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Max has lived in Hong Kong and China for more than 15 years and is fluent in Russian, Polish, Mandarin and French. He has worked in international business for many years as a commodity trader, an investment banker, and an entrepreneur. In 2018, he set up his own company, MJ Capital, which specialises in cross-border M&A deals in emerging markets.

Max’s spirit of adventure led him to spend two months in China, travelling across the country with his father Stanley Johnson, filming In the Footsteps of Marco Polo – a 4- part documentary series following Marco Polo’s route across China. In the series, for international distribution, Max interviewed contributors, presented pieces to camera (scripted and unscripted) and gained experience of working on a large overseas production.

Max’s first appearance on camera was as a child actor in Julian Fellowes’ BBC production of The Prince and the Pauper and he still has a love of acting.

A keen runner, Max completed the Pyongyang Marathon and also has a black belt in Taekwondo.

Professor Ben Garrod is an academic, author, and broadcaster. He is a multi-disciplinary scientist, with a focus spanning evolution, zoology, and conservation. Ben is an award-winning broadcaster, presenting and co-presenting a wide range of television and radio science documentaries and series, and has written numerous Children’s books, with a mission to inspire young readers to be passionate, inquisitive, and confident about science.

Ben is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at The University of East Anglia, in Norwich. He has a master’s degree in Wild Animal Biology from the Royal Veterinary College, London, and his PhD at UCL, ‘Primates of the Caribbean’, focused on studying the early stages of speciation in island-living monkeys through molecular and anatomical changes.

In 2014, Ben presented his first TV documentary, with the award-winning BBC4 series Secrets of Bones. Since then, he has presented a wide range of science and wildlife documentaries and series, including Secrets of Skin (2019) and Baby Chimp Rescue (2020). He has worked alongside Prof. Alice Roberts, presenting The Day the Dinosaurs Died (2017), and with Prof. Danielle George in the series Hyper-evolution: the Rise of Robots (2017). He also co-presented Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur (2016) and Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard (2021) alongside Sir David Attenborough. Ben has also presented several segments for The One Show.

Across radio and other digital audio platforms, Ben has fronted various series and stand-alone documentaries, including A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs and A Grown-Up Guide to Oceans (both for Audible Original), and a whole host of BBC Radio 4 projects, including Super Senses, Bone Stories, and The Human Hive, alongside three series of the hugely successful anatomy series Wild Inside with veterinarian and broadcaster Dr. Jess French. He has also been featured on A Life Scientific and has guest presented on BBC Inside Science.

Ben grew up on the Norfolk coast and, from a very early age, was fascinated by the natural world, juggling a love for local wildlife with a desire to work in tropical biology. Ben is an accomplished field biologist and has, over the last twenty years, lived and worked all over the world, studying primates in the field. Destinations have included: Uganda, Madagascar, Gabon, Liberia, Cameroon, with chimpanzees, gorillas, and lemurs; in Indonesia, working with critically endangered Sumatran orangutans; and across various Caribbean islands researching introduced green monkeys.

Additionally, his work has included investigating archaeological animal remains in Chinese Imperial tombs, assisting in anatomical assessments of stranded sperm whales, and excavating some of the largest dinosaur remains ever discovered, in Argentina.

Ben is a prolific author and loves to write for children and young adults. He has written about his work with great apes in The Chimpanzee and Me and has written two eight-part, non-fiction series: Ultimate Dinosaurs and Extinct – the story of life on Earth. Ben’s first children’s fiction series, The Adventures of a Dog Called Jack-Jack, features his own dog, who grew up in Africa helping orphaned chimpanzees, but now enjoys coffee shops and croissants.

Ben represents numerous charities close to his heart, in a range of different capacities. He is Patron for the British Hen Welfare Trust, a Patron for Humanists UK, President for the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society, Vice President for the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Patron for the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA), Ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society, Patron for the Youth STEMM Award, and a Patron for the Norwich Science Festival.

Ben is an experienced public speaker and educator. He has appeared at numerous festivals (including the Hay Literary Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, the NI Science Festival, and the Norwich Science Festival), hosted several charity events, and has given various corporate talks.

Ben is a keen trail and ultra-marathon runner, but still enjoys a good Park Run and a slow dog walk near his Norfolk home, too.

