ALAN BRADLEY
Manx Litfest is delighted to count bestselling author, Alan Bradley as one of its patrons. Alan grew up in Ontario, Canada and worked as a radio and television engineer until 1994, when he retired to become a full-time writer.
Alan is a prolific writer of screenplays, short stories, children’s stories, memoir and non-fiction, but is perhaps best known for his much-loved Flavia de Luce mystery novels, the first of which—The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie—won the CWA Debut Dagger award in 2007, and is shortly to be made into a feature film.
CHRIS EWAN
Crime-writer Chris Ewan plays a pivotal role in the Manx Litfest origin story! It was thanks to one of his author events, at the Erin Arts Centre in 2010, that John Quirk was inspired to organise the first festival.
Chris and his family lived on the Isle of Man for several years before moving back to Somerset, and one of his bestselling thrillers—Safe House—is set on the island. Chris’s debut novel, The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam (2007) won the Long Barn Books First Novel Award. The Good Thief’s Guide series is currently being developed for TV by 20th Century Fox.
THOMMIE GILLOW
Performance poet Thommie Gillow was a guest at the inaugural Manx Litfest in 2012 and has been a close friend of the festival ever since. At the 2018 Litfest she brought her immersive art project, Moonbrella, to Peel Cathedral.
As well as being a creative writer and poet, Thommie is an English teacher and EAL (English as an Additional Language) co-ordinator. She organises regional events for Hammer & Tongue, a national poetry organisation, in Bristol, and she holds the title of Bard of Bath 2008. Thommie has published two collections of poetry: My Stepmother Tried to Kill Me (2014) and Milked (2018).
