Authors A-Z

Usama ibn Munqidh

Usama ibn Munqidh was born on 4 July, 1095 in northern Syria. In the last decades of his life he concentrated on writing, collecting his scattered poems into a much-praised Diwan, but specialising in topical anthologies of poetry and prose like The Book of the Staff or Kernels of Refinement. Usama's last patron was the mighty sultan Saladin, to whom he intended his most famous work, the Book of Contemplation. He died in Damascus in 1188. Paul Cobb, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic History at the University of Pennsylvania, has been engaged on a long-term project involving Muslim views of the Crusades and the writings of Usama ibn Munqidh in particular.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovich is a professional footballer, one of the world's most prolific strikers. Captain of his native Sweden, he has played for all of Europe's top teams, including Ajax, Juventus, Internazionale, Barcelona, Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and, most recently, the LA Galaxy.

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is often called 'the Father of Modern Drama'. Born in Norway, he left his homeland in 1864 for a 21-year long voluntary exile in Italy and Germany. After successes with the verse dramas Brand and Peer Gynt, he turned to prose, writing his great 12-play cycle of society dramas between 1877 and 1899. This included A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, and, finally, When We Dead Awaken.

Conn Iggulden

Conn Iggulden is one of the most successful authors of historical fiction writing today. He has written three previous bestselling historical series, including Wars of the Roses. Dunstan is a stand-alone novel set in the red-blooded world of tenth-century England.

C. F. Iggulden

C. F. Iggulden is one of the most successful authors of historical fiction writing today. He has written three previous bestselling historical series and two stand alone novels: Dunstan and The Falcon of Sparta. Shiang is the second novel in his epic fantasy series, The Empire of Salt.

Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff is Carr Professor of Human Rights Policy at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is an outstanding literary and cultural commentator, and also a powerful novelist, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993 for Scar Tissue. He is well known, too, as a presenter and critic on radio and television. His non-fiction books include a biography of Isaiah Berlin, and four books on ethnic war and intervention Blood and Belonging, The Warrior's Honour, Virtual War, and, most recently, Empire Lite: Nation Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan.

Ignatius of Loyola

Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) was trained as a page at the court of Castile. Wounded at the siege of Pamplona in 1521, he underwent a deep conversion, eventually travelling to Jerusalem and beginning to study. He attracted like-minded students and in 1534 they took vows and formed the 'Society of Jesus', popularly known as the Jesuits. From 1540 he was elected Superior General and lived in Rome, organising the astonishing spread of the Jesuits. He was canonized in 1622. Joseph A. Munitiz is Master of Campion Hall, Oxford. Philip Endean lectures in theology at Heythrop College, University of London. He is General Editor of The Way, a journal of contemporary Christian spirituality, sponsored by the Jesuits.

Satomi Ikezawa

Satomi Ikezawa's previous work before Othello is Guru Guru Pon-chan. Ikezawa won the 24th Kodansha Manga Prize in 2000 for Guru Guru Pon-chan. She has two Labradors, named Guts and Ponta.

Steve Ilardi

Stephen S Ilardi, PhD, is associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Kansas, USA, and the author of over 40 professional articles on mental illness. Through his active clinical practice, Dr Ilardi has treated several hundred depressed patients.

Valerie Illingworth

Valerie Illingworth worked in Reference book publishing before going freelance in 1976. She has edited many scientific books including the Dictionary of Computing and the Penguin Dictionary of Electronics. Dr Cullerne is currently teaching at Winchester.

Gary Imlach

Gary Imlach started out writing for national newspapers at the age of 18. He has worked for the BBC, ITN, CNN & Channel 4, and currently presents ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and American Football. He is also the producer of several documentaries, and in 2000 was nominated for a BAFTA as Editor-in-Chief of the BBC's Paralympics coverage in Sydney. This is his first book.

Daniel Immerwahr

Daniel Immerwahr is an associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of Thinking Small: The United States and the Lure of Community Development, which won the Organization of American Historians’ Merle Curti Award. He has written for n+1, The Nation, Dissent, and other publications.

Imperial War Museum

Lyn Smith has worked regularly as an oral history interviewer for the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive for nearly 30 years. Using her own important contribution to the public archive, she has researched and written several books, including Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust and Pacifists in Action. She is also a lecturer in International Politics and International Affairs, and teaches at Regents College in London and at Webster University in St Louis, USA. Lyn Smith lives in Lewes, East Sussex.

In the Night Garden

In the Night Garden is a CBeebies show about a magical land that exists between waking and sleeping in a child's imagination. Inhabited by a loveable collection of characters, the Night Garden is a happy, calming world of music and friendship. The hit show is often used as part of children's bedtime or nap-time routine. It was devised and produced by the award-winning Teletubbies creators, Anne Wood and Andy Davenport.

