James Allen was born in Leicester, England, in 1864. He took his first job at age 15 to support his family, after his father was murdered while looking for work in America. Allen was employed as a factory knitter and a private secretary until the early 1900s, when he became increasingly known for his motivational writing.

His 1903 work As a Man Thinketh earned him worldwide fame as a prophet of inspirational thinking and influenced a who's-who of self-help writers, including Napoleon Hill.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803-April 27, 1882) was a famous lecturer, philosopher, poet, and writer. He led the transcendentalist movement of the 1800s, mentored Henry David Thoreau, and was a pioneer of multiculturalism in American writing.

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 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.

Wallace D. Wattles (1860-1911) was the author of numerous books, the best known of which is The Science of Getting Rich.

He experienced failure after failure in his early life until after many years of study and experimentation he formulated a set of principles that, with scientific precision, create financial and spiritual wealth.

He died a prosperous man in 1911.

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.

Florence Scovel Shinn carried out her work in the first half of the 20th century.

Through her teachings and numerous books, she was a profound influence on Louise Hay and other pioneers of personal transformation.