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MICHAEL MORPURGO
Michael Morpurgo is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the war, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were awarded an MBE for services to youth. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of the over a hundred books he has written.
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RT HON BARONESS QUIN OF GATESHEAD
Joyce Quin is chair of the jury and chair of the FBC. As a former Lecturer in French and Politics, a former MEP and a former Minister of Europe, Joyce Quin is well placed to promote Franco-British understanding. She also chairs the All Party EU group in parliament and, in addition, brings to the Council a strong regional focus recognised by the award to her of the Freedom of the Borough of Gateshead. |
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Mary Walsh
Director of corporate communications, Eurostar. Mary joined Eurostar in October 2009 and is responsible for managing external and internal communications with the media, stakeholders and employees. Mary joined Eurostar from Lloyds TSB Group where she spent ten years initially as Head of Media Relations and then as Director of Corporate Relations. She began her career in PR consultancy at Ogilvy and Mather running campaigns for range of corporate and consumer businesses and prior to Lloyds was Director of Public Relations for PKF, the professional services firm.
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BOYD TONKIN
Boyd Tonkin is the Literary Editor of The Independent. Before joining the newspaper in 1996 he wrote for 'The Observer', was Literary Editor of the 'New Statesman', Features Editor of 'Community Care magazine', and has also taught literature in higher education. He has judged the Booker Prize, the David Cohen Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and re-founded the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for literature in translation. Books to which he has contributed range from the Oxford Good Fiction Guide to Reading the Vampire Slayer. He has appeared on a wide variety of broadcast arts programmes, and has reported on literary and cultural matters from countries including India, Brazil, Ukraine, Cuba, Finland and Greece.
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