Jonathan Elsom is an established actor and theatre director who has enjoyed a successful 40 year career in U.K. theatre, television and films prior to settling in Sydney 6 years ago.

In London he played leading roles in long-running West End productions of:
Conduct Unbecoming, The Millionairess, Dirty Linen, London Assurance and The Importance of Being Earnest. He has had roles in numerous major productions for The Chichester Festival Theatre, The New Shakespeare Company, and many other British theatre companies.

Jonathan's is a familiar face on British television in such series as: To the Manor Born, Rising Damp, The Avengers, Crown Court, By the Sword Divided, Minder and Lloyd George. He has appeared regularly on Australian television as Toby Michener in Backberner for the ABC and as Dr. Don Murphy in All Saints for Channel 7.

Australian theatre includes: The Lady in the Van and Major Barbara [The Sydney Theatre Company]; Vicious Streaks [Darlinghurst Theatre]; A Family Affair [Belvoir] and The Department Store [The Old Fitzroy].

Jonathan began writing fiction in 2003; he has since won awards for his short stories and poetry.

Experienced Actor/Director/Storyteller, Christine Greenough, has recent stage credits in "Navigating" as Bea (New Theatre), in "Seagulls" as Valery (Cat and Fiddle), Dawn in "Vicious Streaks" (Darlinghurst Theatre), as well as several plays in Short and Sweet Festival. She won the Best Actress award for Short and Sweet in 2004. She has appeared in "All Saints", "Home and Away" and several short films.

Christine is a member of the Australian Storytelling Guild and is one of the founders of "The Talespinners" a storytelling company formed in 1997. They began by developing awareness of the ancient tradition of oral telling with children and have expanded into devising reminiscence programs for the elderly. The Talespinners have toured their shows throughout Metropolitan Sydney, Regional NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Asia.

LEE TULLOCH
Lee Tulloch was born in Melbourne, Australia, a Capricorn with Sagittarius rising and an Aries moon, if you believe in these things. (She's ambivalent.) Perhaps, however, her stars do explain a restless life lived on three continents. A graduate in English Literature from Melbourne University, she made an unexpected foray into federal politics as a researcher before she began writing about fashion and popular culture for Vogue Australia. Since then, she has written extensively on the subject for international publications such as Vogue, Elle, Jalouse, Harper's Bazaar and New York magazine. While still a child, she became the founding editor of Harper's Bazaar Australia but was dismissed after nine issues for being a little too creative.

In 1985 she moved from Sydney to New York, where she wrote her first novel, Fabulous Nobodies, which has been published in several countries and to much acclaim. With her photographer husband, Tony Amos, she chose a bohemian life, moving between Australia, New York and Paris for more than a decade with their young daughter, Lolita. In Paris, she began her second novel, Wraith, a gothic tale of a dead supermodel who comes back to haunt her personal assistant. She completed it in New York and it was published in 1999. In 2001 she published her third novel, Two Shanes, a comedy of errors about an Australian surfer on Manhattan.

On September 11 2001 she was evacuated from her Tribeca home and left her beloved Manhattan for the relative peace of a Sydney beach. Her fourth novel, The Cutting, a murder mystery set on the Australian coast, was published in 2003. She is a columnist on fashion, beauty and popular culture for The Australian Women's Weekly, the (sydney) magazine and the (melbourne) magazine. Her next work is a collection of her fashion essays, Perfect Pink Polish, and she is completing her fifth novel.

STEPHEN SEWELL
Well-known for his film and theatre work, including his AFI Award winning script of “The Boys” as well as plays such as “The Blind Giant is Dancing”, “The Secret Death of Salvador Dali” (Best Show of the Adelaide Fringe, 2001) and “Myth Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America – A Drama in 30 Scenes” (Playbox Theatre, State Theatre Company of South Australia, June-July 2003; The Orange Tree Theatre, London 2004), Sewell is one of the most celebrated and experienced writers in the country. In 2000, he formed ISM Films with partner Ian Iveson and their first film, “Lost Things” (written by Sewell), has just been released to considerable critical success. Their two next films, Sisters, starring Jacqueline McKenzie, Rachel Blake and Stellan Skarsgard, and to be directed by Sewell, and Wolf are now in the process of being financed.

BROOKE EMERY
Brook Emery has worked as a swimming instructor, lifeguard/beach inspector (he was captain of Bondi Surf Bathers Life saving Club), removalist and contract cleaner. He has been an English and History teacher in London, northern NSW and Sydney (he was Head Teacher of English at Dover Heights High School for eight years).

His first collection of poetry, and dug my fingers in the sand (Five Islands Press, 2000), won the Queensland Premier’s Prize for Poetry and was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Prize. It won second prize in both the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize and the Anne Elder Award. His second collection, Misplaced Heart (FIP, 2003) was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Prize.

Individual poems have won the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize, the Max Harris Literary Award, the Australian Sports Poetry Award and the Denis Butler Memorial Award.

He has been awarded grants, fellowships or residencies by the Australia Council, Varuna and the Booranga Writers Centre. He is currently chairperson of the Poets Union Inc.

He lives at Clovelly and still surfs more than he writes.

I think he is a poet of real talent. His work has been an exciting and pleasurable discovery for me.
                     Robert Gray

RACHEL WEISS
Rachael Weiss first knew she wanted to be a writer when she was 17 and about to leave school. 21 years later she wrote and published her first book.

At 38, after half a life time employed in the corporate world and looking down the gun barrel of 40, Rachael quit it all to devote herself to her dream. Eight scary months after she left the security of full time employment, she published her first article and four months after that she landed a deal with Allen and Unwin for Are We There Yet? a tale of two single women on a road trip.