Pair 1

Hilary Mantel

Wikipedia says,

Hilary Mary MantelCBE (née Thompson; born 6 July 1952) is an English writer whose work ranges in subject from personal memoir and short story to historical fiction and essay. She has twice been awarded the Booker Prize.

She won her first Booker Prize for the 2009 novel, Wolf Hall, a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in the court of Henry VIII. She won her second Booker Prize for the 2012 novel, Bring Up the Bodies, the second instalment of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Mantel was the first woman to receive the award twice, following in the footsteps of J. M. Coetzee, Peter Carey and J. G. Farrell (who posthumously won the Lost Man Booker Prize).^[4][5] The third installment to the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is set to be published in 2015.

Carol Maginn

Crooked Cat says,

Carol Maginn was born and has lived a lot of her life in the windy, Gothic city of Liverpool. She’s worked in education and law, and most recently she’s been a teacher of English as a Second Language in Rome.

Carol has previously published short stories and non-fiction pieces. She likes slightly burnt toast, and dislikes beetroot.

Carol’s first novel, Ruin – a tale of how a family’s fortune changes following a big lottery win – was released on 6th December 2013.

The Link

Both authors studied law.

Pair 2

Vonda McIntyre

Wikipedia says,

Vonda Neel McIntyre (born Louisville, Kentucky, on August 28, 1948) is a Pacific Northwest science fiction author.

Yvonne Marjot

Yvonne Marjot was born in Britain, grew up in New Zealand, and now lives on an island on the West Coast of Scotland. She earned an MSc in Botany from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and has a keen interest in the interface between the natural and human worlds. She has a day job (in the office of the local school), teenage sons and a weight problem, and would continue to write even if no-one read her work, because it’s often the only thing that keeps her sane. Her sense of humour is a source of consolation, and also a constant invitation to mischief.

She can’t remember a time when she didn’t write poems and make up stories, and once won a case of port in a poetry competition (NZ Listener, May 1996). She has also self-published four e-novels set in Scotland and New Zealand: The Calgary Chessman trilogy and a paranormal romance. In December 2012 she won the Adult Poetry prize at Britwriters 2012. Her poetry book The Knitted Curiosity Cabinet was published in April 2014. In March 2014 she signed a contract with Crooked Cat Publishers, Edinburgh, to publish The Calgary Chessman.

The Link

Yvonne says, “There’s a simple thing – we both have degrees in Biology. And there’s a more obscure thing – according to her wikipedia entry, Vonda McIntyre is involved in the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project, which is a world-wide phenomenon increasing awareness of the marine environment by crocheting corals and exhibiting them. I have a long-standing interest in craftwork with natural fibres, although my bent is knitting rather than crochet, so it’s a very tenuous link, which I only bring up because the Crochet Coral Reef is such a marvellous idea. I might add that Vonda McIntyre’s Science Fiction writing, particularly my favourite novels ‘Dreamsnake’ and Superluminal’ are both intriguing character studies and underpinned by good science manipulated to provide a good story – and that combination of scientific background and believable characters is something I strive to achieve in my own writing.”