W.H. Canaway was born in 1925 in Altrincham, Cheshire. He was educated at Altrincham Grammar School and the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he was awarded with a B.A. and M.A. degrees. He served in the 8th Army intelligence in North Africa and Italy during the latter part of the Second World War, before coming home to lecture at Stafford Technical College. After ten years of this, he committed himself to full-time writing. He wrote fifteen novels, including Sammy Going South, a book that was translated into a dozen languages and was made the Royal Command Film Performance of 1963. He was also a keen angler and wrote two highly regarded fishing books, as well as many articles for The Fishing Gazette. However, it is probably as a screenwriter that he is best remembered - The Ipcress File (starring a young Michael Caine in 1965) being amongst his credits, as well as TV series such as Brendon Chase and Dan, Badger and all the Coal. He died on 22nd May 1988, whilst still working on a film version of an earlier work, A Declaration of Independence.
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Roger Courtenay
Roger Courtenay is descended from a long line of Cornish fishermen and miners, so was naturally drawn to a career as an economist in the City of London. He divides his time between his home in London, and Cornwall, where he obsesses about the Cornish language and pretends to surf.
He has a first in economics from Cambridge University, a PhD in asset pricing theory, and is both a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh and member of the Cornish Language Board.
Frank Dickens
Frank Dickens was born in Hornsey, London 1932.
Dickens left school at sixteen and began working for his father, a painter-decorator. A self-taught artist, he began working as a cartoonist in 1959 and has since won eight 'Cartoonist of the Year' awards for his Bristow series. In 1971 he made an introduction into stage work and in 1999 adapted Bristow into a six-part series for BBC Radio 4. Dickens has also published twelve children's books and two thrillers.
Read MoreDavid Kerr Cameron
David Kerr Cameron was born in Aberdeenshire in 1928.
After National Service in the RAF he joined Kirriemuir Herald, a Scottish weekly, 1951. He worked at various newspapers and magazines, including the Farming Express, where he was managing editor.
In 1966 he joined the Daily Telegraph, where he was, in succession, a Features Sub-Editor, Chief Features Sub-Editor, Weekend section/Books section production Sub-Editor of both Sunday and daily pages, and finally Sub-Editor on Arts desk. He retired from the Daily Telegraph in 1993.
He never forgot the rigours of farming life in Aberdeenshire, which he wrote about with un-sentimental vividness in his books.
The Ballad and the Plough (1978), Willie Gavin, Crofter Man (1980), and The Cornkister Days (1984), all of which won Scottish Arts Council Awards, gave the social history of the North-East a readability that drew comparisons with the work of the late John Prebble.
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Patrick MacGill
Patrick MacGill was born in Glenties, County Donegal, Ireland in 1889. He was a journalist, novelist & poet, known as ‘The Navvy Poet.
During WW1 he served with the London Irish Rifles, and was wounded at the Battle of Loos in 1915.
He moved to Florida, where he passed away on 22 November 1963.
His works include: Children of the Dead End, The Rat-Pit, The Amateur Army, The Red Horizon, The Great Push, The Brown Brethren, The Dough-Boys, The Diggers: The Australians in France, foreword by W. M. Hughes, Australian PM, Glenmornan, Maureen, Fear!, Lanty Hanlon: A Comedy of Irish Life, Moleskin Joe , The Carpenter of Orra, Sid Puddiefoot, Una Cassidy, Tulliver’s Mill, The Glen of Carr, The House at the World's End, Helen Spenser
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