Our 2022 Speakers

Carole Cadwalladr

is a British Pulitzer-nominated investigative journalist. After working with whistleblower Christopher Wylie for a year, she released her investigation into Cambridge Analytica which was published in both The Observer and The New York Times.

SANJEEV BHASKAR, OBE

Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE is a British actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as the star of the sitcom The Kumars at No. 42.He also presented and starred in a documentary series called India with Sanjeev Bhaskar which he travelled to India and visited his ancestral home in today' Pakistan. Bhaskar's more dramatic acting roles include the lead role of Dr Prem Sharma in The Indian Doctor and a main role as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten. Bhaskar has been the Chancellor of the University of Surrey since 2009.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2006, Bhaskar was honoured with the title OBE – Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Jonathan pie

is a fictitious, foul-mouthed political broadcaster often found ranting outside Westminster and taking a swipe at the news of the day. He is the brainchild of comedian and actor, Tom Walker, and became hugely popular in recent years.

RIO FERDINAND

Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and was a member of three FIFA World Cup squads.

BONNIE GREER, OBE

Novelist, critic and broadcaster. She has appeared as a panellist on television programmes such as Newsnight Review and Question time and has served on the boards of several leading arts organisations, including the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the London Film School. 

HARDEEP MATHARU

Is a London-based journalist and Editor of Byline Times, a new and fearless independent news site and print newspaper covering ‘what the papers don’t say’.

PETER JUKES

Author, screenwriter, playwright, literary critic and journalist. Peter is also Excutive Editor and Co-founder of Byline Times

Luke harding

Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Luke Harding charts the assault on the West, and methods including fake news, cyber intrusions and the poisoning of our politics through dirty money. This is a gripping investigation into how Russia’s spies helped elect Donald Trump, backed Brexit, and threaten the very basis of Western democracy.

LORD VICTOR ADEBOWALE, CBE

Victor Olufemi Adebowale, Baron Adebowale, CBE (born 21 July 1962) is the former Chief Executive of the social care enterprise Turning Point, current Chair of the NHS Confederation and was one of the first individuals to become a People's Peer.

BRIAN CATHCART

Brian Cathcart is professor of journalism at Kingston University London and was a founder of the Hacked Off campaign. He served as specialist adviser to the commons media select committee in 2008-10. Irish by background, he was a journalist at Reuters, the Independent papers and the New Statesman, and has written books about the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Jill Dando, as well as on the history of nuclear science

MUSA OKWONGA

Musa Okwonga is a writer, broadcaster and musician. The co-host of the Stadio football podcast, he has published one collection of poetry and three books about football, the first of which, A Cultured Left Foot, was nominated for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. He has three books forthcoming in 2021: In The End, It Was All About Love (Rough Trade), a memoir set in Berlin; One of Them (Unbound), a memoir about his five years at Eton College; and Striking Out (Scholastic), a children’s novel written in collaboration with and based on the life of Ian Wright. Musa’s work has appeared in various outlets, including Africa Is A Country, The Byline Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist and The Ringer.

“He writes from the heart with no filter, and that's what the best wordsmiths do. I'm a fan.” - Ed Sheeran

“Musa is precise and all-encompassing in the same line. His poetry is intimate and erudite, passionate and beautiful.” - Kate Tempest

SARAH CHURCHWELL

Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities. Her research and teaching expertise are in 20th-21st century and contemporary American literature and culture; American film history; gender theory; cultural studies and popular culture; and biography and autobiography. She is the author of The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe (Granta 2004), co-editor of Must Read: Rediscovering the Bestseller (Continuum 2012), and author of various articles, chapters and introductions (see research and publications tabs, above). Her new book, Careless People, about F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby, will be published in early 2013.

Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, the New York Times Book Review, the TLS, the Observer, the Times, the Telegraph, the New Statesman, the Spectator, the Liberal, the Financial Times, Glamour, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire and Psychologies, among others, and she is a contributing writer for New Statesman magazine.

PETER YORK

Peter York is an author / journalist / broadcaster and a management consultant. Under both hats the subject of social groupings and market segments is his major preoccupation. His earliest and best-known description of a social group came in his best-selling 80s book ‘The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook’, which he co-authored with Ann Barr. Since then he has charted the fortunes of many elite groupings, from designers (‘chic-graphique’) to Television Types. He believes that while sociologists and market researchers are forever studying The Rest Of Us, the people at the top have escaped scrutiny for too long.

