xtra, where she was invited to speak about topics including the need for increased diversity in the media.
She is a representative voice for both her generation, and for multi-cultural women everywhere and was recently featured in a spread in the August 2017 issue of Harpers Bazaar Arabia, where she was selected as part of a new generation of "globetrotting Arab women who embody [a] cosmopolitan legacy."
Amy Jones is an author, video game producer, lazy food blogger, and the world's biggest fan of Mindy Kaling. More than one therapist has stared at her in disbelief during a session, but you wouldn't know that from talking to her.
Amy previously worked as a writer and AV Producer at The Pool and has written for The Telegraph, The i, Stylist, Grazia and YOU Magazine, covering everything from TV and culture to miscarriage to why taking up knitting was revolutionary for her mental health to what it feels like to do a sheet mask on your vulva.
After living in London for nearly a decade she recently moved to rural Leicestershire where she enjoys long country walks with her dog and toddler, and misses Pret baguettes so much it physically hurts.
Andrea Mara is an Irish Times Top Ten bestselling author, who has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the An Post Book Awards. Her most recent novel, All Her Fault, was Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, and a Kindle Top 5 bestseller.
She lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband and three young children, and also runs multi-award-winning parent and lifestyle blog, OfficeMum.ie.
Andrew G Taylor is the author of the Superhumans Series (Meteorite Strike, Alien Storm, Enemy Invasion) and The Adjusters. He has also written for Fiction Express and Sea Quest.
An ex-primary school teacher, he lives in Melbourne, Australia with his family.
Angela is a best-selling novelist and a screenwriter.
Angela is the author of the crime thrillers On My Life (Hachette, 2019), Trust Me (HarperCollins, 2017), Watch Me (HarperCollins, 2016), and Follow Me (HarperCollins, 2015). She also wrote the humorous memoir Confessions of a Fashionista (Penguin Random House, 2013). Follow Me was named Amazon's Rising Star Debut January 2016, long listed for the Crime Writer's Association Dagger in the Library 2016, and short listed for the Dead Good Page Turner Award 2016.
For audio, Angela is one of ten writers commissioned for the new BBC Sounds' Malory Towers Podcast (King Bert Productions, 2021).
For screen, Angela was one of five writers commissioned for series five of BBC Three's The Break (BBC Studios, 2021). She wrote and performed a comedy short about having an invisible disability for BBC Ouch's Tales of The Misunderstood (BBC Edinburgh Festival Stage / BBC iPlayer, 2017). She is currently one of thirteen writers who were invited to join the BBC Writersroom Writers' Access Group 2020/2021.
For stage, she contributed a comedy sketch for the Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show (The Pleasance, Edinburgh Festival, 2016). Angela wrote a one-hour dramedy The Legacy (The Hope Theatre, London, 2015), which the Mail Online described as: 'witty, insightful and powerful - ★★★★★'. West End Wilma called it: 'a fantastic debut - ★★★★'. And London Theatre said: 'a memorable play that signposts a bright new talent - ★★★★'.
An experienced and entertaining speaker, Angela has appeared on CBS Reality's real life crime series Written in Blood, and The Guilty Feminist Podcast (on tour at Warwick Arts Centre). She hosted Tales From Your Life (BBC 3 Counties, 2017), the Three Books show (Womens' Radio Station, 2019), and Outspoken (Radio Verulam, 2015). And has appeared regularly as a panel guest on BBC 3 Counties, BBC Radio 4, and the BBC World Service, among others. Angela has given talks and masterclasses for many, including City University's Crime Writing MA, Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, Camp Bestival, Panic! (in partnership with Create, the Barbican, Goldsmiths University and The Guardian), Meet a Mentor (in partnership with the Royal Society of Arts), Northwich Lit Fest, St Albans Lit Fest, BeaconLit, London College of Fashion, and at HM Prisons.
A sufferer of Hypermobility Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), Angela is passionate about bringing marginalised voices into the industry.
Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent is a travel writer with a particular penchant for travelling alone through remote regions. She's sweated through the jungles of Borneo, driven across China's Gobi desert in a small pink tuk tuk, attempted to reach the Siberian Arctic on a clapped out Russian motorcycle, explored the remains of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and travelled across the remote North-East Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
To date she has written threebooks, Tuk Tuk to the Road (the Friday Project, 2007) and A Short Ride in the Jungle (Summersdale, 2014). Dervla Murphy said of the latter that she 'enormously enjoyed every page' while Ted Simon called it 'truly wonderful - a book after my own heart.'
Antonia's third book, Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains, about Arunachal Pradesh, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2017.
Cambridge graduate, Bryony Pearce, fled her ‘real London job' in 2004 and now lives in the Forest of Dean. She is a full-time mum to her two children, husband and various pets. She is a reader for Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and a vegetarian lover of chocolate, wine and writing. People are often surprised at how dark her imagination is, as she is generally pretty nice. When the children let her off taxi duty and out of the house, she enjoys doing school visits, festivals and events.
Her novels for young adults include: Angel's Fury (a thriller about a teenage girl who has been reincarnated), The Weight of Souls (a supernatural thriller about a teenage girl who sees dead people), Phoenix Rising and Phoenix Burning (dystopian adventures about pirates who sail on a junk-filled sea), Windrunner's Daughter (a science-fiction adventure set on Mars) and Wavefunction (a science-fiction novel about a young man who can jump between universes, based on Homer's Odyssey). She also has short stories appearing in the anthologies Now We Are Ten by Newcon Press and Stories from the Edge.
After taking a break from publishing, Carmen is back at the keyboard with three new novels in the pipeline. All will feature the strong, funny, insightful women and their stories that made her earlier work so readable, relatable and popular.
Previously, she created a string of women's fiction novels including the bestselling Personal Shopper series starring Annie Valentine. She has also written YA fiction - the Secrets at St Jude's series and WW2-set novel, Cross My Heart.
She also runs the bespoke biography service, www.tellyourstory.world and works as an investment communications expert for Copylab Group.
Her interests include: protecting the environment, hillwalking, personal finance, autism, laundry (expert level), Parisian style and optimism.
Caroline is a freelance lifestyle and popular culture journalist with over a decade's experience. She has worked for most of the top magazines, newspapers and websites in the country, including Stylist, Grazia, Marie Claire, The Pool, Refinery 29, Emerald Street, Heat, Now, Cosmopolitan, Fabulous, Look, The Mirror, Mush, The Telegraph, The Guardian and Metro.
After 14 years in London, Caroline recently returned up north to the Wirral because she had a baby and there was more free grandparent babysitting available there. You'll often find her feeling travel sick but still trying to write on a Virgin Pendolino into Euston.
Her first novel, Through the Wall, was a top 20 paperback bestseller.
Caroline graduated with an MA in Creative Writing (Novels) from City University in 2009 and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and the T Party Writers' Group. She lives on the outermost edge of London in a house filled with too many books.
Catherine joined Marjacq in 2015. She began agenting at Rogers, Coleridge and White in 2007 and set up her own agency CPA when she moved to France in 2011. She is now based in London.
Catriona is a journalist, specialising in longform investigative and first-person pieces spanning a range of subjects with a particular interest in addiction, women's rights and grief. She's currently Senior Editor at Cosmopolitan, the UK's bestselling women's magazine, where she commissions, edits and writes the features, health and books section. She's recently been named Best Print Writer, by BSME and prior to Cosmopolitan was Deputy Features and Entertainment Writer at LOOK Magazine.
In her time there she has worked in the Playboy club, to find out how it feels to be a plus-size Bunny on the floor, wrote and performed a stand-up comedy set in 24 hours to get over her fear of public speaking, secured the first interview with Bethany Haines who lost her father to Isis and delved into her own family history to discuss what it's like when your dad is transgender.
