Saint Augustine of Hippo was born in Thagaste, present-day Algeria, in 354 AD. A theologian and philosopher, his writings, including Confessions and The City of God, have left an enduring legacy on Christian thought.

He is recognised as one of the Latin Fathers of the Church and as a Roman Catholic Doctor of the Church.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844. After the death of his father, a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was raised from the age of five by his mother in a household of women. In 1869 he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, where he taught until 1879 when poor health forced him to retire. He never recovered from a nervous breakdown in 1889 and died eleven years later.

Known for saying that 'god is dead,' Nietzsche propounded his metaphysical construct of the superiority of the disciplined individual (superman) living in the present over traditional values derived from Christianity and its emphasis on heavenly rewards. His ideas were appropriated by the Fascists, who turned his theories into social realities that he had never intended.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a British Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers." He preached his first sermon, from 1 Peter 2:7, in 1851 at 16 and became pastor of the Church in Waterbeach in 1852. He published more than 1,900 different sermons and preached to around 10,000,000 people during his lifetime.

In addition, Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, poetry, hymnist and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were later translated into many languages. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.

Andrew Murray has been Chief of Staff of Unite union since 2011, and was previously its Director of Communications. He was Chair of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 to 2011, when he was replaced by Jeremy Corbyn, and again from 2015 to 2016.

From 1978 to 1984 he worked as a parliamentary and political correspondent for the Morning Star newspaper. He is the author of a number of books on history and politics, including Off the Rails: The Crisis on Britain's Railways (Verso 2001), A New Labour Nightmare (Verso 2003) and Stop the War: The Story of Britain's Biggest Mass Movement (Bookmarks 2005, with Lindsey German). He worked as part of the strategic leadership of Labour's 2017 general election campaign.

The brilliant Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) is celebrated for such classics as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov whose psychological examinations of the human soul had a profound effect on the 20th-century novel. His influence resonates in the works of such latter-day authors as Proust, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Kafka. Dostoyevsky also wrote many shorter works that are masterpieces in their own right.

Herbert George "H. G." Wells (September 21, 1866-August 13, 1946) was an English author, best known for his work in the "speculative fiction" genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics, and social commentary.

Wells is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction," along with Jules Verne. The War of the Worlds was written in the age of British colonialism, and Wells came up with the idea for the story while he and his brother were imagining what might happen if someone came to colonize England the way England had other countries.

William Blake was born in London in 1757. He was apprenticed to a master engraver and then studied at the Royal Academy under the guidance of Joshua Reynolds. In 1789 he engraved and published Songs of Innocence and the contrasting Songs of Experience came later in 1794. A poet, painter and printmaker of great originality and imagination, his work was largely unrecognized during his lifetime and he struggled to make a living. Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. He died in 1827.