Authors
Discover the authors appearing at the very first Market Harborough Literary Festival. From bestselling crime writers and award-winning novelists to poets, historians and emerging voices, our 2026 programme brings together an exciting range of literary talent.
Click on an author below to learn more about them, explore their work, and find out more about the events they’ll be appearing at during the festival.
E C Bateman
E C Bateman studied Art History at university before starting her career in the strange, wonderful world of antiques. Having made the questionable decision to marry an auctioneer, she moved to Stamford and dreamt up the idea for this series whilst living in a converted Georgian flat overlooking St. Mary’s Church in the heart of town. They’ve since decamped to the surrounding countryside with their two children, but can still be spotted around the cobbled streets on a regular basis, usually being dragged along by their effervescent cocker spaniel, Audrey.
“It may be the season of goodwill, but when auctioneer Felicia Grant finds herself in the frame for murder, suddenly life doesn’t feel so festive….”
A brilliant new whodunnit from fan favourite E C Bateman, perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton and Richard Osman!
Belinda Campbell
Belinda Campbell was raised in Coventry, England. She currently lives in Leicestershire with her partner and a long-haired tabby cat, Goose. She graduated from De Montfort University in 2021 with a BA in Creative Writing.
When Belinda isn’t writing, she can be found on her sofa with her face buried in a book, all the while daydreaming about her next project.
Something Wicked is the first book in the Something Wicked duology. It follows 16-year-old Darryl Hadley, who moves to her estranged and recently deceased grandmother's countryside manor. She expects nothing more than a boring summer, but soon begins to uncover dark secrets about her family's past. On the night of a storm, Darryl discovers she is a witch and accidentally resurrects her grandmother in the process, as well as a dark force hungry for revenge on her family.
Manish Chauhan
Manish Chauhan hasn’t lived in Leicester – the place of his birth – for many years, but it’s a place that goes on living inside him. A kind of ocean that keeps offering up its pearls, its stories.
Belgrave Road is one such story. Set in the community that formed him, and amongst the people he most admires, who have lived many lives in search of home. A love letter to his beginnings, to a place he visits often, and to those wanting to make something of their lives the way he hopes to.
His short story Pieces was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, and his work has also been shortlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Exeter Short Story Competition. Belgrave Road is his debut novel.
Claire Fuller
Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written five previous novels including: Unsettled Ground, which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.
Hunger & Thirst is the new novel from Claire Fuller - an addictively propulsive, richly nuanced and haunting story of horrors without and within
1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job in the postroom of a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and—delightfully— some new friends, including wild-child, Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at The Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can’t resist the promise of a readymade, hodgepodge family.
But as Sue’s behaviour and demands become more extreme, Ursula who has always been hungry—for food—and more importantly for love, acceptance and belonging, carries out her friend’s terrible dare. It's a decision that will haunt her for decades.
Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned, reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when her identity is exposed by true-crime documentary-maker who is digging into an unsolved disappearance. But it is not only the filmmaker who has discovered Ursula’s whereabouts, and as her past catches up with her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without.
From critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Claire Fuller, Hunger and Thirst is a compelling and chilling tale of loneliness and female friendship, of the dangerous line between wanting and needing, and of how far a person will go to truly belong.
Janice Hallett
Bestselling crime writer Janice Hallett is the author of six Sunday Times bestselling novels, including The Appeal, The Twyford Code and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. Known for her inventive storytelling style and twist-filled mysteries, her books have earned widespread acclaim, with critics describing her as “the queen of tricksy crime” and “Agatha Christie for the 21st century.”
Janice will be appearing at the Market Harborough Literary Festival to discuss her brand-new novel, The Silent Appeal, the highly anticipated sequel to her smash-hit debut The Appeal. Set once again amongst the chaos of the Fairway Players amateur dramatics society, the novel follows lawyers Charlotte and Femi as they investigate another mysterious murder hidden amongst emails, texts and police reports.
