This is the list of our awesome judges:
Arabella Dorman
Arabella enjoys a prominent reputation as a public speaker, fundraiser, and has recently been awarded winner of the Oman Masterpiece 2021. She was listed as one of BBC’s Top 100 Women and Salt Magazine’s 100 Most Inspiring Women. Her humanitarian work has been profiled across national and international television, radio and print, including New York Times, BBC, CNN, Aljizeera, Radio 4, BBC World Service, and featured on the front cover of The Times, The Guardian and The Sunday Times Magazine.
Winner of the Global Mosaic Award 2019, and shortlisted for the Arts & Christianity Awards 2019, Arabella’s installations Flight and Suspended have been globally acclaimed in raising awareness about the consequences of war and the forced displacement of people. First premiered in St James’s Church Piccadilly, Suspended toured the UK, and was most notably hung in Canterbury and Leicester cathedrals (2017/18). Suspended is now on exhibit in Thomas’s School Battersea, London.
Edna Fernandes
Edna is an author and Director/Co-Founder of Beyond Conflict, the mental health charity for victims of war. She was born in Nairobi before moving to London where she grew up. Her first book Holy Warriors was a finalist for the international 2008 Index on Censorship Prize and nominated for India’s Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Best Book Award. Her second book, The Last Jews of Kerala, was a finalist for India’s 2009 Vodafone Crossword Literary prize and a UK Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year. In 2018, Edna released her third book, The Hollow Kingdom: ISIS and the Cult of Jihad. It was whilst researching her third book that Edna came across the issue of the lack of mental health support for civilians in warzones like Iraq, which inspired the formation of Beyond Conflict in January 2018. In its first six years, BC has supported five mental health projects for: widows and orphans in Iraq; training Rohingya refugee camp frontline workers in Bangladesh; Ukrainian refugees; Palestinians in the West Bank impacted by the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis; and youngsters affected by the 2023 Hamas attack on the Nova music festival in Israel. Her work has been published in newspapers around the world.
Svetlana Quigley
Svetlana is a professional artist and educator with a BA degree in art from St.Petersburg Russia and PGSE teaching qualification in the UK. Having 20 years experience of teaching children in Russian Art Schools, Primary and Secondary art departments in England she has developed her own program of study, where she uses the best methods of 2 countries. Svetlana has organised and taken part in “Take one picture” The national gallery, London 2008; “Russian folklore through children eyes “, Hall Place and gardens, Bexley, Kent 2010; “Second World War in Bexley”, Hall place and gardens, Bexley, Kent, 2011; “Paralympic heritage”, Hall place and garden, Bexley, Kent 2012, and many others.
Gulnara Cefer
Born and raised in Azerbaijan, Gulnara discovered her innate talent for drawing at an early age, standing out among her peers at school. Her journey as an artist has been marked by numerous personal exhibitions and participation in art symposiums across her homeland.
Following her artistic education in Azerbaijan and Russia, Gulnara embarked on a fulfilling career as an art teacher, sharing her knowledge and passion with students in secondary schools and art institutions. In 2009, she made a significant move to London, where she showcased her works in both local and international exhibitions.
Beyond her exhibitions, Gulnara shares her passion for art as an educator, while also creating commissioned pieces. Currently, she is diligently preparing for her second personal exhibition in London.
Her art is influenced by her fascination with the history and traditions of various cultures, particularly evident in her portrayal of national costumes. Through her paintings, she offers a window into the rich tapestry of global heritage.
Robin Stevens
Robin Stevens is the bestselling and award-winning author of the Murder Most Unladylike series. She was born in California and grew up in an Oxford college, across the road from the house where Alice in Wonderland lived.
When she was twelve, her father handed her a copy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and she realised that she wanted to be Agatha Christie when she grew up. She spent her teenage years at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, reading a lot of murder mysteries and hoping that she’d get the chance to do some detecting herself (she didn’t). She went to university, where she studied crime fiction, and then worked at a children's publisher.
Robin is now a full-time author, and lives in Oxford with her family. Her latest book is the Ministry of Unladylike Activity.
Abi Salvesen
Abi Elphinstone grew up in Scotland where she spent most of her childhood running wild across the moors, hiding in tree houses and building dens in the woods. After being coaxed out of her tree house, she studied English at Bristol University and then worked as an English teacher in Tanzania, Berkshire and London. She is the bestselling and multi-award shortlisted author of Saving Neverland, The Unmapped Chronicles (Everdark, Rumblestar, Jungledrop, The Crackledawn Dragon), Sky Song, The Dreamsnatcher trilogy and, for younger readers, The Snow Dragon and The Frost Goblin. When she's not writing Abi volunteers for Beanstalk, speaks in schools and travels the world looking for her next story. Her latest adventures include living with the Kazakh Eagle Hunters in Mongolia and dog-sledding across the Arctic.
Lucy Strange
Lucy Strange is an award-winning children’s author who lives in the heart of the Kent countryside. Lucy’s critically acclaimed books capture elements of classic children’s literature in a style that is engaging and accessible for today’s younger readers. Often inspired by folklore and fairy tales, Lucy combines historical settings with touches of magic and fantasy to create utterly convincing worlds in which anything might happen.
Dan Smith
Growing up, Dan Smith led three lives. In one he survived the day-to-day humdrum of boarding school, while in another he travelled the world, finding adventure in the paddy fields of South East Asia and the jungles of Brazil. The third life he lived in a world of his own, making up stories.
Dan has written several novels for younger readers, including Nisha’s War, She Wolf, and My Friend the Enemy. Dan is also the author of the sci-fi horror adventures The Crooked Oak Mysteries.