The Stand-In

Deborah Moggach is an internationally bestselling and Sunday Times bestselling British author and screenwriter. She has written more than 20 novels, including The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Ex-Wives, Tulip Fever, These Foolish Things, The Black Dress and The Heartbreak Hotel. She has adapted many of her novels as TV dramas and has also written several film scripts, including the BAFTA-nominated screenplay for Pride & Prejudice. She has also written two collections of short stories and a stage play. In February 2005, Moggach was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by her Alma Mater, the University of Bristol. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a former Chair of the Society of Authors and is on the executive committee of PEN.

Heather Long is a RADA-trained English actor and narrator based in London who has voiced over 100 audiobooks and was recently nominated for a 2025 Speakies Award for Caroline Darian’s memoir I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again. Her credits span contemporary fiction (Holly Bourne, Abigail Bergstrom), classics (the complete works of Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf), and children’s literature (Enid Blyton). Heather’s voice work has featured on BBC Radio 4, BBC Sounds, Channel 4, and The Discovery Channel, with commercial campaigns for Tesco, British Airways, and Virgin.