Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. He is a former treasurer and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. He is also honorary chairman and a former treasurer of the International Democratic Union. He is founder and chairman of the board of trustees of Crimestoppers, chairman of the trustees of Ashcroft Technology Academy, chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University, vice-patron of the Intelligence Corps Museum, a senior fellow of the International Strategic Studies Association and a former trustee of Imperial War Museums.

His most recent political works include Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron; Well, You Did Ask... Why the UK Voted to Leave the EU; Hopes and Fears: Trump, Clinton, the Voters and the Future; The Lost Majority: The 2017 Election, the Conservative Party, the Voters and the Future; White Flag? An Examination of the UK's Defence Capability; and Half-Time! American Public Opinion Midway Through Trump's (First?) Term - and the Race to 2020. His most recent book is the acclaimed Jacob's Ladder: The Unauthorised Biography of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Andrew Taylor (b. 1951) is a British author of mysteries. Born in East Anglia, he attended university at Cambridge before getting an MA in library sciences from University College London. His first novel, Caroline Miniscule (1982), a modern-day treasure hunt starring history student William Dougal, began an eight-book series and won Taylor wide critical acclaim.

He has written several other thriller series, most notably the eight Lydmouthbooks, which begin with An Air That Kills (1994). His other novels include The Office of the Dead (2000) and The American Boy (2003), both of which won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, making Taylor the only author to receive the prize twice.

His Roth trilogy, which has been published in omnibus form as Requiem for an Angel (2002), was adapted by the UK’s ITV for its television show Fallen Angel. Taylor’s most recent novel is the historical thriller The Scent of Death (2013).