Before becoming a novelist, Janice worked as a magazine editor, journalist and government communications writer. She now lives in West London and continues to captivate readers with her clever, immersive and completely addictive crime fiction.
Louise Jensen
Louise Jensen has sold approaching 2 million copies of her International No. 1 psychological thrillers ‘The Sister’, ‘The Gift’, ‘The Surrogate’, ‘The Date’, ‘The Family’, ‘The Stolen Sisters’, ‘All For You’, ‘The Fall’, 'The Intruders' & 'The Liar'. Her novels have also been translated into twenty-five languages and are for sale in over thirty territories. Louise's books have been featured on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s List and have been optioned for TV and film.
Louise’s books have been nominated for various awards including, the Goodreads Debut Award, The Guardian’s ‘Not the Booker’ prize, best Polish thriller of 2018. She has also been listed for two CWA (Crime Writing Association) Dagger Awards. Several of her titles have also been selected for Fern Britton’s and Karin Slaughter's Book Club.
When Louise isn’t writing thrillers, she turns her hand to penning love stories under the name Amelia Henley. Her first two novels, ‘The Life We Almost Had’ and ‘The Art of Loving You’ have both been international bestsellers. 'From Now On' is out now.
Louise also writes short stories which have been featured in various publications including 'The Sun’, ‘Best’ and 'Hello' magazine. She has a monthly fictional column in 'My Weekly'.
Louise’s latest thriller ‘The Liar’ is out now and her next is due to be published in Spring 2026.
Carolyn Kirby
Carolyn Kirby is a British historical novelist best known for her novels The Conviction of Cora Burns, When We Fall and Ravenglass. Her writing often combines historical settings with strong emotional storytelling and themes around identity, conflict, and human nature.
Carolyn’s new novel Ravenglass is an adventure in gender identity and a dark family mystery set at the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s 1745 rebellion.
In 18th Century Whitehaven, Kit Ravenglass grows up in a house of secrets. A shameful mystery surrounds his mother’s death, and his formidable, newly rich father is gambling everything on shipping ventures. Kit takes solace in his beloved sister Fliss and in her sumptuous silks, although he knows better than to reveal his delight in feminine fashion. As the family’s debts mount, Kit’s father turns to the transatlantic slave trade – a ruthless and bloody traffic to which more than a fortune might be lost.
Adventures will see Kit turn fugitive and begin living as ‘Stella,’ before being swept into the heady violence of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion. Driven by love, revenge and a desire to live truly and freely, Kit must find a way to survive these turbulent times - and to unravel the tragic secrets of the Ravenglass family.
Charles G. Lauder, Jr
Charles G. Lauder, Jr, was born & raised in Texas, and has lived in the UK for over twenty-five years. His poems have been published widely, both in print and online. His work has been commended twice, in 2018 and 2024, for the Prole Laureate Poetry Competition, and in 2022 he was shortlisted for the Gingko Prize, Best Poem of Landscape Category. His debut collection of poetry, The Aesthetics of Breath, was published in 2019 by V.Press. He is also the author of three pamphlets, the latest of which is Year of the Rat, published by Blueprint Poetry Press in 2025.
Marisa Linton
Marisa Linton is a Brighton-based professor of history and the author of several books of history and fiction. She specialises in the history of witchcraft and magical beliefs, folklore and popular culture, revolution and terror. She has worked as a historical adviser, including for the TV series, Dangerous Liaisons (Starz/Lionsgate, 2022), has published several books of historical non-fiction, including Choosing Terror (Oxford University Press, 2013) and co- wrote Terror: the French Revolution and its Demons (Polity Press, 2021), a study of ‘the Terror’ in the French Revolution. In 2023, Marisa won the prestigious The Times/Chicken House Prize for her first novel. A young adult tale of folk horror, The Binding Spell.
‘Circle of Shadows is everything I want from dark academia – the cruelty and capriciousness of the elite; a tangled web of secret histories and utterly immersive occult folklore; and all the cleverness of a Golden Age detective story set in Edwardian England. Absolutely brilliant.’
