Mariano Epelbaum is a character designer, illustrator and traditional 2D animator. He has been working professionally since 1996 in various disciplines of animation and illustration.

Jazlyn Alcaide is a non-binary Filipino-American artist. They studied Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York and enjoy breathing life into fantastical, mythical worlds through character design, concept art and visual development.

José R Ibáñez is a self-taught digital illustrator from Madrid. His artwork is fuelled by mystery and magic.

Lena Addink is a self-taught illustrator from Germany, based in the Netherlands. Her work is infused with a passion for fantastical adventures and inspired by the beauty of nature, thoughts and dreams. Lena's illustrations are rich in detail, texture and colour, creating immersive and enchanting scenes that draw viewers into their own narrative.

Melanie Reynard is a fantasy writer, who was shortlisted for the Future Worlds 2023 Prize for Fantasy & Science Fiction Writers of Colour.

Narano is known for producing illustrations with gentle and touching themes. After working as a nursery teacher in Taiwan, she embarked on an illustration career in 2020. She specializes in book cover art, manga production, music video animation, and corporate web and poster illustration creation. She has over 100K Instagram followers @nara_lalana.

Dr Afrosa Ahmed MBBS, MRCGP, DCH is a medical doctor and mindfulness coach. She has been a practising GP within the NHS and private practice for over twenty years, since graduating as a doctor from King’s College London. She also sees patients in the prestigious Harley Street area in London. In addition, she specialises in mindfulness and has taught Mindfulness and Health at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She obtained her mindfulness qualifications from the UK College of Mindfulness Meditation and has knowledge in both Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which is approved by the British Psychological Society. She is also an accredited teacher on the Mindfulness Teachers Register.

She launched MindfulDoc in 2020, a life-coaching programme which works alongside medical and healthcare colleagues to incorporate medical history into a bespoke wellbeing programme. She also teaches mindfulness to medical students across the country. She has taught at universities including UCL and King’s College London. As one of the few specialists in this area, she is often approached to provide insight into medicine and mindfulness, delivering lectures to Medical Consultants, junior doctors, and nurses. She has written several articles in the UK and the USA.

Based in Northamptonshire, Andrew Mikolajski is the author of over forty gardening titles, sold internationally. Recent works include books on orchids, houseplants, and permaculture. He has also contributed to many RHS reference works and was a consultant on the latest revision of the RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening (DK). He has taught garden design and RHS certificate at Warwickshire College, and garden history at the English Gardening School at Chelsea Physic Garden. He leads garden tours and gardening masterclasses at Lamport Hall (home of the garden gnome) in Northamptonshire as well as speaking to garden clubs and societies across a large area of England. Andrew is also an RHS judge.

Laura Jayne Ayres is a puzzle writer and researcher. After studying Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, she worked as a playwright before joining Dr Gareth Moore’s puzzle team. Books that she has worked on include Hacked: The Cyber Crime Puzzle Book, The Great British Puzzle Book, The Perfect Crime Puzzle Book, The Nautical Puzzle Book and The Ordnance Survey Kids’ Adventure Book.

Dr Jade Scott is a historian specializing in Mary Queen of Scots and an expert on her letters. She is a lecturer in historical linguistics at the University of Glasgow and an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society, researching early modern Scottish women and their correspondence. Fascinated by Mary her entire life, Jade was reached out to by George Lasry of the DECRYPT Project to consult on the translations of Mary’s newly decoded letters, providing key contextual details and context on linguistic features. She lives in Glasgow.