The Twelve

Liz Hyder is an award-winning author, an experienced workshop leader and an award-winning arts PR consultant. Her debut young adult novel Bearmouth won the Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Award for Older Readers and was published in America, France, Norway, Italy and the Czech Republic as well as the UK and throughout the Commonwealth. Hyder's debut book for adults, The Gifts, was a runner-up for the McKitterick Prize, and a second book for adults, The Illusions, was published in 2023. Her latest young adult book, The Twelve, was the winner of the 2024 Nero Book Awards prize for Children's Fiction.

Rose Riley is a British actor and has worked extensively across theatre, film and TV. Notable theatre credits include: Macbeth, starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma; award-nominated Othello at the Riverside Studios, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in London’s West End for the National Theatre. Rose is best known on screen as Sandy Talbot in BBC’s Call the Midwife. Rose is also a Michael Chekhov practitioner, teaching acting in leading UK drama schools and institutions.