Jerrard Tickell was born in Dublin and educated in Tipperary and London. Travelling extensively before the Second World War began, he joined the army in 1940, was appointed to the War Office in 1941, and then the General Staff in 1945. His career as a writer began in 1936 with the publication of 'See How They Run' and continued with a series of bestselling novels and biographies, including 'Odette' (1949) and 'Appointment with Venus' (1951). Jerrard Tickell died in 1966. Rosa Rankin-Gee was 23 when she left university and spent the summer on Sark, working as a private cook. 'The Last Kings of Sark', the novella she wrote set on the island, went on to win Shakespeare & Company's international Paris Literary Prize, and was published by Virago in 2013, with a brand new edition published by Scribner in 2022. Her writing has been described as a cross between Francoise Sagan and Nell Dunn (Marie Claire) and Enthralling... Blazing bright (The Guardian); her work has appeared in The Guardian, Esquire, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Rosa lives between London and the Kentish seaside. Edward Bawden (1903-89) was a master painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, murals, linocuts, watercolours and wallpaper designs. He taught at the Royal College of Art (where he had also been a student), worked as a commercial artist and served as a war artist during the Second World War. Bawden's distinctive style was defined by his interest in unusual details, bold patterns and witty designs. Inspired by a love of reading and gardening, a broad knowledge of history and a strong sense of place, Bawden is one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century