Nina Hossain is an award-winning journalist with 30 years of broadcasting experience.

Nina is the lead presenter of ITV Lunchtime News and presents News at Ten.

Her career has seen her present coverage of all the major news stories of her time, including the death and funeral of HRH The Queen, the Coronation of King Charles, and the last two major Royal Weddings.

Since 2015 she has presented for every general election’s overnight programme, and fronted special programmes and podcasts on a range of stories including politics, terror attacks, the Grenfell Tower fire, the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine.

She has won two personal RTS awards for her presenting, and three Programme of the Year awards while fronting ITV Evening News and ITV News London.

Her favourite story to cover was the 2012 Olympics, as she felt it was an opportunity to bring viewers a reason to celebrate, night after night.

She enjoys presenting from the studio, but much prefers being on an outside broadcast.

When not writing and fronting daily news, she’s equally comfortable on stage, and has a wealth of experience hosting conferences and awards ceremonies. Recently Nina has hosted The Press Awards, the Chartered IIA Audit & Risk Awards, Sheffield DocFest, and the NASC Conference and Exhibition.

She loves facilitating ‘in conversations’, especially with creatives, and enjoys hosting press conferences for ITV or the BFI for big dramas like Broadchurch, Breathtaking and Litvinenko.

Nina was born in Huddersfield, is a Durham graduate, has three children, and is autistic.

Her professional passions are advocating for mental health & equality.  Her personal interests are travelling, music and snowboarding.

Michael is a Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick, author and broadcaster. He currently also serves as the Pro Vice Chancellor for International Affairs at the University of Warwick.

Most recently, Michael has contributed to documentaries for Chinese television (When Socrates Met Confucius made by Lion TV for JSBC, China); German television (Ancient Greece – The Dark Chronicles made by Gruppe 5 for ZDF); US television (The Colosseum made by Blink Films for PBS and Great Books made by 1895 films); and a variety of other UK and international channels (e.g. Sex-A Bonkers History with Amanda Holden for Sky History; Inside Culture with Mary Beard for BBC2 and A New History of Christianity for BBC1).  He has also been a regular contributor on hit History podcast shows including You’re Dead to Me (including their first ever UK live tour), History Hit and Natalie Haynes Stands Up For the Classics; as well as a sought-after speaker at History and Literature festivals and corporate speaking events.

Michael wrote and presented the BBC2 series Ancient Invisible Cities: Cairo, Athens, and Istanbul which transmitted in autumn 2018. In the programme, Michael explores hidden parts of these cities, sometimes abseiling, diving and caving to access locations, some of which have never been seen on TV.

Michael worked with a team of 3D laser scanners bringing these locations to life in Virtual Reality, taking viewers on a journey through the history and development of these cities like never before. The Daily Express review wrote “This is properly exciting state of the art History TV”.

This was the third instalment in the Invisible Cities series, following Michael’s discoveries (co-presented with Xander Armstrong) in Italy’s Invisible Cities: Venice, Naples, Florence (BBC1 – 2017) and Rome’s Invisible City (BBC1 – 2015).

In addition, Michael has written and presented over 20 other documentaries for the BBC and for ITV, National Geographic and SBS, Australia dating back to 2010.

He presented a two-part series for BBC2 on the history of Sicily, Sicily: The Wonder of the Mediterranean, uncovering the Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Arab, and Norman influences on the island, as well as tackling its on-going Mafia problems and its new role in the front-line facing mass migration from Libya.

For SBS Australia he wrote and presented a four-part series This is Greece, taking viewers to some of his favourite locations across the Greek mainland and islands, exploring their history and modern culture.

On Radio Michael wrote and presented two series of Spin the Globe for Radio 4, in which he took dates made famous by particular events in one part of the world and explored what else was happening around the world at that time.

Michael co-presented Roman Britain from the Air for ITV, in which he and Christine Bleakley discovered how the Romans conquered and lived in Britain, as well as how they continue to influence our country today.

Michael wrote and presented, as well as co-produced, through his production company Nostos Productions Ltd, a three-part series for BBC4 called The Greatest Show on Earth: Ancient Greek Theatre, in conjunction with the Open University.

