Authors, Illustrators & Photographers

Caroline Bailey
The Sleepy Ladybird

Caroline is French and moved to London from Paris ten years ago where she met her partner Iain. In between attending the Putney School of Art and Design, and attending Tony Ross and Chris Riddell seminars, she and Iain set up the website design agency Flame New Media. For this, Caroline designed a flash interactive website with animated characters sponsored by the Vodafone UK Foundation. A talented artist with contrasting styles, she is now designing her second book for Picnic Publishing, a zany affair called The Ghostly Garlic and Silly Salami.

Ben Beazley
Crooked Mile

Ben Beazley has been writing regional history books since 1999 with six published works to his credit. From the extensive research involved he has acquired an in depth knowledge and interest in the late 19th century and Edwardian periods, which combined with a career of almost thirty years as a police officer gives him an unrivalled background when it comes to writing period detective novels. His first novel for Picnic, ‘Crooked Mile’ is due to be published in early 2009.

Nick Blackstock
Something Hidden

On leaving school at sixteen, Nick joined ICI until National Service took him to Kenya. Returning to London, he worked in the City with the shipping side of BP, progressing up the corporate ladder with a major British firm. Having always regretted not going to university, he read History and Geography at Bradford university, 1974 - 1977. Thereafter, he obtained a teaching qualification and started work in the Business Education Department of a local college. As a Senior Lecturer he took early retirement in 1999.

Nick has contributed to a range of articles in professional publications and also co-wrote a text book on business communications: twenty seven years after publication it is still selling! His first historical novel (Beast, Dewi Lewis 2002)was about a killer wolf that terrorised wide swathes of Southern France in the eighteenth century. The genesis of his second, Something Hidden, published by Picnic, is a fatal train crash in Gloucestershire in 1928. Among the dead were the bodies of two young children who, despite massive publicity, were never identified.
Nick has also written a series of ‘one off’ published articles (mainly on travel) with titles ranging from ‘Silver Nomads in Australia’, to ‘Golden Bosuns on Christmas Island’. Currently, he is researching Dutch East India shipwrecks off the coast of Western Australia. In one or both of these areas he hopes to produce a novel within the next year.
Nick is married with two adult children.

Michael Bollen
Earth Inc

Michael Bollen was born in Chelmsford in 1974 and now lives in Brighton where he works in a library. He studied Theatre at Warwick University where the most important thing he learnt was that he didn’t much care for theatre. He is one half of satirical cut and paste band Cassetteboy, who painstakingly re-edit audio stolen from TV and radio programmes to occasionally hilarious, and seldom musical, effect. Until now Cassetteboy have remained anonymous, scared of being sued for massive copyright infringement. This is the first time that Michael has publicly admitted his crimes. Earth Inc. is his first novel.

David Brook
Girl on Top

David Brook is a commercial and editorial photographer based in London. With a background in film-making, David enjoys shooting portraits and reportage, and travels extensively.
He has produced several personal projects which have resulted in exhibitions of his of work. In 1992, he helped to set up and raise funds for a small charity, NomadX, to assist with the crisis of 35,000 refugees seeking shelter in Croatia and Slovenia during the Bosnian war. An exhibition followed in Edinburgh with proceeds going to Mostar.

In London 2006, David's exhibition at the Salon gallery in Notting Hill presented a landscape series that looked at the physical effects that we as humans have on our surroundings. It focused specifically on ski resorts and their eerie emptiness during the summer months. His most recent joint exhibition, AIR-PORT, was in April 2008 at the Empire gallery in Vyner street, Hackney. The work concentrates on air travel, juxtaposed with Paddy Sutton's large landscapes of an estuary that once served as a major port in Suffolk. It explore man's appropriation of the natural environment and in turn, Nature's inevitable recovery of what is only on loan to us.

David's work has appeared in many international magazines from Time and GQ to Wallpaper* and Harpers Bazaar. David regards art projects such as 'Girl on Top' as an opportunity to explore the creative passion that has been with him since he first picked up a camera at the age of 10. Uniting images with the written word has always been an ambition and he looks forward to the challenge of interpreting the poems of Alexander Carysfort.

Iain Bailey
Emigré London

Iain Bailey cut his photography teeth underneath an African sun where he was born. He arrived in London in 1989. More at home with picturing nature - and the tour de France (!) - he says of Picnic's illustrated book Emigré London: 'To begin with, I did not tell my mates I was photographing frocks. Now, however, I am so pleased with the result, I am telling everyone!' In addition to his photography career, the talented entrepreneur and web guru is an internet consultant with his own agency based in Kent.

Alexander Carysfort
Girl on Top

Alexander Carysfort is better known as an actor and producer, roles he undertakes away from his nom de plume. Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, since 1982 he has lived in London, working across the globe in film, television and theatre. From 1995 to 2001 he headed Foghorn Theatre Company, working exclusively with his resident writer, and twice concurrently recipient of the Sunday Times Young Playwright of The Year Award, Robert Hamilton. In 2002 he co-founded and ran the award winning theatre503 in Battersea, London, primarily nurturing and promoting cutting edge new writing, both home grown and international. In 2006 he secured a ten year lease, set up theatre503 as a charitable trust, and exited stage right to pursue his acting and writing careers. Girl On Top is his first published work.

