A.J. Mackinnon was born in Australia in 1963 and travelled as a boy on P&O liners between Australia and England, developing a love of slow travel. He has taught in schools around the world, sharing his passion for English literature, mathematics, drama, art and philosophy with countless students. He now lives in the Victorian High Country of Australia. He is the author of the international bestseller The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow, as well as The Well at the World's End …

Tom Griffiths is the W K Hancock Professor of History at the Australian National University and his books include Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica and The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft. His books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics and journalism, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History, the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate, and the Douglas Stewart and Nettie …

Mark McKenna is one of Australia’s leading historians, based at the University of Sydney. He is the author of several prize-winning books, including From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories, Looking for Blackfellas’ Point and An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark, which won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction and the Victorian, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian premiers’ awards.

Author photo by Mia McDonald

Hugh White is the author of The China Choice and Quarterly Essay 39, Power Shift. He is professor of strategic studies at ANU and was the principal author of Australia’s Defence White Paper 2000.

Daniel Seaton is a writer and historian. He is a researcher for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was previously a research scholar at the Australian War Memorial. His writing has appeared in Australian Book Review, Overland and Openbook. His forthcoming book is Truth Under Fire.