Multi-award winning poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie was born in the west of Scotland in 1962.

She has written three works of non-fiction: Among Muslims (2002), an acclaimed travel narrative; and two ground-breaking collections of nature and travel writing, Findings (2005) and Sightlines (2012).

She lives in Fife and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Stirling University.

Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection of poems, appeared in 1966, and was followed by poetry, criticism and translations which established him as the leading poet of his generation.

In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and twice won the Whitbread Book of the Year, for The Spirit Level (1996) and Beowulf (1999). Stepping Stones, a book of interviews conducted by Dennis O'Driscoll, appeared in 2008; Human Chain, his last volume of poems, was awarded the 2010 Forward Prize for Best Collection. He died in 2013.