Meet the judges of our Read for READ competition

Clare Alexander

Clarebecame an agent in 1998 after more than 20 years as a publisher, latterly as Publisher of Viking and Editor-in-chief of Macmillan.  Clare specialises in literary and commercial fiction, and novelists whom she represents include Clare Allan, Clare Clark, Emma Darwin, Sarah Dunant,  Diana Evans, Julia Gregson, Mark Haddon, Mohammed Hanif , Virginia Ironside, Liz Jensen, Lucy Kellaway, Jennie Rooney, James Scudamore, Gillian Slovo, Frank Tallis and Penny Vincenzi. She also represents bestselling children’s book author Louise Rennison.

She represents a number of writers of narrative non-fiction, including Philip Ball, John Cornwell, Mary Laven, Caroline Moorehead, Lyndal Roper, Ben Shephard, Nicholas Stargardt, Rory Stewart, Adam Tooze and Andrew Wilson, and specialises in the areas of history and memoir.

Clare was vice president of the Association of Authors’ Agents from 2004 – 2006 and president 2006 – 2008.  Clare is a member of the Women's Committee of the Orange Prize. She was named Orion Publishing Group Literary Agent of the Year at the 2007 British Book Industry Awards and was awarded the 2008 Kim Scott Walwyn Prize, which honours outstanding achievements by women in publishing.

Sonny Leong

Sonny has over 25 years of publishing experience, having worked in various academic and professional publishing houses. He founded Cavendish Publishing and developed it to be the largest independent academic law publisher in the UK before it was acquired by Informa PLC.

He was formerly the Chairman and now Hon President of the Independent Publishers Guild, former Chair of International Division and Council member of the Publishers Association in the UK. He was Chair of Book Power, a registered UK charity which makes available specially selected, unabridged editions of international, tertiary-level textbooks to students in developing countries, and is involved with various consortiums in donor agency projects. He is the Ambassador for the Help the Aged promoting their policies to Ministers and MPs and Peers.

He is Council member and chair of the publishing division of the Singapore-British Business Council (SBBC), a joint governmental programme for promoting bilateral trade between the two countries. Recently, he has worked tirelessly in setting up the All Party Parliamentary Group on Publishing with Members of Parliament.

Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz Manzoor was born in Pakistan and arrived in Britain with his family in 1974 when he was two years old. The family lived in Luton and his father worked on the production line at the Vauxhall car factory. Manzoor revisited his childhood in his hugely acclaimed memoir 'Greetings from Bury Park' which was published in both Britain and the United States in 2007. The book explored with wit, warmth and candour the struggles of identity and belonging that Manzoor confronted in being both Pakistani, Muslim and British. In addition to being an author Sarfraz Manzoor is also a writer, journalist and broadcaster. His output ranges across print, radio and television. He is a contracted writer for The Guardian newspaper for which he contributes features and comment and he has also written for Esquire and The Spectator magazines. He also appears regularly on BBC radio and television both as a documentary presenter and as a highly sought after cultural commentator. www.sarfrazmanzoor.co.uk

Mary Canavan

Mary Canavan is the Director of Human Resources at the British Library. Mary joined the British Library in 2003. Prior to this she developed her career in London local government, working for five diverse and politically different local authorities. During this time she occupied a variety of senior management positions and human resource management positions, developing HR strategies in the context of local government, where modernising HR has been high on the agenda.

At the British Library Mary is responsible for two portfolios: Developing a Modernising People Strategy to facilitate the delivery of the Library's strategic priorities together with leading the Library's Intergrated Risk Management Portfolio. Mary was voted HR Director of the Year at the HR Excellence Awards in 2005.