The Booby Trap and Other Bits and Boobs (19 page)

Marian Keyes is a hugely successful Irish novelist, born in Limerick in 1963. She was brought up in a home where a lot of oral storytelling went on; however she studied law and accountancy. She finally started writing short stories in 1993 ‘out of the blue'. Marian is now published in thirty-three languages and has written articles for various magazines and other publications. Her novel
Anybody Out There
won the British Book Awards award for popular fiction and the inaugural Melissa Nathan prize for Comedy Romance.
This Charming Man
won the Irish Book award for popular fiction. In 2012, she published
Saved by Cake,
which combines recipes with autobiography, novel
The Mystery of Mercy Close
and ebook short,
Mammy Walsh's A–Z of the Walsh Family
.

Having left her home town of Dublin at 17, Radio 1's Queen of Dance Annie Mac has spent the last decade carving out a career as a tastemaker, talent-finder and international DJ.

Annie currently hosts the prestigious Friday night 7–9pm slot on Radio 1, helping the nation to start the weekend. She also presents the 10pm–midnight Radio 1 show on Sunday evenings.

She is also known for championing cutting-edge new artists and DJs through her own brand ‘Annie Mac Presents'.

AMP, which started out as a club night at Fabric in London, now hosts stellar line-ups personally curated by Annie on international stages, tents at major festivals and club nights throughout the UK. The Annie Mac Presents compilation is one of the biggest albums in the dance music calendar each year.

Her TV work has included presenting the music series
Sound
for BBC Two as well as fronting the iTunes Festival and Ibiza Rocks for Channel 4.

Sarra Manning has been a fashion, lifestyle and entertainment journalist for over fifteen years. Her writing career started on the music paper
Melody Maker
and involved a long stint on the legendary teen mag
J17.
She then worked on the launch of and edited
Elle Girl
and
What To Wear
, as well as consulting on a number of magazines including
The Face
,
Look
and
More
. Sarra also writes for
Grazia
,
Red
,
The Guardian
,
Stylist
,
Fabulous
,
Stella
,
You Magazine
, and
InStyle
.

Her first adult novel,
Unsticky
, was
Heat
magazine's book of the week. Her other adult novels are
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
and
Nine Uses For An Ex-Boyfriend
. Sarra is also the queen of UK YA fiction. Her bestselling teen novels include
Adorkable,
Guitar Girl, Let's Get Lost
and the iconic
Diary Of A Crush
trilogy. Sarra has both an adult novel
It Felt Like A Kiss
and a YA title,
The Worst Girlfriend In The World
set for publication in 2014.

Sarra lives in North London with her beloved Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Miss Betsy, and prides herself on her unique ability to accessorise.

Julie Mayhew is an actress-turned-writer who still acts but mostly writes. She is author of the novel
Red Ink
(Hot Key Books), which features the character Melon from her story; was nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award for her most recent radio play,
A Shoebox Of Snow
; and is co-founder and host of quarterly short story event The Berko Speakeasy.

Davina McCall was born in London in 1967 and currently hosts hit series
The Million Pound Drop
,
Long Lost Family
and
Stepping Out
. In addition, Davina has been the face (and hair) for the L'Oréal brands Garnier and Nutrisse for the past ten years and is currently the UK's Number 1 fitness DVD franchise. Davina also starred in the BBC documentary
Let's Talk Sex
, looking at how sex education is taught in Britain, and hosted all eleven series of
Big Brother
for Channel 4.

In October 2012, Davina, along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Carr, Dr Christian and Cancer Research UK, launched the UK's version of the epic US charity fundraising show Stand Up to Cancer, hosting over six hours of TV for Channel 4 and raising £7million … and counting! She is also an active supporter and campaigner for the charities Focus 12 and Action Medical Research.

