Son of the Sea

Richard Pickard grew up in Hertfordshire and loved spending time by the sea where much of the inspiration for his stories has been found. Richard’s debut novel, The Peculiar Tale of the Tentacle Boy, won the inaugural Chairman’s Choice prize as part of the Times/Chicken House children’s fiction competition in 2019. His love of storytelling started at a young age, through a passion for literature but also for cinema.

Sid Sagar is an award-winning London-based actor, writer, playwright and facilitator who has an Indian background. He grew up abroad and has lived in England since the age of eight. He studied at the University of Bristol and trained with the National Youth Theatre, Identity School of Acting and the Writers’ Lab at Soho Theatre. As an actor, he regularly works on stage and screen. As a writer, his short plays have been produced at various venues in London, including Southwark Playhouse, Theatre503 and Rich Mix. He’s currently under commission to the Almeida Theatre, Middle Child Theatre and BBC Radio 4. Sagar's first full length play, Dark Faces in the Night, was shortlisted for the Finborough Theatre’s ETPEP Award and was one of the winners of Rose Theatre Kingston’s inaugural New Writing Festival. Sagar is a proficient audiobook narrator who has more than 45 audiobook under his belt. He won an AudioFile Earphones Award for his narration of Victory City by Booker Prize–winning author Salman Rushdie. The judges commented that 'Sagar's narrative skill spans drama, humor, and suspense with equal alacrity, and the effect is thoroughly engaging'.