Welcome to Calibre Conversations, celebrating the best authors and the power of accessibility. You'll find in-depth author interviews every month throughout the National Year of Reading.

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Lucy Strange is a multi-award-winning children’s author. Lucy is best known for her critically acclaimed middle-grade novels which include The Island at the Edge of Night, Our Castle by the Sea and The Secret of Nightingale Wood.

She has written a collection of dyslexia-friendly novellas, including the award-winning ghost story The Boy at the Window, and historical tale The Storm and the Minotaur , which has recently been adapted for the stage. She is launching a mini-murder mystery series – The Mulberry Hall Murders – with Barrington Stoke in July this year. 

This summer also sees the launch of Lucy’s first YA novel – Cut Him Out in Little Stars – a historical romance/mystery story set on the coast of Kent during the Second World War.

Ann is the author of 39 critically acclaimed novels, an international bestseller whose work has been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. In 2017 Ann was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the Crime Writer's Association Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV's The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide.

Beth O’Brien is an English Literature BA and Creative Writing MA graduate from the University of Birmingham. Work and leisure overlap a lot as reading, writing, and audio-booking are some of her favourite things to do.

Having been born visually impaired and with an upper-limb difference, Beth has a long-standing interest in the representation of disability in literature and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing funded by Midlands4Cities, researching the (mis)representation of disability in contemporary fairy tale retellings.

Beth’s debut middle grade book, Wolf Siren came out in 2025 with HarperCollins has been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Writing in 2026.  

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India and the upcoming Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise.

He is a previous winner of the Shamus Award in the US. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was translated into 16 languages. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels set in 1950s Bombay, won the CWA Historical Dagger and was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award. Vaseem lives in London and is the chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Matt Cain is a writer, broadcaster and leading commentator on LGBTQ+ issues. He’s a patron of LGBT+ History Month, has received an honorary doctorate from Bolton University, addressed the Cambridge Union, and in 2025 was awarded an MBE for services to LGBTQ+ culture. 

 
Matt’s bestselling novels include The Madonna Of Bolton, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle and One Love. His latest, The Castle of Stories, will be published in June 2026. 

Swapna Haddow, who also writes as ‘Swapna Reddy’, is the award-winning children’s author of the Dave Pigeon, Bad Panda and The Terrible Trio series. She loves writing about boisterous characters and madcap adventures and is working with Scholastic, Faber & Faber, HarperCollins, Magic Cat, Macmillan and Oxford University Press to bring stories to readers around the world, with her books currently translated into over thirty languages.

Ruth's debut novel, A Perfect Year?, was inspired by the round robin letters she receives every year and the stories they tell about our lives.

Sally is a multi-award-winning author and Carnegie Medal recipient. Sally has sold more than 3 million books worldwide.