David Peace - named in 2003 as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists - was born and brought up in Yorkshire. He is the author of the Red Riding Quartet (Nineteen Seventy Four, Nineteen Seventy Seven, Nineteen Eighty and Nineteen Eighty Three) which has been adapted into a three part Channel 4 series, and GB84, which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Award. The 2009 film version of his novel The Damned Utd was adapted by Peter Morgan and starred Michael Sheen. Tokyo Year Zero, the first part of his acclaimed Tokyo Trilogy, was published in 2007, and the second part, Occupied City, in 2009. His most recent novel, Red or Dead, was published in 2013.

Mark Lawson is a journalist, broadcaster and author. From 1998 to 2014 he was the presenter of BBC Radio 4's arts magazine Front Row. He has been a freelance contributor to numerous publications since 1984 and a Guardian columnist since 1995. He has twice been voted TV critic of the Year and has won numerous awards for arts journalism. He has also published four novels, including Idlewild and Enough is Enough. His most recent book, The Deaths, was released in 2013.