Originally from Edinburgh, she now lives in the outskirts of London with her husband and cat. She spends her time trying to persuade her friends to move closer to her (a full-time job in itself).
An Italian Scandal is Cecil Cameron's first historical novel.
Cecil grew up in the Scottish Borders near Jedburgh and read history at London University before joining Save the Children. She began her work in the orphanages of Vietnam during the war. The children's resilience and joy, despite their harrowing circumstances, made a lasting impression on her. She continued to be involved with the charity for many years and awarded an OBE in 2002.
Cecil has always loved writing - entertaining her five brothers and sisters, then her own children, and recently wrote a book of children's poetry. She started to write professionally when she retired.
An Italian Scandal draws on her family's connections with Sicily and southern Italy. Her grandmother came from Naples and she has always wanted to write a love-story, set against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi's Italy. It is a tale of love and passion, hatred and revenge - and the revolution that created a nation.
Cecil is married to a Highland Clan chief and spends her time between the beautiful west coast of Scotland and London. She has four children and is currently working on her second novel.
Claire published her first novel in 2012, and has followed it up with many others in the crime fiction genre and also in women's fiction (writing as Eva Woods). She has had three radio plays broadcast on Radio 4, and her recent thrillers, What You Did and The Other Wife, both went to number 1 on Kindle in the US and UK. She ran the UK's first MA in crime writing for five years, and regularly teaches and talks about writing. She was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year award in 2019.
In screenwriting, Claire was selected as the 2018 International Fellow on the Nickelodeon Writers' Program, working in LA for six months. She has also written a play, articles and short stories, and a non-fiction audiobook for Audible.
Daisy Buchanan is an award winning journalist, author and broadcaster. She has written for every major newspaper and magazine in the UK, from the Guardian to Grazia. She hosts the chart topping podcast You're Booked, where she interviews legendary writers from all over the world about how their reading habits shape their work. She's assisted with a number of celebrity memoirs.
Her own books include How To Be A Grown Up and The Sisterhood (non fiction) and Insatiable: A Love Story For Greedy Girls.
David Massey's varied career has taken him from teaching and music journalism to presenting, producing and writing for radio. As the Romanian revolution was ending, David led a team taking supplies to Bucharest and Timisoara. On the way home he stopped near Checkpoint Charlie to help chip holes in the Berlin Wall. Rather fittingly, David and his wife Debi now run Globehuggers Emergency Supplies - a business specializing in bespoke grab bags and emergency equipment.
David's first novel, Torn was published in August 2012 by The Chicken House and went on to win Lancashire Book of the Year in 2013. In its first full year of circulation, Torn was long-listed for the Branford Boase Award, and the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. David's first novel has also been voted one of the most important books of 2014 in the USA by a group of twelve educators from the National Council for the Social Studies and has been nominated for the Georgia Peach awards. World Book Day March 2013 saw the release of David's second YA or Young-adult fiction novel, Taken in the UK which was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal.
David Tinkler was the one who wrote 'To Be Continued Next Week' on the old Eagle. He also advised Spacefleet on the use of speech balloons in zero gravity.
He has written a dozen books for children - all of which left the critics breathless with wonder and awe. If he wasn't so lazy he'd have written a whole lot more - so there'd have been more awe!
During the winter he keeps warm in the City Library. In summer he wanders about wondering whether it's Tuesday.
A copywriter by trade, Diana Rosie has created award-winning campaigns for a variety of popular brands, and occasionally helps her filmmaker husband with scriptwriting. After living in Hong Kong, London and Peru, she has finally settled comfortably into a cottage in the English countryside, where she lives with her family.
Her debut novel Alberto's Lost Birthday was named one of Amazon's Rising Stars of 2016, WH Smith's Fresh Talent Autumn 2016 and was recommended by Radio 3 listeners as one of their favourite short novels. It has been translated into German, French and Italian.
Eva Woods grew up in a small Irish village Ireland and now lives in London where she dodges urban foxes and tuts at tourists on escalators. She runs the UK's first writing course for commercial novels and regularly teaches creative writing.