He wrote and presented a two-part series, Guilty Pleasures, on the history of luxury in the ancient and medieval worlds for BBC4, along with a documentary on Delphi, Delphi: The Bellybutton of the Ancient World for BBC4.

In the same year, he also wrote and presented the two-part series for BBC2 Who Were the Greeks, exploring the nature and influence of the ancient Greek world.

In 2012, he presented a documentary for BBC2, investigating an unusual ancient mass burial event discovered under the streets of Rome in The Mystery of Rome’s X-Tombs, working with French and German scholars using cutting-edge technology to uncover the identities of the dead and the cause of their death.

On National Geographic Michael presented a three-part series about the development of Christianity within the Roman world.

Michael is the youngest Professor appointed by the Faculty of Arts at Warwick University. He has also won the UK’s highest award for university level teaching – a National Teaching Fellowship – and has won numerous national and university awards for his teaching as well as for his work in outreach and widening participation. In 2017-18, he won a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to study ancient global interaction. In 2021 he was awarded the Classical Association Prize; in 2022 he was named the International Lego Classicist of the Year; and in 2023 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) at the University of Warwick, where he leads all of the Institution’s international activities.

His research interests span the ancient Greek and Roman worlds (about which he has published several academic and trade books), and the Silk Roads in antiquity (the subject of his book Ancient Worlds). His most recent publication is Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind (2026), which examines the life of the Athenian statesman.

In 2015, he was made an honorary citizen of Delphi, Greece in recognition of both his scholarly and engagement work focused on the city and sanctuary. He is also President of Lytham Saint Annes Classical Association, the largest branch of the Classical Association in the country. He is passionately committed to ensuring access to the study of the ancient world for all and has succeeded in attracting funding for the Warwick Classics Network, a project he directs in conjunction with national Charity Classics for All, working with schools across the Midlands.

He writes regularly for national and international newspapers and magazines, and has taught in the UK, US, Brazil, China and Greece.

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Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe was the most senior police officer in the UK. As Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (from 2011 to 2017), he led the Metropolitan Police, an organisation of nearly 50,000 people with a budget of £3.2 billion. He reported directly to the Home Secretary, was supervised by parliamentary committees and had national responsibilities, including leading counter terrorism policing throughout the UK and protecting the Royal Family and senior members of the government both at home and abroad.

He has used his expertise to report for Dispatches on Channel 4. In 2018, he presented Dispatches – Cannabis: Time to End the Ban?. In the programme, Bernard travelled to Colorado, to investigate whether the UK should follow in Colorado’s footsteps and legalise cannabis. After filming, Bernard called for the UK government to establish an expert commission to examine the evidence provided by the programme.

In 2019, he presented Dispatches – Britain’s Knife Crime Crisis: Young, Armed and Dangerous. In the programme, Bernard came face to face with a masked gang member carrying a blade.

Bernard continues to make regular appearances on television (ITV, Sky), radio (LBC), and podcasts.

Bernard’s career has been characterised by high achievement, having successfully delivered numerous strategic objectives and efficiency improvements while holding weighty appointments with substantial responsibilities. He has a wealth of experience in creating cultural change as well as developing and implementing new strategies to transform corporate identities. He has built his success on the simple strategy of Total Policing. This involves a war on crime and care for victims.

During his five-year tenure as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and as Chief Constable of Merseyside he delivered significant reductions in crime. In London, 20% and Merseyside, 36%. In both regions he reduced the murder rates, in London by 25%. Despite a £600 million decrease in police budget, Bernard maintained police officer numbers in the capital – while the rest of England and Wales lost 20,000.

Bernard faced significant challenges when he took command in 2011. London had been rocked by large-scale riots only a month prior, and the organisation was in crisis, having lost half the management board. In spite of these, he planned and delivered a safe city, a safe Olympics and saved £600 million.

During the next five years, the national threat level was set at ‘severe’ and attacks occurred throughout Europe. In the UK, only one terrorist attack got through during his command. He has continued to build the UK police and Security Service partnership, which is recognised as the best in the world with its profound links to neighbourhood-based community policing.

Bernard has extensive experience of policing major public events. These include the successful 2012 Olympics Games, 2008 Liverpool European City of Culture, state visits, the state opening of parliament, many major sporting events, and multiple large-scale political protests on the streets of London.