Sarah Millican has fast established herself as a household name since winning the 2008 if.comedy Best Newcomer Award (formerly the Perrier Award) for her debut solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Crowned The People's Choice: Queen of Comedy at the 2011 British Comedy Awards, Sarah has completed two sell-out national tours, playing to over 200,000 people, and she will embark on her third tour in the autumn of 2013, performing over 140 dates across the UK. Sarah's debut DVD,
Chatterbox Live,
became the biggest selling stand-up DVD by a female comedian of all time.

This year, Sarah was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance for her own series on BBC Two,
The Sarah Millican Television Programme
. The show combines stand-up inspired by what she has seen on TV as well as unique interviews with television stars who have impressed her. Filming has just wrapped on the third series. Other TV appearances include
QI
,
Live at the Apollo, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
and
The Graham Norton Show
.

SiMitchell is a professional artist from the UK. He loves cartoons, punk music, his lady and his cat! He also loves to draw and spray paint silly things. He has been producing artwork for clients such as Green Day, The Midnight Beast, Mcfly, E4 and RockSound among many many others.

Lee Monroe was born in London, but spent a short time living by the sea with her family when she was a teenager. She moved back to the heart of the city as soon as she could, and now lives in London.

Lee was an obsessive reader as a child, and still is. She works in publishing and has written fiction for children and adults, including a paranormal trilogy under her own name for young adults, called Dark Heart, and more recently a contemporary romance called
Love is a Number
.

Caitlin Moran wrote her first novel,
The Chronicles of Narmo
, at the age of fifteen. At sixteen she joined music weekly
Melody Maker
, and at eighteen briefly presented the pop show
Naked City
on Channel 4. She wrote as columnist on
The Times
– both as a TV critic and also in the most-read part of the paper, the satirical celebrity column ‘Celebrity Watch' – winning the British Press Awards' Columnist of The Year award in 2010 and Critic and Interviewer of the Year in 2011.

The eldest of eight children, home-educated in a council house in Wolverhampton, Caitlin read lots of books about feminism. Caitlin isn't really her name. She was christened ‘Catherine'. But she saw ‘Caitlin' in a Jilly Cooper novel when she was thirteen and thought it looked exciting. That's why she pronounces it incorrectly: ‘Catlin'. It causes trouble for everyone.

Born in America, Patrick Ness now lives in London. He is the author of seven novels, a short story collection, varied journalism and radio plays. You might have heard of his trilogy
Chaos Walking,
his latest book for adults
The Crane Wife,
which came out earlier this year, or even
A Monster Calls
, which became the first book ever to win both the Kate Greenaway and Carnegie Medals in 2012. His books are published in over twenty languages and among others Patrick has won the Carnegie Medal twice, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Costa Children's Book Award and the Red House Children's Book Award. Watch out for his daring new YA novel
More Than This,
forthcoming later this year from Walker Books.

Erin O'Connor was born in 1978 in Walsall. Erin's big break came during a shoot in Brazil, with photographer David Sims and hairdresser Guido, when she decided to get her hair cut off. She first modelled for Juergen Teller in a 1996 issue of
i-D
and she was described as ‘freak chic' – but went on to model for most of the luxury brands, top photographers, always at couture and, in 2007, the revamped Marks & Spencer. Swan-like, porcelain-skinned, hard-working, and tall (6ft 4in in heels). ‘She isn't only a model,' Jean Paul Gaultier famously raved, ‘she is quite art. She is like theatre. She is extraordinary inspiration. I should love to be with her every day.'

The illustrator David Downtown made her his muse.

Chris O'Dowd is from Roscommon, Ireland. He studied politics at Dublin University before training at LAMDA.Chris is well known for his starring role in
Bridesmaids
opposite Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. For his role in the film, Chris was nominated for a BAFTA ‘Rising Star Award', a Screen Actor's Guild Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture' and won the Irish Film and Television Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor – Film'. Chris has also recently starred in Wayne Blair's
The Sapphires,
Judd Apatow's
This Is 40
and Lena Dunham's HBO series
Girls
, and is currently starring in the hit HBO series
Family Tree.

