Amanda Craig is a British novelist, critic and journalist. She was a recipient of the Catherine Pakenham Award.
Doris May Lessing was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia, where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).
Julie Burchill is an English writer. Beginning as a staff writer at the New Musical Express at the age of 17, she has since contributed to newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. Her writing, which was described by The Observer in 2002 as "outrageously outspoken" and "usually offensive," has been the subject of legal action. Burchill is also a novelist, and her 2004 novel Sugar Rush was adapted for television.
Helen Fielding is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, and a sequence of novels and films beginning with the life of a thirty-something singleton in London trying to make sense of life and love. Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1999) were published in 40 countries and sold more than 15 million copies. The two films of the same name achieved international success. In a survey conducted by The Guardian newspaper, Bridget Jones's Diary was named as one of the ten novels that best defined the 20th century.
Alison Hammond is a British television personality and actress. She competed in the third series of the reality show Big Brother in 2002, in which she was the second housemate to be evicted. She has since become a presenter and reporter on ITV's This Morning (2002–present) and a co-presenter on the Channel 4 reality baking competition The Great British Bake Off (2023–present). In January 2024, it was announced that Hammond would take over For the Love of Dogs from Paul O'Grady, following his death in March 2023.
"Chav", also "charver", "scally" and "roadman" in parts of England, is a British term, usually used in a pejorative way. The term is used to describe an anti-social lower-class youth dressed in sportswear. The use of the word has been described as a form of "social racism". "Chavette" is a related term referring to female chavs, and the adjectives "chavvy", "chavvish", and "chavtastic" are used to describe things associated with chavs, such as fashion, slang, etc. In other countries like Ireland, "Skanger" is used in a similar manner. In Canada, in the province of British Columbia they're known as "Surrey jacks". In Ontario, the term is "hoodman", an equivalent of the term "roadman" used in England. In Newfoundland, "skeet" is used in a similar way, while in Australia, "eshay" or "adlay" is used.
Susie Dent is an English lexicographer, etymologist, and media personality. She has appeared in "Dictionary Corner" on the Channel 4 game show Countdown since 1992. She also appears on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, a post-watershed comedy version of the show.
Kimberley Gail Marsh is an English actress, television presenter and singer. In 2001, she won a place in the band Hear'Say as a result of appearing on the reality television series Popstars. Hear'Say enjoyed brief success, achieving two UK number one singles and a UK number one album, but Marsh left the band in 2002 to pursue a solo career. She released an album titled Standing Tall in 2003, which peaked at number nine in the UK and spawned two UK top ten singles.
Frederick Handel "Fred" Elliott is a fictional character from the English ITV soap opera Coronation Street played by John Savident. He made his first appearance during the episode airing on 26 August 1994. Savident quit the role in 2005 and Fred died on-screen on 11 October 2006.
Marco Pierre White is a British chef, restaurateur, and television personality. In 1995, aged 33, White became the first British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars. He has trained notable chefs such as Mario Batali, Shannon Bennett, Gordon Ramsay, Curtis Stone, Phil Howard and Stephen Terry. He has been dubbed "the first celebrity chef" and the enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene.
MasterChef is a British competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2005 as MasterChef Goes Large. The revival featured a new format devised by Franc Roddam and John Silver, with Karen Ross producing. In 2008, the name was changed back to MasterChef but the format remained unchanged.
Marina Hyde is an English journalist. She joined The Guardian newspaper in 2000 and, as one of the newspaper's columnists, writes three articles each week on current affairs, celebrity, and sport.
Anne Teresa Enright is an Irish writer. The first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015–2018) and winner of the Man Booker Prize (2007), she has published seven novels, many short stories, and a non-fiction work called Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, about the birth of her two children. Her essays on literary themes have appeared in the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books, and she writes for the books pages of The Irish Times and The Guardian. Her fiction explores themes such as family, love, identity and motherhood.
MasterChef: The Professionals is a BBC television competitive cooking show which aired on BBC Two from 2008 to 2019, and on BBC One since 2020. It is a spin-off from the main MasterChef series, for professional working chefs. Introduced in 2008, Gregg Wallace and India Fisher reprised their roles as co-judge and voiceover respectively. Michel Roux Jr., a two-Michelin-star chef, assisted, from 2009, by his sous-chef Monica Galetti. Since 2011, Sean Pertwee has taken over Fisher's role as voiceover.
Shipra Khanna is an Indian celebrity chef, restaurateur, author and television personality. She is best known for, at the age of 29, winning the second season of the Indian television show MasterChef India (2012) which aired on Star Plus.
Judith Mary Murray, OBE is a Scottish tennis coach. She is the mother of professional tennis players Jamie and Sir Andy Murray.
Samantha Ann Quek, MBE is an English television personality and former field hockey player. She played as a defender for both the England and Great Britain teams, wearing squad number 13, and won gold as part of the British team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Diary of a Chav is a young adult series that was written by the English journalist, author, and broadcaster Grace Dent. The series consists of six books that were originally released in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2009. An attempt to publish the books overseas in the United States was largely unsuccessful and only the first two books, re-titled for American publication, were released.
Karen Muriel Cecile Gibson is a choir conductor and workshop leader with London's The Kingdom Choir, which she founded in 1993. She led the Kingdom Choir's gospel performance of "Stand by Me" at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018, after which she was described as "Britain’s godmother of gospel".
Judy Veronica Thomas, known professionally as Judi Love, is an English stand-up comedian and presenter. She is a regular panellist on the ITV talk show Loose Women. As well as competing on the BBC competition series MasterChef, Love also competed in the nineteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, finishing in tenth place; and the thirteenth series of Taskmaster.
