Our Judges

Andrew studied Art History, Literature and Philosophy at St Andrews, London and Leiden universities before training as an archivist at Glasgow University. He is the author of The Angel of Charleston (2013) and The Story of Pop Art (2020) and, for a time, published articles and reviews in AnOther Magazine. For several years he was a Modern Literary Manuscripts archivist at The British Library in London and, for the past twenty years, he has taught Cultural History in colleges and universities throughout Britain, Europe and the USA.

Annabel has a Masters in Biographical writing from the University of East Anglia, and a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Victoria. She is the author of This is Kandinsky, This is Caravaggio, and Art Visionaries. Her essays have been published in The White Review, The Spectator, Glass Magazine, Notes from the Underground, and National Geographic Travel. In 2018 she was the artist-in-residence at the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. She also lectured at Universities in British Columbia and Manitoba, Canada.

Hilary has a degree in English Language and Literature and a Masters in Comparative Literature, and has taught at the University of Macerata (Italy) and Hong Kong University. She is the author of Violence, Postcoloniality and (Re)Placing the Subject: A Study of the Novels of Margaret Atwood, as well as several texts published by the University of Macerata including Angus Wilson, V.S. Naipaul, and Structural linguistics. Currently, Hilary is working on a Masters in History of Art.

Leah is an experienced teacher of English and a Head of Department. She studied at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and has a special interest in narrative structure and the relationship between music and literature

Robert is the author of seven published books of poetry: The Promise Clinic (1994), Manganese (2003), Local Honey (2007) and Hesiod’s Calendar (2010), The China Shop Pictures (2012), Flying School (2019), The Fortnightly Review, Six-way Mirror (2016). He is also represented in Faber’s Poetry Introduction 7 anthology. In 2001 he won the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association’s poetry prize for ‘The Nightingale Broadcasts’. His version of Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Book of Hours is forthcoming from The High Window press. See www.robertsaxton.co.uk for more information.

Sammy studied English Literature at Oxford University, and entered the world of rare books following his chance discovery of a first edition of Frankenstein inscribed by Mary Shelley to Lord Byron. He has worked for over ten years with Peter Harrington Rare Books, and curates their literature department with a special interest in poetry. He has also curated book exhibitions for Kim Jones's Fendi and Dior 2021 collections in Paris, Shanghai, and London. Sammy has published some of his own poetry in Cassandra Voices, E-Verse Radio, and The Book Collector.