Shiho Inada

Shiho Inada was born in Kanagawa Prefecture on October 17. She is a Libran with blood type B. She made her debut with Camouflage in 1994. Fuyumi Ono was born in Oita Prefecture and made her debut with the teen novel Teen's Heart. Her best known series are Evil Spirit and Twelve Kingdoms.

Arnaldur Indridason

Arnaldur Indridason worked for many years as a journalist and critic before he began writing novels. His books have since sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Outside Iceland, he is best known for his crime novels featuring Erlendur and Sigurdur Óli, which are consistent bestsellers across Europe. The series has won numerous awards, including the Nordic Glass Key and the CWA Gold Dagger. The Shadow District – the first book in the Reykjavík Wartime Mystery series – won the Premio RBA de Novela Negra, the world’s most lucrative crime fiction prize.

Simon Inglis

Born in Birmingham, writer and broadcaster Simon Inglis penned his first comments on stadiums at the age of six. Among various football and stadium-related works he is best known for the acclaimed Football Grounds of Europe (1990) and the bestselling Football Grounds of Britain (1996). When not watching Aston Villa, he lives with his wife and two cats in London, coincidentally - he insists - halfway between Wembley Stadium and Lord's cricket ground.

Lucy Inglis

In 2009 Lucy Inglis began blogging on the lesser-known aspects of London during the Eighteenth Century - including food, immigration and sex - at GeorgianLondon.com. She lives in London with her husband. Georgian London is her first book.

Jay Ingram

Jay Ingram is the distinguished science broadcaster and writer who has won many awards for raising public awareness of science, including the Sandford Fleming Medal and a Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion. He was co-host of Discovery Channel’s science show, Daily Planet, for 16 years and his 13 books have been translated into 14 languages. In 2015 he was the recipient of the Walter C Alvarez Award for medical writing. www.Jayingram.ca

Miranda Innes

Former garden editor of Country Living, and sister of Jocasta Innes, Miranda Innes lives in Spain with her husband, Dan Pearce, and an assortment of dogs and cats. Her first book, an account of the restoration of her house and garden in Andalucia, Getting to Manana, is published in paperback by Black Swan.

Hammond Innes

Ralph Hammond Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, on 15 July 1913 and educated at Cranbrook School, Kent. He left school aged eighteen, and worked successively in publishing, teaching and journalism. In 1936, in need of money in order to marry, he wrote a supernatural thriller, The Doppleganger, which was published in 1937 as part of a two-year, four book deal. In 1939 Innes moved to a different publisher, and began to write compulsively, continuing to publish throughout his service in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. Innes travelled widely to research his novels and always wrote from personal experience - his 1940s novels The Blue Ice and The White South were informed by time spent working on a whaling ship in the Antarctic, while The Lonely Skier came out of a post-war skiing course in the Dolomites. He was a keen and accomplished sailor, which passion inspired his 1956 bestseller The Wreck of the Mary Deare. The equally successful 1959 film adaptation of this novel enabled Innes to buy a large yacht, the Mary Deare, in which he sailed around the world for the next fifteen years, accompanied by his wife and fellow author Dorothy Lang. Innes wrote over thirty novels, as well as several works of non-fiction and travel journalism. His thrilling stories of spies, counterfeiters, black markets and shipwreck earned him both literary acclaim and an international following, and in 1978 he was awarded a CBE. Hammond Innes died at his home in Suffolk on 10th June 1998.

Deborah Install

Deborah Install has worked as a website copywriter. Her debut novel, A ROBOT IN THE GARDEN, is inspired by her own young son. She lives in Birmingham with her family where she bakes good cakes and writes even better books.

Liz Ireland

Jane Green is a former journalist who gave up her job on the Daily Express to write a real woman's account of being single in the city. That account became Jane's first novel, Straight Talking. It was followed by nine more bestselling novels: Jemima J, Mr Maybe, Bookends, Babyville, Spellbound, The Other Woman, Life Swap, Second Chance and The Beach House. Jane lives in Connecticut with her husband, Ian Warburg, and their blended family of six children. www.janegreen.com Jennifer Coburn spends the winter holidays at home with her with her family in San Diego, where the only way she notices the seasons changing is by checking the calendar. Holidays in Southern California are a bit different than New York City, where Coburn was born and raised. Mall Santas are tan and Mrs. Claus is rumored to be a Botox devotee. Jennifer burns her menorah candles from both ends working as a public relations consultant and writer. Liz Ireland grew up in Texas, where all her Christmases except one were green. Her favorite gift ever was the yellow Schwinn bike (with a banana seat and white wicker basket) she got when she was nine. She now celebrates the holidays in Oregon with her husband and a menagerie of pets.

Tamara Ireland Stone

Tamara Ireland Stone is an avid reader, gadget freak, music addict and dreadful cook. She writes YA fiction about fun stuff like travel, music, romance, and normal people with extraordinary talents. www.facebook.com/tamarairelandstone www.tamarairelandstone.com