Committee Chairs

Nominated by the members of each committee and ratified by the Executive Committee.

Carole was born in Wales and read history at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, subsequently taking an MA at Sussex University. Her most recent book is Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, first wife of T.S. Eliot, also published in the US where she was awarded a Paul Mellon Visiting Fellowship at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Painted Shadow was serialised in the Observer and the Daily Mail, and publicity included the keynote speech at the Cheltenham Literary Festival 2001, speaking at many literary festivals and on BBC `Front Row'. Previously Carole wrote a biography of Beatrice Webb, and an official centenary history of an international women's NGO, The World YWCA. She has also written on refugees and homelessness for Heinemann Educational. Carole reviews regularly for the Literary Review, and has published in the New Statesman and THES. While her three children were young, she taught History to adults in Surrey University's extra-mural department, and in sixth form college. A long-standing member of English PEN, she served on the Executive Committee 1997-2001, and on the Books to Prisoners Committee. She joined the WiPC in 2001, and recently undertook a mission to Belarus on behalf of Prof Yury Bandazhevsky. She is currently researching a joint life of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir for Century.

Chair of the Readers and Writers Committee: Lindsay Mackie

Lindsay Mackie was a journalist for The Guardian, specialising in race and home affairs, film critic with The Herald and arts feature writer with The Scotsman. She subsequently worked on Hansard campaigns with Lord Lester, young people's citizenship campaigns, an education campaign to set up Reading for Pleasure clubs in secondary schools and Reading for Pleasure seminars for schools at The Guardian Newsroom. She is currently working with UK Film Council on a programme to set up film clubs in all UK schools.

Chair of the Writers in Translation Committee: Julian Evans

Julian Evans works as a writer and literary critic with a broad range of interests. Apart from writing in the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Prospect magazine and the French quarterly L'Atelier du Roman, he has written and presented many radio documentaries on literary subjects, including Radio 3's 20-part series on the European novel, The Romantic Road (2000-2). Julian has long been convinced of the necessity for an independent literature and the independence of writers - one of his first pieces for the Guardian was an essay on Russian literature after perestroika. In 2005 he contributed to Free Expression is No Offence, English PEN's collection of essays in defence of free expression, and for the last three years he has acted as Deputy Chair of English PEN's Writers in Translation committee. He translates from French and German and is a founding member of the Comité pour la Francophonie Littéraire, an international group of writers dedicated to maintaining the links between francophone writers and readers. Julian is currently writing the authorised biography of the writer Norman Lewis, to be published by Jonathan Cape in 2008.

Chair of the Events Committee: Deborah Moggach

Deborah Moggarch has written 15 novels, including "Tulip Fever", "Porky" and her latest, "These Foolish Things". Her TV screenplays include "Final Demand", "Close Relations", "Love in a Cold Climate" and the prize winning "Goggle Eyes." She has also written two books of short stories. Her movie adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" starring Keira Knightley, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench, will be released next year. She's a former member of PEN executive (twice), a former Chairman of the Society of Authors, and a Fellow of the RSL.