Eve Harris was born to Israeli-Polish parents in Chiswick, West London in 1973.
Her father was a Holocaust refugee and both sets of grandparents were survivors. Eve became an English and Drama teacher at the age of 22, having been inspired by her own English teacher. She taught for 12 years at inner-city comprehensives and independent schools in London and also in Tel Aviv, after moving to Israel in 1999. She returned to London in 2003 to resume teaching at an all girls' Catholic convent school. Her novel, The Wedding, was inspired by her final year of teaching at an all girls' ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in North West London.
Eve lives in London with her husband, Jules, and children, Rosie and Noah. She is currently working on her second novel.
Eve Makis studied at Leicester University and worked as a journalist and radio presenter in the UK and Cyprus before becoming a novelist.
Her first novel, Eat, Drink and be Married, published by Transworld, was awarded the Young Booksellers International Book of the Year Award. A screen adaptation of her third book, Land of the Golden Apple, won several best in category awards at International Film Festivals and is due to be screened in April 2017. Her forth novel, The Spice Box Letters, published in five languages, was shortlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the East Midlands Book Award. She has co-written The Accidental Memoir with Anthony Cropper, which inspires readers to tell their own life story. It is published by Fourth Estate in July 2018.
Eve is a part time tutor in creative writing at Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University. She is married with two children.
Finbar is a graduate of the Bath Spa MA in Writing for Young People. He grew up in Blackheath, London, where vikings once made their camp, and highwaymen would roam the old forests. Along with his wife, daughter and son, he now lives in Wiltshire surrounded by myth and legend.
He is a creative director for Aardman Animations in Bristol, where he makes fun interactive things for children of all ages.
Fiona Collins grew up in an Essex village and after stints in Hong Kong and London returned to the Essex countryside where she lives with her husband, three children, extremely fluffy cat and the ever-ignored Odd Sock Bag.
Fiona has a degree in Film & Literature and has had many former careers including TV presenting in Hong Kong, traffic & weather presenter for BBC local radio and film & television extra.
Fiona loves to write otherwise she gets grumpy. She is author of romcoms, You, Me and the Movies; Summer in the City; A Year of Being Single; Cloudy with a Chance of Love; Four Bridesmaids and a White Wedding; and The Sister Swap.
Fiona Perrin grew up in West Cornwall and, a few years ago, returned to her roots, renovating a house overlooking the lighthouse on the end of the beautiful Lizard peninsula - the setting for the inspiration of The Cornish Hotel. Before swapping genres to historical fiction, she wrote two contemporary rom coms - How Not to Get Divorced and How to Make Time for Me, published by Aria, Head of Zeus and Penguin Germany, enjoying best seller flags in UK, Australia and Canada.
Having always written, she attended the Curtis Brown Creative course and wrote her previous novels alongside a fairly demanding day job in sales and marketing and bringing up a family of four kids. Nowadays, she works part-time as a company board director from Cornwall and London. Having returned to the Lizard, she became fascinated with her local history and its fascinating tales of shipwrecks, smuggling and witchery and was compelled to write The Cornish Hotel, the first in a series inspired by the landscape around her.
Fran Dorricott is an author based in Derby, where she lives with her family, two cats, and three dogs (one of whom weighs more than she does). She loves to tell gothic, inclusive stories and drink copious amounts of tea.
Fran is also a bookseller working in the Derby branch of Waterstones, which is secretly just a way for her to fuel her ridiculous book-buying addiction. She also writes as Francesca May.
Frances Ryan is a journalist and political commentator She writes extensively on inequality, disability, and social mobility for the Guardian as both an opinion and feature writer, as well as other publications such as the New Statesman, the Independent, and the Observer.
She regularly guests on radio and television, and takes part in debates and panel discussions for think tanks, charities, campaign groups, and festivals. In 2015, she launched the weekly Guardian column ‘Hardworking Britain' - a personal look behind the politics of government policy and its impact on society.
