Collision: Stories from the Science of CERN at WOMAD

Margaret Drabble was born in 1939 in Sheffield and educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She had a very brief career as an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before taking to fiction. Her first novel, A Summer Birdcage, was published in 1963, and her nineteenth and most recent, The Dark Flood Rises, in 2016. She also edited two editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature (1985, 2000). She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London and Somerset.

Courttia Newland is the author of seven books. His latest, The Gospel According to Cane, was published in 2013. He was nominated for the Edge Hill Prize, The Frank O’ Conner award, and numerous others. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies and broadcast on Radio 4. In 2017 he became a patron of Comma Press.

Bidisha is a broadcaster, journalist and film-maker. She specialises in human rights, social justice and the arts and offers political analysis, arts critique and cultural diplomacy tying these interests together. She writes for the main UK broadsheets and broadcasts for BBC TV and radio, ITN, CNN, ViacomCBS and Sky News. Her fifth book, Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices of London, is based on her outreach work in UK prisons, refugee charities and detention centres. Her first short film, An Impossible Poison, received its London premiere in March 2018. It has been highly critically acclaimed and selected for numerous international film festivals. Her latest publication is called The Future of Serious Art and her latest film series is called Aurora.