BeeeBeees has dedicated over 26 years to various IT fields, excelling as both a computer programmer and an educator. Her passion for academia drives her to attend classes as a learner rather than a teacher, continually expanding her knowledge. While she has contributed to websites and digital content, her true calling lies in teaching subjects close to her heart. Writing has always been a cherished pursuit, with many of her works stored away in digital archives until the COVID-19 pandemic reignited her creative spirit. Initially focused on academic writing, she is now venturing into fiction for the first time, embracing the challenge and prepared for a mix of reactions.

MIRZA FARHATULLAH BAIG is best known for his vivid word-sketches and among his most famous works is the sketch of his teacher, Maulvi Nazir Ahmed Dehlvi, Nazeer Ahmed ki kahani, kuchh meri kuchh unki zabaani. His other popular books include Bahadur Shah aur phoolwalon ki sair and Ek vasiyat ki tamiil, along with seven volumes of collected essays, entitled Mazaameen-i-Farhat. Different sources have different dates for his birth, but in Farhatullah's own account, he gives his date of birth as 3 August 1885. He graduated from Delhi's St. Stephen's College in 1905, then went to Hyderabad (Deccan) in 1917 for employment, and remained there all through his life. Aside from writing brilliant prose, he composed poetry too. In Meri shairi, he describes his poetic journey along with his verses. Meri daastaan is his autobiography, wherein he shares details of his various careers, or in his words, 'thirty-four years of rigorous imprisonment. Farhatullah Baig died on 27 April 1947 in Hyderabad.Meenakshi Jauhari (Translator) has been writing fiction and poetry for more than three decades. During the last decade, she has focused on translating from Urdu, for example, Amrita Pritam’s poetry. Her poetry anthology The Fish Who Flew was published in 2019 by Writers Workshop, Kolkata. Her translations and original work have featured in literary journals such as Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), The Little Magazine, Out of Print, Gulmohur Quarterly, Volume Poetry and others. She lives with her husband and son in Gurgaon.

Elisabeth Gifford grew up in a vicarage in the industrial Midlands. She studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. She is the author of five previous historical novels, including The Good Doctor of Warsaw and The Lost Lights of St Kilda. She is married with three children, and lives in Kingston upon Thames.

William Saroyan (1908-1981) was born in California, the son of Armenian immigrants who escaped from the genocidal Turkish Ottoman Empire. His father - a preacher and poet who became a farm labourer - died when Saroyan was three, forcing the children to be briefly placed in an orphanage. Saroyan left school at fifteen, determined to become a writer and supporting himself through odd jobs. His first story collection was an instant bestseller in 1934 and fame ensued (he's mentioned in Breakfast at Tiffany's!) It was followed by dozens of celebrated novels, stories and plays including The Time of Your Life - for which he refused the 1939 Pulitzer Prize on the grounds that commerce should not judge art - and The Human Comedy, which won a 1944 Academy Award for his screenplay. In the 1940s he worked for Columbia and MGM in Hollywood, as well as travelling through the Soviet Union and Europe. Saroyan lived mainly in Paris from 1958, writing voraciously until his death in 1981.Stephen Fry was born in London in 1957 and educated at Cambridge, where he joined the Footlights and met Hugh Laurie. His television credits include A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder and QI, and he is a regular contributor to radio shows and films as well as the audiobook narrator for Harry Potter. Fry is also the author of many bestselling novels, including The Liar, The Hippopotamus, Making History and The Stars' Tennis Balls, as well as a series of autobiographies - Moab is my Washpot, The Fry Chronicles and More Fool Me - and Mythos, Heroes and Troy, his retellings of Greek myths.

William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Before becoming a writer, he was an actor, small-boat sailor, musician and schoolteacher. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and took part in the D-Day operation and liberation of Holland. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was turned down by several publishers but rescued from the 'reject pile' at Faber and published in 1954. It became a modern classic selling millions of copies, translated into 44 languages and made into a film by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding wrote eleven other novels, a play and two essay collections. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988 and died in 1993. www.william-golding.co.uk