Bernard was made a life peer in October 2017 and has since taken up his role as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.

Bernard enjoys horse riding and football – he plays five-a-side and supports Sheffield Wednesday. He also loves opera.

Broadcaster, journalist, author, conservationist – Stanley Johnnson’s achievements are numerous, traveling the world in pursuit of animal welfare and spearheading environmental projects. Stanley has had many books published and regularly writes for newspapers and magazines on a range of topics – from politics and travel to society at large. He appears frequently on television and radio, in news, current affairs and feature programmes. Stanley was part of the primetime BBC Two documentary A Week in the Wild, where three celebrities took on the iconic challenge of exploring Mexico’s famous Copper Canyon. He also featured in Channel 4’s recent series The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Growing Old.

Stanley was born in Cornwall in August 1940, and was educated at Ravenswood School, near Tiverton, Devon, Sherborne School, Dorset, and studied at Exeter College, Oxford, where he won a Stapeldon Scholarship in Classics. Since 1951 his family has farmed on Exmoor, and Stanley still manages the farm there today. He also has a home in London.

Upon leaving Oxford in 1963, Stanley was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to the United States. He is a former Conservative member of the European Parliament (MEP) where he served (1979-1984) as Vice Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection. He has also worked in the European Commission (1973-1979) as Head of the Prevention of Pollution division and (1984-1994) as Senior Adviser to DG Environment and as Director of Energy Policy. Before joining the Commission, Stanley served on the staff of the World Bank and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Stanley has been an adviser to Price Waterhouse Coopers, a director of ERM, an environmental consultancy, a trustee of the Earthwatch Institute and Plantlife International and an environmental adviser to Jupiter Asset Management. He is currently Honorary President of the Gorilla Organisation (www.gorillas.org) and an Ambassador for the United Nations Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) (http://www.cms.int/)

He has had eleven books published dealing with environmental issues, including the Politics of the Environment, the Earth Summit and the Environmental Policy of the European Communities. He has also had nine novels published, including The Commissioner which was made into a film starring John Hurt. Stanley’s book, Where the Wild Things Were, is a collection of travel and environmental journalism.

The first volume of his memoir, Stanley I Presume, was published to critical acclaim (‘hilarious and rip-roaring’) in 2009.  The second volume, Stanley I Resume: further

In 1984 he was awarded the Greenpeace Prize for Outstanding Services to the Environment, and in the same year the RSPCA Richard Martin award for services to animal welfare. In 2014, he received the WWF Silver Medal, and in 2015 he also received the RSPB Medal and WWF-International’s Leader of the Living Planet Award for his work on the EU Habitats Directive and Natura 2000, the Europe-wide network of protected areas. In 1962 he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry.

Stanley has four children by his first marriage to the painter Charlotte Johnson-Wahl: Boris, Rachel, Leo and Joseph. He also has two children, Julia and Maximilian, by his second marriage to Jennifer.

Dr Julian Richards is an archaeologist with over 40 years’ experience in fieldwork and excavation and a writer and presenter on television and radio. An acknowledged expert on Stonehenge and Britain’s prehistoric past, Julian devised, researched and presented seven series of the popular Meet the Ancestors (BBC 2) and the five part Blood of the Vikings (BBC 2); for both of which he wrote accompanying books. He also presented six series of Mapping the Town on Radio 4 and designed the award-winning Hunt the Ancestor game for the BBC History website.

Julian also presented a four-part series, Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited which aired on BBC4.

Julian has published several works about Stonehenge – Stonehenge: The Story So Far, was published in 2007; this was preceded by Stonehenge: A History in Photographs (2004) and the children’s book The Amazing Pop-up Stonehenge (2005).

Julian lives in Dorset where he maintains his particular interests in Stonehenge, the history of ceramics and old cars.

Julian is also an experienced and entertaining public speaker; from after-dinner events (his life in archaeology is summed up in ‘A career in ruins’), to Science or History Festivals and traditional lectures. His credits include lecturing for the Arts Society and speaking at Tewkesbury History Festival.

