Our Authors

Karl Swainston is a writer and storyteller whose work is forged from a life lived across the North of England and far beyond. Growing up on a Leeds council estate in the 1960s, Karl's journey was anything but linear. By the age of thirty, he had already lived a dozen lives: from the rigors of grammar school to a degree in Latin, a stint as a fishmonger, a period of discovery living in Marseille, and a return to the hustle of London. Whether working as a postman, a builder, or competing as a county-level chess player, he was, above all, an avid reader, constantly documenting the world around him.

This restless spirit continued into his professional life. Karl later taught in Bradford, where he ran a specialist unit for 244 of the most excluded students from across the region, young people whom even the local Pupil Referral Units could not accommodate. Working alongside his old friend Malcolm, Karl spent his days navigating the volatility of Bradford's most aggressive and dysfunctional teenagers.

Throughout his life, Karl has been an avid runner and has always shared his home with a rotating cast of beloved dogs and cats, companions who have been constant witnesses to his work.

As a writer, Karl's range is as expansive as his history. He works across a wide breadth of genres, including fiction and short stories, autobiography and memoir, biography, non-fiction, and metaphysical writing, as well as providing sharp commentary, opinion, analysis, and essays. Whether writing about his years managing the Harrogate Arms or offering insights from his current adopted home in South East India, where he lives in a simple village with his dog, Bambi, Karl's voice reflects the full, untidy, and deeply human breadth of life. He continues to draw on the rich, decades-long tapestry of his experiences to tell stories that matter, proving that no matter where you live, the human story remains the same.

Bernard Hare is a freelance writer from Leeds, best known for his 2004 memoir Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, a true account of his experiences with a gang of runaway children living in a garden shed in Leeds in the 1990s. The book reached the UK bestsellers list and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. It has since been adapted for the big screen as I Am Urban, starring Richard Armitage, Anna Friel, and Charlie Heaton. Between books, Bernard has written for the Guardian and presented short stories for BBC Radio 4. His second book, Patzers, is a love letter to chess and the culture surrounding it across six decades.

Olivera Andonoska (b. 1980, Prilep, North Macedonia) is a philologist and proofreader specializing in the Macedonian language. She is the author of the poetry collection We Are Eva, which received the Antevo Pero Award in 2025, and the short story collection How I Killed Vera and How She Was Reborn. She has also published children’s books. Her poetry and prose have appeared in literary magazines, and she has participated in literary festivals. In addition to her own writing, Andonoska works as an editor on a range of publications.

Manny Wheelman is a character who needs no introduction to anyone who has spent time in the chess clubs and backstreets of Belle Isle, Leeds. Equal parts philosopher and provocateur, Manny has a habit of defeating people who underestimate him, on the chessboard and off it. A writer of essays, academic works, and sharp social commentary, his writing carries the same dry intelligence and quiet menace that has unsettled better-credentialed men for decades. Belle Isle's finest export.

Stacey Melbourne is a writer of darkly comic gothic fiction. Frankenstein and Dracula: A Most Inconvenient Courtship is her first piece for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan.

Sarah Boteccini is a writer and commentator. A Day Being Thick is her first piece for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan.

Harry Georgiou is the owner of Swifty Clearances, a waste clearance business. He writes about responsible waste disposal, fly-tipping prevention, and the practical steps households and businesses can take to avoid inadvertently funding illegal waste operations.

Patrick Bollaty writes about the publishing industry, its closed social networks, and the barriers that working-class and regional writers still face. His work examines how access, not talent, frequently determines who gets published and who does not.

Stanley Bolt is a writer and commentator. The London Publishing Clique is his first piece for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan.

Shafin Rahman is a poet, published in Tales From A Harrogate Caravan's poetry section.

Jackie Hilloughby lives in the Worcestershire countryside with her husband and two children. She has been writing for over fifteen years and has a particular love of Victorian fiction, its drawing rooms, its secrets, and the quiet tragedies that unfold behind closed doors. Her work explores the tension between duty and desire, the weight of inheritance, and the cost of a life lived according to other people’s expectations. The Duke of Atlantica was her first novella for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan; The Duke of Rutland is her second.

Malcolm Sinatra is a singer and writer from Leeds. He has performed on the open-mic circuit for over a decade and writes about what he has seen from the stage.

Backbone Brian writes humorous commentary on British life, motorcycles and the many things men take far too seriously.

Liam Barrantine is 56 and lives in North Yorkshire with his family. He holds a degree in criminology and worked for many years as a forensic investigator, an experience which informs the procedural detail and the slow unravelling of evidence in his fiction. He has a particular interest in murder mysteries, the mechanics of a crime, the inconsistencies in witness accounts, the small things that do not fit. The Rain Over Leeds is his first novel.

Diana Randel-Claire-Blake is a lifelong believer in love, laughter, flowers, and the little miracles that make every day worth getting out of bed for. At 75, Diana still believes that it is never too late to find happiness, wear far too much purple, drink tea from an excessively sentimental mug, and fall hopelessly in love with life all over again. Inspired by the beauty of ordinary moments, she writes stories about second chances, everlasting love, lakeside walks, cups of coffee, and the mysterious magic that happens when two hearts simply refuse to give up on each other.

Mark Rolandson writes short fiction set in the towns and suburbs of Greater Manchester. His stories turn on small everyday moments, a compliment, a missed bus, a sandwich left on a bench, and the quiet ways people talk each other into things. The Man Who Praised Too Much is his first story for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan.

Terry Farland writes gothic fiction set on the North Sea coast. His work draws on the photography, fishing and folklore of Yorkshire's coastal villages, and the uneasy line between what the camera records and what the sea returns. The Anchored Dead is his first novel for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan.

Gemma Bright writes about the people nobody photographs and the places nobody pretends to like. She is not sentimental about cities, crowds, or the small cruelties people commit on each other in public. She has no image, no patience, and no interest in being liked by the people she describes.

Gareth Pennington is a political writer from Staffordshire. He writes about governing, consequences, and the gap between the politics of the present and the political world that produced Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. He is not especially interested in slogans.

Tracy Singleton is a poet from Salford. She writes about the city as it is rather than as it is remembered, the drizzle, the boarded pubs, the walk along the Quays, and the quiet suspicion that the real life is happening somewhere else.

Stephanie Rogers writes about art, architecture, and the visual culture of the early twentieth century.

Writer at Norse & Interesting | Poet, Storyteller, Essayist | Founder and GM of Norse and Interesting.

Glen Bushey lives in Southampton. He is a lifelong music fan and a Dylan obsessive, and writes about the places where song, poetry and older literature meet. His work for Tales From A Harrogate Caravan reads Dylan alongside Dante, and looks for the shared structures that run underneath both.

Born and bred in Shipley. A joiner, poet and writer of plays, drama, and short stories. Lives with his wife and best mate, who's a bricklayer from Fagley.

Benjamin Jones is a historical fiction author fascinated by the people and engineering that shaped the British landscape.

Trevor Brent writes science fiction.

Jill Freeman is a writer and yoga teacher from Newcastle, now living and working in Scotland. She is 28 years old. Her writing is drawn from the working-class communities of the North East, and she is fascinated by the stories of ambition, failure, and concealment that play out in ordinary high streets and industrial estates. The Crown of Ashes is her first novel.