Peter started writing as Style Editor at Harpers & Queen and over the last 40 years he has produced a flood of broadsheet articles (including regular columns in The Sunday Times and The independent) and 12 books including ‘Dictators Homes’, ‘The Piccadilly Line’ and ‘Authenticity is a Con’. He has also contributed to television programmes from to ‘Newsnight’ to Micky Flanagan’s ‘Thinking Aloud on Class’ and made some of his own like Peter York’s ‘Hipster Handbook’. His latest book, ‘The War Against the BBC’ is co-authored with Prof Patrick Barwise and published by Penguin and is a defence of the BBC against the groups who want to discredit and defund it. Peter is also President of the Media Society

Annette Dittert is a foreign correspondent and passionate filmmaker for ARD, German TV. She became known to a wide audience as a studio manager and correspondent in Warsaw, later in New York and London. 

Poland remained an affair of the heart. London became her adopted home. It was love at first sight when she first set up camp on the island in 2008. Since then, Annette Dittert has lived on Regents Canal, on her houseboat Emilia . It remained her home, even after her time as a correspondent ended in 2014, after which she traveled the world from Hamburg as a special correspondent. 
Since January 1, 2019 she has returned to London full-time for a second round as correspondent and studio manager of the ARD UK office. London was more than just love at first sight...

Annette Dittert was awarded two Grimme Prizes for her films. In 2004 she received the "Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize" for her reporting on Poland.

Otto English 

Otto English is the pen name of writer and journalist Andrew Scott.Scott had written for theatre and television before moving into political journalism. From 2010 he began writing about history and politics, often through his blog, The Pinprick.

He has written extensively for Politico and Byline Times and published a non-fiction book, Fake History, in 2021. Fake History looks at "the 10 biggest lies from history and... at the people who propagated them",including the idea that the British royal family are German, or that Adolf Hitler was a failed artist.

SAM BRIGHT

Sam Bright is Investigations Editor of Byline Times, having led the newspaper's coverage of Government corruption during the pandemic. He previously worked as a reporter and producer for BBC radio and TV. His first book, Fortress London, is out this April.

LEE LAWRENCE

Lee Lawrence is a social entrepreneur who works to help marginalised people find their voice, manage conflict and achieve justice. In 2014, he founded Mobility Enterprises with the hope of aiding those who would otherwise struggle in their daily life by providing public transport for the disabled. In 2016, he founded the Cherry Groce Foundation which exists to enhance the wellbeing of individuals with a physical or mental impairment.

ANTHONY BARNETT

Anthony was the founding editor-in-chief of openDemocracy (2001-7), the co-director of The Convention on Modern Liberty (2009) and the first director of Charter 88 (1988-95). He was a member of the editorial advisory group of the Bureau of Investigative Reporting (2014-18). Anthony has authored and edited numerous books. He also sits on the board of openTrust

Dawn Butler, MP

Dawn Butler is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament or Brent Central since 2015. 

Dawn was named the “most promising feminist under 35” by New Statesman magazine and was honoured as MP of the year at the 2009 Women in Public Life Awards. Since returning to Parliament Dawn was awarded two Patchwork Foundation awards, having been voted People’s Choice 2016 Labour MP of the Year and next receiving the Overall MP of the Year award 2017. In 2020 named one of the 25 most influential women in the UK by Vogue.

CHRIS KEULEMANS

Chris Keulemans is a writer, journalist and lecturer. He is the founder of Perdu, a literary platform, and of de Tolhuistuin, a cultural centre, as well as manager of de Balie, a centre for culture and politics, all of which are in Amsterdam. He has published six books of fiction and non-fiction, and numerous articles about art, political commitment, migration, war, music, cinema and cities in publications such as de Volkskrant and Vrij Nederland

LIZZIE CHO

Lizzie is CEO of Ladbroke Grove based charity Nova New Opportunities, the community partner for the festival. She is a teacher, executive coach and facilitator with an academic background in linguistics, pedagogy, psychology & neuroscience. Lizzie is passionate about challenging structural inequality and connecting people across boundaries to work in ways that are congruent with a positive future for people and the planet.

MARINA PURKISS

Marina Purkiss is a Political commentator, writer and campaigner.  She has over 150,000 Twitter followers who’s been featured on Channel 5's Jeremy Vine show, Byline TV as well as on podcasts for State of the Markets, Wright on the Nail, and The State of Politics.

DR MEENAL VIZ

Dr Meenal Viz is a writer and hospital doctor who also host’s a podcast called Meenal’s world.

AMY HALL

Amy hall is co-editor at New Internationalist magazine. Her work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, Red Pepper, The Ecologist, and openDemocracy where she wrote a column looking at the intersection of the environment, corporate power, Brexit and the British state. Amy has reported on social and environmental justice, activism, travel, politics and the arts from across the UK, Cambodia, India, the US and Belize.

