Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an Irish mother, who was a childminder and foster carer and a Caribbean father. She worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, was a magistrate for several years and sits on adoption panels. She used to advise Social Services on the care of foster children, and has written training manuals on adoption, foster care and judgecraft for members of the judiciary. Her writing has received numerous awards including the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2014 and 2015 and the SI Leeds Literary Reader's Choice Prize 2014 and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. My Name is Leon, her first novel was published in 2016 and shortlisted for the Costa Book Award

Clodagh Finn is a journalist and author of Through Her Eyes: A New History of Ireland in 21 Women and A Time to Risk All: The Incredible Untold Story of Mary Elmes, the Irish Woman who Saved Hundreds of Children from Nazi Concentration Camps. She is an Irish Examiner columnist and is particularly interested in writing about overlooked women from history.