- Susan J. Morris, author of Strange Beasts.
Simon Mason
Simon Mason has pursued parallel careers as a publisher and an author, whose YA crime novels Running Girl, Kid Got Shot and Hey, Sherlock! feature the sixteen-year-old slacker genius Garvie Smith. A former Managing Director of David Fickling Books, where he worked with many wonderful writers, including Philip Pullman, he has also taught at Oxford Brookes University and hasbeen a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford. Lost and Never Found is the third book in the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries. The first, A Killing in November, received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. The second, The Broken Afternoon, was a Times Audio Book of the Week and a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month. A Voice in the Night was a Guardian, Express, Financial Times and The Critic Book of the Year.
The Dangerous Stranger is The blistering fifth book in the Oxford-set DI Wilkins Mysteries, featuring notorious oddball duo Ryan and Ray.
“I am absolutely hooked. Ryan Wilkins is a most extraordinary creation. There has never been a detective like him. Mason writes quite magnificently. Add to that brilliant plotting and character drawing that Le Carré would be proud off... well, this is absolutely first class” - Stephen Fry
Kia Matanky-Becker
Kia Matanky-Becker, originally from Great Oxendon and now living and working in London, is a spoken word poet, performance artist, and the co-director of Queer Noise, a creative collective hosting regular poetry events, festivals, and gallery takeovers platforming LGBTQ+ artists.
Kia’s poetry has been published by T`Art Press and they were awarded second place in The Poetry Society’s Collaboration Award. Their recent performances include, Summer in the Ditch Festival Shoreditch, Out of Frame at Dulwich Picture Gallery and Glastonbury Festival 2025.
D.A. Prince
D.A. Prince lives in Leicestershire and London. Her second full-length collection (Common Ground, HappenStance, 2014) won the East Midlands Book Award 2015. Her third collection, The Bigger Picture (also from HappenStance) was published in 2022. A pamphlet, Continuous Present, was published by New Walk Editions in 2025.
Since 2008 D.A. Prince has published three collections with HappenStance Press. The second, Common Ground, won the East Midlands Book Award in 2015. The third, The Bigger Picture, appeared in 2022 and includes one poem, ‘The Window’, which was Highly Commended in the Forward Anthology for 2020. Her most recent pamphlet is Continuous Present (New Walk, 2025). Her poems have also made less conventional appearances: as bookmarks for Leicestershire libraries, on posters on the Longbenton Metro station in Newcastle, and even, handwritten, on biscuit wrappers as part of the Wrapper Rhymes installation at StAnza in 2020. She reviews contemporary poetry for London Grip, The Friday Poem and Orbis among other literary magazines.
Tim Relf
Tim Relf’s work has been published in most of the UK’s leading poetry journals. Based near Market Harborough, he is a former poet-in-residence at Leicester Botanic Garden. He also writes fiction and his most recent novel, published by Penguin, has been translated into 20 languages.
Jayne Stanton
Jayne Stanton’s poems have appeared in print and online literary magazines and poetry anthologies. Her first pamphlet, Beyond the Tune, was published by Soundswrite Press in 2014. She has written commissions for Harborough Museum, University of Leicester’s Centre for New Writing, UoL poems for International Women’s Day 2018, and a Leicester city residency. Jayne runs Soundswrite, an East Midlands network for women who are enthusiastic about all aspects of poetry. Her latest pamphlet, Have they marked you with arrows? (2025) was joint winner of the Poetry Space Prize 2024.
Pam Thompson
Pam Thompson is a writer, educator and reviewer based in Leicester. She is a Hawthornden Fellow. Her works include The Japan Quiz (Redbeck Press, 2009) and Show Date and Time, (Smith|Doorstop, 2006). Her collection, Strange Fashion, was published by Pindrop Press in 2017. Pam was winner of the 2023 Paper Swans Pamphlet Competition and her winning pamphlet, Sub/urban Legends (Paper Swans Press) was published in March 2025.