PENNY PEPPER

A genre-defying and versatile writer, Penny Pepper’s work is a mixture of the quirky and the lewd, with a focus on examination of difference and identity. She wrote the taboo-breaking book Desires Reborn in 2012 and in 2013 she won a Creative Futures Literary Award.

In September 2014 her one-woman spoken word show, Lost in Spaces, premiered to strong reviews at Soho Theatre and is due to tour in Autumn 2015. As a performance poet, she has performed over the UK, including London, Edinburgh and further afield in New York.

Besides recent guest slots on Newsnight, Sky News, BBC Radio5Live Hitlist, and columns for The Guardian.

ALASTAIR MORGAN

PAUL MASON

Paul Mason is a journalist, writer and film-maker. His latest book How To Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance describes the rise of the modern far-right, its colonisation of conservatism and right-wing populism, and the danger it poses amid the wider process of democratic decay. It argues that, faced with the danger of a second fascist era, the centre and left should unite around the defence of democracy and the rule of law, and for tough legislation to limit the activities and funding of fascist groups, and for the creation of a grass-roots anti-fascist ethos in society.

OLIVER BULLOUGH

Oliver Bullough is a journalist and author from Wales who moved in 1999 to Russia to work as a journalist. He worked first for local newspapers in St Petersburg and Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), then for Reuters. He stayed in Moscow, mainly reporting on the war in Chechnya, until 2006.

Since leaving Reuters, he has written three books. The first - Let Our Fame be Great - is about the peoples of the North Caucasus, and his travels to find their scattered communities. The second -The Last Man in Russia - is a biography of a dissident Orthodox priest, whose life closely mirrors that of the Russian nation in the 20th century, and sheds light on the demographic tragedy of modern Russia.

The third is called Moneyland, and tells the story of how the world's super-rich have broken free of democratic control, and formed their own nomadic global community.

GERAINT DAVIES, MP

Geraint Davies is a British politician who is the Labour Co-op Member of Parliament for Swansea West. Previously, Davies was the Labour Party MP for Croydon Central from 1997 to 2005. He had also served as the Leader of Croydon London Borough Council.

IAIN OVERTON

Iain Overton is an investigative journalist and filmmaker, Executive Director of the London-based charity Action on Armed Violence and regularly writes for the Guardian. Prior to joining AOAV, Iain worked as a journalist for the BBC, ITN, and Al Jazeera, and worked with The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, and The Sunday Times. For his journalism, Iain has been awarded two Amnesty Media Awards, a Peabody, a BAFTA Scotland, a One World Award, a Prix Circom, and three RTS nominations. He is also a lecturer in human rights investigations at Birkbeck and Edinburgh Napier Universities.

GUN BABY GUN: A BLOODY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF THE GUN, was published by Canongate in January 2016 and was shortlisted for CWA Non-Fiction Dagger.

ELIOT HIGGINS

Eliot Higgins is the founder of Bellingcat and pioneer of online open source investigation, a new investigative methodology that has significantly impacted a range of fields and specialisations, from journalism to justice and accountability. Starting as a blogger and entirely self-taught, Higgins' work has now opened up new ways to investigate a wide range of topics, with Higgins' own investigative work covering topics such at the downing of Malaysian Airlines 17 over Ukraine in July 17, chemical weapon use in Syria and the application of these new investigation techniques to the work of organisations like the International Criminal Court, where Higgins' is part of the Technology Advisory Board.

SIAN NORRIS

Sian Norris is a writer, journalist and feminist activist. She is the founder and director of the Bristol Women's Literature Festival, and the Byline Times’ Chief Social and European Affairs Reporter.

BRITTANY KAISER

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Brittany Kaiser became an impassioned advocate for politics at a young age, spending most of her career working for progressive political campaigns and human rights organizations. She holds degrees in human rights law and international relations from The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, The University of London’s Birkbeck College, and London’s Middlesex University. Brittany worked for Cambridge Analytica in the UK and the U.S. for three and a half years before blowing the whistle on her former employer and the unethical business practices of the global data industry. She is the primary subject of the Netflix Original documentary, The Great Hack, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Brittany is the co-Founder of the Digital Asset Trade Association (DATA) and, with the fundamental belief that data rights are human rights, is focused on using her expertise to advance legislative reform to protect the rights of individuals to control their own digital assets, such as personal data and blockchain tokens. 

JAZZ BHOGAL

Jazz is Assistant Director for Health & Wellbeing and Children & Young Londoners at Greater London Authority.

GEMMA ABBOTT

Legal Director at the Good Law Project, using the law to hold Government to account, and to fight for social justice and equality.

Jonathan Lis is deputy director of the pro-EU think tank British Influence, and a political writer and commentator.