John Dickie is Professor of Italian Studies at University College London. He is the author of several books, including the best-sellers Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia (2004) which sold over a million copies and was translated into 21 languages, and Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and their Food (2007) which was translated into 10 languages and won several prizes. He has written extensively on diverse aspects of Italian history, including natural disasters, national identity, the Catholic church, and bandits. He has a high public profile in Italy, particularly as an expert on organized crime and Italian food.

John presented The Mafia’s Secret Bunkers for BBC Two in 2013. Since then, he has presented and co-written a trilogy of documentaries about the problems of the Catholic church: Holy Money (2014); The Cross and the Gun (2015); and Behind the Altar (2017). In 2016 his book Delizia! was adapted into a 6-part series for Italian television — Eating History or De Gustibus in Italy — presented and co-written by John. The series became History Channel Italia’s second most popular programme of the year.

John appears regularly on TV, radio and podcast to comment on his areas of expertise. He contributed to Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (CNN and BBC, 2022), and Ross Kemp: Mafia and Britain (Sky History, 2024), among many more.

In 2010 John judged the Pesto World Championships in Genoa. In 2017 he hosted the Barilla Pasta World Championships, held over three days in Milan and Parma. And 2021 he hosted the San Pellegrino Young Chef Academy, which won its category in the Italian Best Event Awards for that year.

In 2005, the President of the Italian Republic appointed John a Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana (Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity), an Italian Knighthood.

John’s latest book, The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World, was published in 2020 to overwhelmingly positive reviews.

John presents and writes in both English and Italian.

Mary-Ann is a familiar presence on national and international television and radio, presenting for networks including the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery, National Geographic and Smithsonian. She has written and presented radio documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and hosted podcasts for Audible, Wiley and the BBC.

In January 2025 Mary-Ann presented Ancient Ways: The Ridgeway for History Hit, exploring what is widely known as Britain’s oldest road. She used her archaeological and science journalism expertise co-presenting the popular Smithsonian series Mystic Britain, got hands on with historic boats for BBC Two’s Britain Afloat, and walked in the footsteps of the ancients on the Ridgeway trail for BBC’s Countryfile. Mary-Ann presented Secrets of Stonehenge for English Heritage, is a regular on History Channel’s Ancient Top 10 and Ancient Impossible and was co-presenter on the penultimate series of cult archaeology show, Time Team. She co-hosted the sci-comm podcast, This Study Shows (Wiley), which ran for three seasons.

As an anthropologist, her empathy and insight into human behaviour and culture come to the fore. In 2022 she fronted the audio documentary Walking the Iron Curtain for the BBC World Service, discovering the legacy of the border for people and wildlife. For Living on the Roof of the World (Discovery Networks) Mary-Ann spent seven weeks filming with herders, farmers and pilgrims on the high Tibetan plateau. She was also part of the presenting team for Time of Xi (Discovery Asia), exploring the realities of life in modern China. For BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, she has investigated male circumcision (Why We Cut Men), the global sanitation scandal (A Dirty Secret), and met the military veterans using archaeology to recover their mental health (Open Country: Exercise Shallow Grave). Expedition documentaries for Animal Planet have taken her to the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone (Life After: Chernobyl), and to investigate real cases of extraordinary child survival in Fiji, Uganda and Ukraine (Raised Wild).

Trusted as a warm, informed and agile interviewer, Mary-Ann has chaired public events for museums and institutes including the Science Museum, British Museum and Royal Institution, and presented her own work at literary, science and culture festivals, including Chip Lit, How the Light Gets In and HistFest. She’s also in demand for corporate work, and offers specific expertise in equity, diversity and inclusion.

Mary-Ann’s fourth book, The Briefest History of Humanity was published in 2025 by Pan Macmillan. It explores the science of ourselves – from lowly origins, our species has been so wildly successful, we’ve inadvertently transformed the planet, both for ourselves and all other life on Earth. How did humans do it, was it inevitable, and what might the journey so far tell us about the road ahead?

Mary-Ann’s previous books have celebrated archaeology for a wide readership: Secret Britain profiles mysterious sites and artefacts from around the country; Hidden Histories: A Spotter’s Guide to the British Landscape, reveals the history of the countryside, with tips on identifying everything from burial mounds and ancient trails to historic pubs. It was shortlisted in the Current Archaeology Awards and selected as a New Statesman Book of the Year.

