Alex is a historian, broadcaster and screenwriter. The most recent of her five books, Fallen Idols, was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2022. Her debut, Indian Summer, was an international bestseller. Her feature film debut, Churchill (2017), had an international theatrical release, and starred Brian Cox. She has also written episodes of Medici (Netflix), starring Richard Madden and Dustin Hoffman. She writes History’s Secret Heroes for BBC Radio 4, narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, and wrote and presented The Lucan Obsession (Radio 4), one of The Observer’s top ten podcasts of 2024.

Alexandra was Editorial Director at Virago Press in the 1980s and Editorial Director at Hamish Hamilton and a literary agent at Toby Eady Associates in the 1990s. In 1999 she joined Bloomsbury Publishing where she was Editor-in-Chief for over twenty years. 

She is on the Advisory Board of the Bradford Literature Festival and a Patron of Index on Censorship.  She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Letters from Anglia Ruskin University and Warwick University. She is Visiting Professor at the Centre For Fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

She is writing a memoir, Caravan, to be published by Canongate in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US in 2027.

Faiza is former Consulting Editor at Bloomsbury UK. She has worked with critically acclaimed authors with a special interest in emerging voices from around the world. She currently works as a freelance editor with publishers and literary agents in London, and as a mentor for writers. She leads writing and editing workshops for international cultural institutions including the National Museum of Sweden in Stockholm and the Academy of Art and Design in Basel.