Alyson Sheldrake was born in Birmingham in 1968. She has always loved art and painting, although she found little time for such pleasures, working full-time after graduation. She joined the Devon and Cornwall Police in 1992 and served for thirteen years, before leaving to work in the field of education. She became the Director of Education for the Church of England in Devon in 2008.

Once her husband Dave retired from the Police, their long-held dream of living in the sun could become a reality. Alyson handed in her notice, and with her dusty easel and set of acrylic paints packed and ready to move, they started their new adventure living in the beautiful Algarve in Portugal in 2011.

She is now an accomplished and sought-after artist working alongside her husband, Dave, a professional photographer. Being able to bring their much-loved hobbies and interests to life has been a wonderful bonus to their new life in the Algarve.

Alyson is the editor of Portugal Letter magazine, and a feature writer for the Algarve’s Tomorrow magazine. She is the author of the award-winning and popular Algarve Blog, and is also a keynote speaker at the annual ‘Live and Invest in Portugal’ international conference.

She is the author of Kat the Dog - The remarkable tale of a rescued Spanish water dog, and the Algarve Dream series of travel memoirs. Alyson was also the author/curator of the Travel Stories series of anthologies.

She lives in the Algarve, Portugal with her husband, Dave, a professional photographer, and Kat the Dog.

For more information, visit her website at alysonsheldrake.com

Sue Bavey (writing as S. Bavey) is an English Mum of two, living in Massachusetts since 2003 with her husband, kids, a cat named Midnight, a bunny named Nutmeg, a leopard gecko named Ziggy Stardust and occasional frogs and salamanders.

“Lucky Jack is the first book I have written and is my grandfather, Henry John Rogers’ biography. Grandad lived with us when I was born, until we moved when I was six years old. Then he came back to live with us in my teenage years and we were very close. He was my father’s father, but my Mum diligently collected the newspaper columns he dictated to a local reporter, and kept them in scrapbooks in her attic, where they gathered dust and yellowed over time. A few years ago I moved my Mum into an apartment and found all the scrapbooks in the process. I wanted to get all of those stories into a book for my kids to read. That was the germ of an idea which – thanks to my having time during Covid lockdown – has now resulted in the life story of my grandfather, Jack Rogers being written.”

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SueBavey

Blog: https://suelbavey.wordpress.com/2021/11/23/time-for-some-self-promotion-lucky-jack-by-s-bavey

Simon Michael Prior insists on inflicting all aspects of life on himself so that his readers can enjoy learning about his latest trip/experience/disaster/emotional breakdown (insert phrase of your choice).

During his extended adolescence, now over forty years long, he has lived on two boats and sunk one of them; sold houses, street signs, Indian food and paper bags for a living; visited almost fifty countries and lived in three; qualified as a scuba divemaster; nearly killed himself learning to wakeboard; trained as a search and rescue skipper with the Coast Guard, and built his own house without the benefit of an instruction manual.

Simon is as amazed as anyone that the house is still standing, and he now lives in it by the sea with his wife and twin daughters, where he spends his time regurgitating his experiences on paper before he has so many more that he forgets them.

In 2007 Lisa left a promising career as an ecologist catching protected reptiles and amphibians, and kissing frogs, to move to beautiful green Galicia with her blue-eyed prince (who has since become her blue-eyed husband but that’s another story).

She divides her time equally between growing her own food, helping to renovate a semi-derelict house (or actually two… but that’s also another story) and getting out and about to discover more of the stunningly beautiful area she calls home.

Lisa is happiest outside in her huerta weeding, watching the antics of her chickens, or in her kitchen cooking interesting recipes on her wood burning range.

Plum, Courgette & Green Bean Tart is her first memoir. Book two of the writing home series will feature more anecdotes, more letters home and more bureaucracy. Oh, and more Galician recipes! Tomato, Fig & Sweetcorn Jelly will be available in 2021