James Anthony Crabb
The Dragon and Dinosaur Juice Cafe

Born in Surrey during the Second World War, James followed in his family footsteps and started painting in oils at a very early age. Because of the war years, canvas was expensive and in short supply. Therefore - and ever the resourceful schoolboy - he painted on plywood and glass winning many competitions in art, including the county schools annual trophy. (It being a team effort, James, along with three school chums, used the Queen's Coronation Parade as the subject, painted on a 7 feet long canvas!) He was offered a place at Sutton School of Art but had to decline because of family reasons, becoming an engineer instead. Now in a position to return to his first love - painting - in recent years he has designed badges and children's board-games, some used by charities for fund-raising events.

The Dinosaur and Dragon Juice Cafe is his first illustrated book for Picnic Publishing. His use of water-colour and pencil drawing will delight all children - and adults will appreciate his, unique, joyous and retro style. James' next project - Tiger Trap! - also with Picnic Publishing, is an adventure story for boys set around Dover castle.

Brian Landers
Empires Apart
America and Russia from the Vikings to Iraq

After forsaking academia to become a political adviser in the City, Brian Landers has acquired a wealth of experience of business and public policy issues. As well as senior management positions with leading British companies ( he is currently a Director of a major publishers), his public appointments include Finance Director of H M Prison Service, Trustee of the Royal Armouries and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service. In addition he spent two years with a family planning charity, worked for an insurance company in Buenos Aires and an American multinational in Amsterdam, was a management consultant with Price Waterhouse and has written on subjects as varied as quangos, European affairs and House of Commons committees. He has an MBA from London Business School.

Jackie Norman
Nanny Brown's Scrapbook

Tearing herself away from the industrial beauty of Redcar, North Yorkshire and her Dickensian schooling at Casterton, Cumbria, (the same Lowood School where the Bronte sisters went and where Charlotte Bronte placed her heroine Jane Eyre) Jackie Norman worked in London at the BBC, Amnesty International, taught in the East End off Brick Lane, acquired a B.Ed at the University of London and a BA (Hons) Photography and Multimedia at the University of Westminster, but not necessarily in that order. Her son works on computer architecture for a national newspaper and her daughter is an up and coming product designer. Jackie is married (still), with one Jack Russell.

Robin Ramsay
Politics and Paranoia

Robin Ramsay has been the editor/publisher of Lobster since 1983. He was the co-author (with Steve Dorril) of Smear! Wilson and the Secret State (London 1991), the author of Prawn Cocktail Party (London, 1998) and for the Pocket Essentials series he has written: Conspiracy Theories (2006), The Rise of New Labour (2002) and Who Shot JFK? (2007). He is currently compiling his second book for Picnic, due in early 2009. His first, Politics and Paranoia will be published in May 2008.

Sarah Ramos
Saki and the Moonster

Sarah is of Portuguese origin - but raised in Chelsea, London! She trained as an artist and dancer - and was an extra in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shopping and Room 36 - before studying at Putney School of Art and Design, and attending Tony Ross and Chris Riddell seminars. A vibrant artist, she is now designing her second book for Picnic Publishing, Jimmy Rat, an edgy, urban tale about a skateboarding rat!

Caroline Rance
Kill-Grief

Caroline Rance was born in Bromborough, Wirral in 1975. Kill-Grief is her first novel and was inspired by her research into 18th-century medicine while studying English and History at Keele University.

Caroline has previously worked for the NHS, the National Trust, a plant nursery and a charity focused on the Middle East, but is now looking after her toddler and writing her second novel. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, son, three Arab horses and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. You can visit her website at www.carolinerance.co.uk.

Rick Schmidt
Black President

Rick Schmidt's previously published work includes the best-selling guides, Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices (Penguin, 1988, 1995, 2000), and Extreme DV (Penguin, 2004). He has written/directed over 20 features, including the iconoclastic Emerald Cities, since his feature film debut, A Man, a Woman, and a Killer, which was co-directed with Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club, Smoke, Anywhere But Here, etc.). Other features have premiered at top international film festivals; Sundance/Dramatic Competition, Berlin/Panorama, New Directors/New Films, etc. His epic musical, 1988-The Remake, screened at the London Film Festival and on Channel Four/UK (see: www.lightvideo.com). Black President is his first novel.

"He (Schmidt) super-empowered me. The book (Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices) changed my life." – Vin Diesel, Actor

"Without Rick's book (Feature Filmmaking…), Clerks would have been an idea that never made it past this page."
–Kevin Smith, Writer/Director, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, etc.

"Rick Schmidt shows filmmakers how to use these new tools (as discussed in Extreme DV) to realize their visions."
– John Lasseter, Writer/Director, Toy Story, Cars, etc.

Andrew JH Sharp
The Ghost of Eden

Andrew Sharp trained as a surgeon and then a general practitioner and has lived and worked in East and Southern Africa where he has close family ties. Now based in the East Midlands he is a contributor to medical magazines and has written award-winning short stories. Comfortable in combining both the practice of medicine and the art of writing he concurs, humbly, with Chekhov who wrote: ‘Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress’. A love of the peoples and landscape of Africa stirred his pen for his first novel, The Ghosts of Eden.

Corinne Souza
Jasmine's Tortoise

Corinne Souza's non-fiction books include Baghdad's Spy. Jasmine's Tortoise is her first novel.