KYLE TAYLOR

Kyle Taylor has spent his career working on issues surrounding data, democracy and the impact of the digital age on society. He is an expert on digital privacy and data issues and acts as Director of Fair Vote UK. Kyle is the author of the Byline-published "The Little Black Book of Data and Democracy" - a beginner's guide to social media and society, which is aimed at adult audiences. He also co-authored "What is the Internet? Let's Go Online" to offer children and parents an accessible way to introduce these complex topics to young people so they are prepared for the digital world.

DR BENTE SCHELLER

Dr. Bente Scheller is head of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Heinrich Boell Foundation, a political foundation close to the German Green Party. Before that, she was head of the foundation’s offices in Lebanon (2012-2019) and Afghanistan (2008-2012). She holds a PhD of FU Berlin and was posted at the German embassy in Damascus from 2002 to 2004. In February 2013 she published her book „The Wisdom of Syria's Waiting Game: Foreign Policy Under the Assads“. Bente Scheller is Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College, London/UK.

SARAH CHURCHWELL

Sarah Churchwell is Professor in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she directs the UK’s national festival of the humanities, the Being Human Festival.  She is the author of Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream (2018), Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby (2014), and The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe (2004), recently adapted into a recent four-part CNN documentary narrated by Jessica Chastain (January 2022) and featuring Churchwell. 

Her latest book is The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells, forthcoming from Bloomsbury/Head of Zeus in July 2022. She comments widely on arts, culture, and politics in print, television, radio, and film, including the New York Review of Books, Guardian, Prospect, TLS, New Statesman, Financial Times, Sunday Times, New York Times, and Spectator, among many others. She was co-winner of the Eccles British Library Writer’s Award in 2015, named by Prospect magazine one of the world’s Top Fifty Thinkers in 2019, and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2021 for her writing on the history of American fascism.

DR MEENAL VIZ

You may already know of Dr Meenal Viz from her activism on better PPE for NHS staff during the pandemic. Whilst six-and-a-half months pregnant, she held a one-woman protest to campaign for the protection of healthcare workers.

Throughout the first lockdown, she took the government to court after healthcare workers were not receiving adequate protection to deal with the pandemic. Her landmark case meant that she changed the law on the guidance to protect healthcare workers, especially those from ethnic minority groups.

After challenging the government, Dr Viz has been working with the United Nations to help get the world vaccinated. She also hosts a podcast, Meenal's World where she speaks to change-makers, activists, and authors. Through these conversations, she hopes to encourage more conversations on creating positive change in society.

AMY HALL

Amy Hall is a co-editor at New Internationalist, an independent magazine covering global social and environmental justice stories. Amy edited the March/April edition on the long-standing movement to abolish prisons, police and the systems that support them.

GAVIN ESLER

Gavin Esler is a journalist, TV presenter and author (most recently) of ‘How Britain Ends’ on how carelessness and incompetence are seeing the UK drift apart.

STEPHEN KINSELLA
Stephen was an EU antitrust lawyer for nearly 40 years, mostly working in Brussels. Since retiring he has established Clean Up The Internet to campaign on the Online Safety Bill, is deputy chair of Reprieve which campaigns against the death penalty and is on the board of Hacked Off.  He was awarded an OBE in 2002 for his services as President of the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Chair of the Brussels Shakespeare Society.  He lives in Stroud.

MATTHEW BISHOP

Matthew Bishop is an award-winning author, UN advisor and global leader in sustainable development. Matthew was a writer and editor at The Economist for over 25 years, including a decade as the magazine’s New York Bureau Chief. He later joined the Rockefeller Foundation to lead the Bellagio Center. He cofounded the Social Progress Index and #givingtuesday, and is a visiting fellow at the LSE Marshall Institute.

TIM WALKER

Tim Walker is a playwright, author, broadcaster and British Press Award-winning journalist. He has worked in staff positions on The Observer, the Daily Mail and the Sunday Telegraph. More recently, he has written columns for the Daily Mirror, and, currently, The New European. He stood briefly as the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate in Canterbury in the last election. Star Turns, his latest book, is an anthology of interviews he conducted with leading actors over the past 30 years. The run of Bloody Difficult Women, his debut play at the Riverside Studios in west London, was extended earlier this year due to popular demand. It is now available online at https://www.bloodydifficultwomen.co.uk

PETER TATCHELL

Peter Tatchell has campaigned for human rights, democracy, global justice and LGBT freedom for 55 years.His human rights activism resulted in him being badly beaten by President Mugabe's bodyguards in 2001 and by Russian neo-Nazis in 2007. He is Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation: www.PeterTatchellFoundation.org