Mary-Ann regularly previews the papers for Sky News, reports and presents for ITN Business, has contributed to BBC News and BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. She writes a regularly for TGO magazine and often is commissioned for features by publications including The Telegraph, The Guardian, Countryfile Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine and The Week Junior.

Mary-Ann is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Hill Walking Ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council. She is a trustee of the John Muir Trust, the wild places charity, a patron of the Ridgeway National Trail, and a patron of the Tony Trust, which gives bursaries to underprivileged children to access outdoor adventure. She’s also an ambassador for global sanitation charity Toilet Twinning. Mary-Ann also serves as a member of the Landscape Advisory Panel for Natural England, advising the government’s statutory body on access and equity issues, and people’s engagement with heritage.

Mary-Ann has a MA in Archaeology & Anthropology from The University of Cambridge. She is an experienced cold water UK scuba diver, enthusiastic horse rider and keen walker, passionate about encouraging more people to get outside and reconnect with natural places. She was proud to be shortlisted for Outdoor Personality of the Year in the TGO Magazine Reader Awards in 2021. Mary-Ann is a qualified Mental Health First Aider.

Julia Somerville is a consumer affairs journalist. She currently co-presents the successful flagship consumer series Rip Off Britain on BBC One. She also presented Rip Off Britain’s spin off series Food, Holidays and Rip Off Britain: LIVE.

Julia Somerville began her career in broadcasting when she joined the BBC in 1972 as a sub-editor in the Radio Newsroom. She became a chief-sub and then a reporter and was made Labour Affairs Correspondent in 1981. In 1983 she was recruited by BBC Television News to present the Nine O’clock News.

In 1987 Julia joined ITN. During the next 14 years she presented News at Ten, the Lunchtime News and was part of the launch of the ITN News Channel. She left ITN in 2001.

In 2010, Julia re-joined the BBC and began working on Rip Off Britain in 2011. In 2017, she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef (BBC One).

Julia has had a has a lifelong passion for painting. She is currently Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Government Art Collection. She has served on several judging panels for art and architecture awards, such as the Royal Institute of British Architects Annual Architecture Award Panels.

In 2013, she was appointed OBE for services to art.

Dr Anjana Khatwa is an Earth Scientist specialising in bringing stories about the origins and formation of natural landscapes to life for a wide range of audiences.

Anjana appeared as a ‘super-contributor’ on BBC Four’s three-part series, Beach Live, where she was the show’s resident Geology expert, engaging audiences with her insight and knowledge about geology and fossils. She has also appeared several times on ITV’s This Morning and Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh; My Cornwall with Fern Britton and Lighthouses: Building the Impossible both on Channel 5; Villages by the Sea for BBC Two; and Britain’s Novel Landscapes for Channel 4.

Anjana has appeared as a regular expert contributor on many natural history programmes such as BBC Two’s Fossil Detectives, The History Channel’s How the Earth was made, ITV1’s Treasures of Britain and Treasures of the Earth for PBS.

She is an established expert in learning, engagement and inclusion within natural heritage, museums and the geosciences with multiple publications and articles in leading journals and popular magazines such as Nature Geoscience and BBC Wildlife. In November 2021, Anjana was longlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize, a biennial literary prize for nature writing. In 2023, she was selected as a judge for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for nature writing. In 2025, Anjana published her debut book, The Whispers of Rock, a global story of how rocks have not only shaped our world but also our lives.

Anjana has won multiple awards over her stellar career in the geosciences including the Royal Geographical Society Geographical Award, the RH Worth Medal by the Geological Society of London and the prestigious Halstead Medal from the Geologists’ Association. In 2020, she won a National Diversity Award as a Positive Role Model for Race, Faith and Religion.

Born and bred in Slough, Anjana had a humble upbringing in an urban environment but grew to love the natural world through holidays to places such as Kenya, which is where her family originate from. Anjana has a BSc. in Earth Science and a Ph.D. in Geography where she specialised in glacial geology. Her diverse background and voice bring a unique perspective to her work.

An experienced, passionate and inspiring public speaker, Anjana delivers lectures and speeches that are witty, light and insightful. She is in particular demand for her thought-provoking lectures about the role of women and minorities in science, careers in the geosciences and new perspectives on understanding the geological sciences.

