Leila Rasheed is the founder of Megaphone Writers CIC. Empire’s End, published by Scholastic in 2020, was shortlisted for the Tower Hamlets Book Award. It’s about a girl travelling from North Africa to Britain at a time when the Roman Empire was on the brink of war.
“I’d recommend this book to any child who wants to learn about ancient Rome but at the same time just enjoy a really engaging, sensitively written story.” – Annelise Gray
“The story twists and turns, painting vivid characters and their realities in a human way against the backdrop of one of the Roman Empire’s trickiest times” – That Boy Can Teach
Claire Linney is a children’s author and book influencer. A lifelong reader, she is passionate about advocating for more diverse representation in literature for children and teenagers. From recommending books on BBC Radio
London, running workshops at reading conferences or
inspiring children with time travel writing workshops,
Claire has become a go-to for diverse books for kids and
teens and education for all ages on Black British history.
Lucy Cuthew is a lecturer on Bath Spa’s MA in Writing for Young People, and the author of over thirty books for children. She has an MPhil in Children’s Literature and worked in children’s publishing as an editor for fifteen years. Her debut novel BLOOD MOON was nominated for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal, won the 2021 Amazing Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Bath Children’s Novel Award in 2019. She speaks regularly on the BBC about children’s books.
Elen Caldecott (Bath Spa University). Dr Elen Caldecott is a creative writing practitioner with an active, 17 year career in the publishing industry. Her novels for young people have been long- or short-listed for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award and the Carnegie Medal; her novel ‘The Short Knife’ , set in 454 AD after the Roman retreat for Britain, won the Tir na n-Og Award for Welsh writing. Elen specialises in writing, researching and teaching literature for young people. Much of her work is concerned with positive representations of working class childhoods and of non-traditional families.