Christopher Priest was the author of 18 novels, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and World Fantasy Award winner The Prestige, which was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film of the same name, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. In 2017 he was the keynote speaker for the J. G. Ballard & The Sciences Conference at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Nina Allan is a novelist and critic. Her work has previously won the British Science Fiction Award and the Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire, and been shortlisted for the Hugo Award and the Prix Femina Etranger.

Nina and Christopher first met in 2004. The two began living together in 2011, and talked incessantly of writers and writing for the next 13 years. Unsurprisingly, one of the names that cropped up most frequently was that of J.G. Ballard.