Anjana lives in Dorset with her husband and their three children. She enjoys an active lifestyle which includes running, swimming and exploring the countryside. Her favourite pastime is hunting for rocks and fossils along the Jurassic Coast.

Her website is www.anjanakhatwa.com

Alice Loxton is a historian, writer and presenter. She has been described by Dan Snow as “the star of her generation” and “the next big thing in history”.

She has worked with many organisations to bring history to mainstream audiences. Alice shares her love of history via her social media channels, particularly via Instagram, where she has over 1.8 million followers (@history_alice). She has worked with many heritage groups and corporate clients to create social media history content including The National Trust, Trainline, Xbox, Sky, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Christie’s and The National Portrait Gallery.

Alice began presenting BBC’s Here for the History podcast in June of 2026, delving into the history of the stereotypes, social norms and traditions of everyday life. She has appeared on several history documentaries including Inside Buckingham Palace for Channel 5, Decoding Turner for Sky Arts and Queens That Changed the World for Channel 4. She also commented on the death and funeral of the late Queen and the coronation of King Charles II for BBC News, NBC News and Sunrise on Channel 7 Australia.

Alice presented numerous documentaries for History Hit alongside the likes of Dan Snow and Dan Cruickshank. These include The Secrets of Stourhead, Sissinghurst, Secrets of Shakespeare’s Stratford, The English Parish Church and Ada Lovelace.

She hosted the Historic Locations series on the History Hit YouTube channel, which explored the secrets of some of the greatest historic locations in Britain.

Alice is experienced at live events – hosting conversations, speaking on panels and giving talks. She has interviewed historians such as Peter Frankopan and Dan Jones, hosted at venues such as 10 Downing Street, The Victoria and Albert Museum and Chalke Valley History Festival.

Her debut bestselling history book, UPROAR!, released in 2023, shines a light on satirical printmakers of the late Georgian period. UPROAR! has enjoyed critical acclaim for combining scholarship with an engaging and accessible writing style (which in turn has introduced this subject to a much wider audience).

Alice’s second book Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives released in 2024 and explores Britain’s past through the lives of eighteen notable figures at the age of eighteen, offering a unique and witty perspective on history. The book was named Blackwell’s Book of the Year & Non-Fiction Book of the Year and is a Times Bestseller.

Alice’s third book, Eleanor: A 200 Mile Walk in Search of England’s Lost Queen, was published in 2025. Part travelogue, part history, Eleanor charts Alice’s 200-mile walk across the country following the Eleanor Crosses, revealing a powerful love story and capturing the rich tapestry of English heritage.

Alice also often writes articles and book reviews, including for The Spectator, The Times, The Telegraph and Tatler.

Louise Minchin is an award-winning author, journalist, accomplished broadcaster, interviewer and event host.

Currently Louise presents Rip Off Britain, the BBC’s leading consumer affairs programme and regularly appears as a presenter and consumer expert on Morning Live for BBC One. Louise presented the UK’s most watched morning programme, BBC Breakfast for 20 years, until 2021. Previously, she was a news anchor at the BBC, for both the News Channel and the One O’clock News. She has also presented The One Show, Five Live, Real Rescues and Missing Live. Louise has taken part in several reality TV shows including I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Time Crashers and Celebrity MasterChef, where she reached the final. Alongside her career in journalism, Louise is an endurance athlete who has competed in Norseman, the toughest triathlon in the world.

Her first book, Dare to Tri, follows her journey from the BBC Breakfast sofa to representing the Great Britain Triathlon team in her age-group at World and European Championships. Since leaving Breakfast, Louise has been concentrating on writing. Her book Fearless: Adventures with Extraordinary Women reflects her passion for celebrating women’s successes in sport and endeavour. In each chapter Louise takes on a different challenge with a courageous woman, to tell their incredible stories. Her debut thriller, Isolation Island – about a gruelling reality television show filming on a remote Scottish Island – was published in 2024.

Her second thriller, Last Breath, is about a free-diving world champion from Finland whose best friend has disappeared in mysterious circumstances. The novel was inspired by her own experience of free diving under ice in the dark, and it will be published on the 11th March 2027. It can be pre-ordered here.

She was Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023.