Frances grew up in Grantham, Lincolnshire and went on to complete a PhD at The University of Nottingham - exploring the myth of meritocracy - and now guest teaches and lectures on politics and disability.
Ryan was highly commended Specialist Journalist of the Year at the 2019 National Press Awards for her work on disability. Her first book, Crippled, will be published by Verso in Summer 2019.
Franzeska G Ewart wrote for children for over thirty years, and several of her titles were Guardian Books of the Week. In 2011 she was short-listed for a Scottish Children's Book Award, and one of her titles was chosen for Richard and Judy's Summer Book Club in the same year.
Since 2010 she has been writing mainly for adults, and painting surrealist pictures with a magical narrative quality. Her rewriting of The Tempest is published this year by Bloomsbury, and she is currently working on her adult debut.
She lives in Ayrshire, where she and her partner run an art gallery.
Gita Ralleigh has completed a diploma in Children's Literature as well as an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London with distinction. She is a trustee of literary charity Spread the Word.
She has published work in Wasafiri and the Bellevue Literary Review as well as in anthologies by Fox Spirit, Freight (forthcoming), the Emma Press and the Word Factory.
She works as a consultant in the NHS and has two lovely children. They inspired her to set up a children's book group where she can talk to people who love children's literature as much as she does.
She is now writing a novel for children, a steampunk fantasy set in an alternate colonial India in which mechanical elephants feature.
Harriet Johnson is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in human rights and criminal law, and a fierce advocate of women's rights.
She is a founder member of Women in Criminal Law, Joint Chair of Trustees of the charity Women in Prison and in 2016 she founded #DoughtyStWomen events, an annual series of conferences to consider what more the law can do for women.
Harriet has given keynote legal addresses around the world, as well as speaking in the media about law and justice, particularly through the lens of gender.
Her first book, ENOUGH: The Violence Against Women and How to End It is published by William Collins in April, 2022.
Harriet grew up in London where she still lives with her husband and three daughters. She studied at Reading University and the Architectural Association and previously worked in building conservation. She is now a full time writer.
Hema grew up in the city of Chennai in India. She previously worked as an engineer on a survey ship, which gave her the opportunity to travel the world and write about it.
Her travel writing has been featured in various publications in India such as The Hindu, Indian Express and DNA. She now lives in London, and her first novel Minor Disturbances at Grand Hotel Apartments will be published by Hodder.
Hilary Freeman lives in Camden Town, London with her partner and their baby daughter.
Her latest YA novel, When I was Me, is published by Hot Key Books, and she has also had six books published by Piccadilly Press, including Loving Danny, Lifted and the Camden Town Tales Series. She has been shortlisted for several book awards.
Currently the agony aunt for The Jewish Chronicle, she has also dispensed advice in teen magazines, such as CosmoGirl! and online, for Youthnet and Sky.com. An award-winning journalist, she contributes regularly to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites, and she makes regular appearances on radio and TV.
When she isn't writing, she likes singing karaoke, doodling, shopping and most things French, especially Tarte Tatin and Beaufort cheese. Although she's only 5ft 3, she was once a leg model for a charity campaign and appeared on posters all over the London Underground.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Editor of Comment at the Independent
Holly Baxter is Deputy Editor of Comment at The Independent, as well as a long-term columnist and Twitter Enemy Number One for men's rights activists. Previous to that, she wrote regularly for The Guardian.
In 2012, Holly co-founded The Vagenda website with Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett during a brief stint of living in Rhiannon's airing cupboard, and they went on to write The Vagenda book together. She has also ghost-written a celebrity autobiography.
Holly is currently working on her first novel.
Job Titles:
- Film and Television Agent
Leah joined Marjacq in 2018. She represents screenwriters working in a variety of formats and genres, as well as looking after book to screen for the agency.
Previously Leah was an agent in the film and television department at Aitken Alexander Associates, working across drama and factual programming.