Chris wrote and produced an award-winning TV series based on his childhood titled
Moone Boy
. Having premiered on Sky One in the UK and Hulu, the show has been picked up for a third season, and in addition to writing and producing, Chris will direct all the upcoming episodes. Chris's other upcoming features include John Michael McDonagh's
Calvary
opposite Kelly Reilly and Brendan Gleeson and James Griffiths'
Cuban Fury
opposite Nick Frost and Rashida Jones.

Chris's television credits include starring in the cult comedy series
The It Crowd
for Channel 4 and the critically acclaimed series
Crimson Petal & The White
for the BBC.

Dermot O'Leary spends his Saturday nights hosting ITV1's
The X Factor
and, to the sometime annoyance of his family, who occasionally like to see him on a weekend, has done since 2007. His specialist subjects include scalding judges, hugging, and the occasional dance. He hosted
The X Factor
following his success as host of
Big Brother's Little Brother
on E4. Dermot established the hugely successful T4 for Channel 4
.

He spends his Saturday afternoons presenting
The Dermot O'Leary Show
on BBC Radio 2 (a mix of indie and interviews), winning the Sony Radio Award for The Best Music Programme in 2008, 2010 and recently in 2013.

2010 saw Dermot chairing BBC Three political debate
First Time Voters Question Time
and
Dermot Meets,
where he interviewed David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg.

He owns his own production company (Ora et Labora), is a very active partner in his fish restaurant in Brighton (Fishy Fishy), and is a keen Arsenal fan … for his sins in a previous life.

Dawn O'Porter is a broadcaster and print journalist who lives in London with her husband Chris, cat Lilu and dog Potato. She has made numerous documentaries about all sorts of things, including polygamy, childbirth, geishas, body image, breast cancer and even the movie
Dirty Dancing.

Dawn has written for many UK newspapers and magazines including
Grazia
and
Stylist
and she is currently a columnist for
Glamour
magazine. Her first fictional novel,
Paper Aeroplanes
, was published by Hot Key Books in 2013. Although Dawn lives in London she spends a lot of time in LA and travels a lot. She is obsessed with cats, mad about dogs, has an addiction to vintage dresses and she loves food.

Feminist writers Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Holly Baxter founded the online magazine The Vagenda in January 2012. Since then, The Vagenda has published bylined, anonymous and editorial articles on topics ranging from cosmetic surgery and pop songs, to the ‘cupcake conspiracy' and Republicans. Humorous and topical with a searing, critical streak, The Vagenda exposes the mainstream female press for its insidious elements – and its frequent ridiculousness.

Victoria White is the editor of young women's fashion magazine,
Company
. She has won awards for doing this. It is a dream job. She gets to see all the clothes the high street has to offer six months before they go into store. She gets to go to cool music events and found herself backstage with One Direction when they won a BRIT Award. She's been a guest judge on seven series of
Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model
(which is where she first met Dawn O'Porter seven years ago – long story). Oh, and this year she played herself in two episodes of
Hollyoaks
(badly). She tweets and instagrams as
@companyedvic
and she has her own blog,
www.weboughtafrenchhouse.com
about her ‘other' life renovating property in south-west France. She has two boys, Arthur, aged ten and Sebastian, aged six. They all live with her husband Peter in a large, in need of renovation, house in south-east London. So at weekends, when not watching
Million Pound Drop
or shopping at Westfield Stratford, she can be found painting and decorating. She is really quite tired.

Laura Whitmore is one of the most in-demand young presenters currently working in television. Combining her love of music, people and fashion, she has covered all the major festivals both here and internationally and interviewed the likes of Coldplay, Justin Bieber and more recently Michael Caine. Laura's recent TV credits include:
I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here
2011, The Brits 2012 (ITV2), MTV European Music Awards 2012.

Laura has always been a huge music fan and loves to get behind the decks to DJ whenever possible. She's brought her rock 'n' roll set to a number of high-end fashion, branded and international events.