‘’

Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593) was a major Elizabethan poet, translator and playwright and an exact contemporary of Shakespeare. He was a pioneer of blank verse which became the standard form for verse drama in the Elizabethan era. One of his most successful works was the play Tamburlaine which was widely imitated and in which the lead was played by the actor Edward Alleyn for whom Marlowe wrote several parts.

Elaine Marshall was born in Greenwich where she still lives. She studied painting at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art. At her studio in Greenwich she uses a range of printmaking techniques, including etchings and collagraphs on her Rochat etching press. Elaine is a founder member and currently gallery manager of Greenwich Printmakers.

Roy Marshall is a UK poet whose first full collection The Sun Bathers (Shoestring Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Award. After Montale, which contains versions of poems by the Italian poet, was published in 2019.  Roy’s work has appeared in magazines including The Rialto, Poetry Wales, The North and The Compass. He has worked as a gardener and a nurse, and as a part-time university lecturer.

Harold Massingham (1932 – 2011) was the son of a collier and attended the same school in Yorkshire as Ted Hughes. His poetry collections include Black Bull Guarding Apples (Longmans, 1965) and Frost Gods (Macmillan, 1971). He was also a crossword compiler for The Listener and The Independent. He spent several years in Spain before returning to settle in the UK at the end of his life.

Cerys Matthews was born in Cardiff.  She is a musician, author and broadcaster, presenting radio shows on BBC 6 music, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4.  Cerys was a founder member of multi-million selling band Catatonia and in 2014 founded the Good Life Experience festival with Charlie and Caroline Gladstone. In recent years she has curated and composed for the National Theatre and was artistic director of the World Music Expo in 2013.  She has been awarded an MBE for her services to music.

Glyn Maxwell is a British poet, playwright, novelist, librettist and critic. His most recent poetry collection is Pluto (Picador, 2013). Previous collections have been shortlisted for major prizes including the Geoffrey Faber and the TS Eliot. His most recent book is Drinks with Dead Poets (Oberon Books, 2016) in which great poets from Dickinson to Keats wander around an imaginary university, meeting with the students.