About Us

Kestrel Books Ltd is a family-owned, independent publishing company founded in 2004. The company's creative headquarters are at Cwrt Isaf in the Glamorgan village of Tythegston in Wales. The company name derives from the familiar sight of kestrels hovering and swooping nearby.

kestrel ['kestrl] n small falcon (especially Falco tinnunculus) often hovering in the air with its head to the wind.
(Oxford Concise Dictionary)

Authors and contributors (in alphabetical order)

Meg Anthony holds an MA in The History of Art from the Courtauld Institute, London. She worked as an art conservator and a curator at the Glyn Vivian Art Museum, Swansea, where she curated several shows of national importance. She is currently senior curator at the Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen, Wales.

Felix Bennett gained a First at the Camberwell College of Art and is now a highly regarded illustrator working for publications in both the UK and USA.

Gavin Cromwell was born in Newport, South Wales. A gifted psychic as a child, he has been hailed as a rising star of the genre. He is currently filming a TV series for UK, Canadian and US distribution in October 2008.

Anthony Cutler. Born in the UK. He read History at London University. He is the author of more than 20 EFL publications available in the UK and mainland Europe.

Jill Doubleday was born in the UK and has substantial experience in teaching EFL at all levels. She is currently studying for an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Southampton, UK.

Robert Teed read English at Cambridge University. He taught English at secondary level before becoming a freelance journalist. He is the co-creator of the 'Yooni' strip cartoon for the Times Higher Educational Supplement and 'Lexiconfusion' for the Times Review.

Oscar Fauvarges. Born in Chatham, England, Fauvarges experienced a peripatitetic childhood in the UK, central Europe and Africa. His circumstances dictated the development of a playful, dry but humane sense of humour.

Joanna Howells. Born near Rugby, UK, Joanna Howells read Medicine at Cambridge University before going on to art school, then training as a studio potter. Howells has an international reputation as a ceramicist and also illustrates when time permits.

Richard Jacobs is Professor Emeritus at the University of California Pomona. An inter-disciplanarian he helped establish a national US interdisciplanary curriculum. He is also a noted collector of craft and has a growing international reputation as a commentator on modern studio ceramics.

Esther Jones was born to Jewish parents in Germany in the 1920s. With a father already in a concentration camp and her mother in apparent safety in Holland, Esther Jones was left to take charge of her younger siblings. She escaped to Britain with the children on the 'kindertranspor' just days before her 16th birthday. Had she been forced to stay a few more days, neither she nor her brothers and sisters would have been allowed to leave. Her mother and father perished in the death camps during WWII.

Tom Ladislaw read Medieveal and Modern History at King's College, London. He has been a freelance writer for thirty years, living and travelling in Scandinavia, the Balkans and the Middle East. The major concern in almost all his writing is for the individual caught up in the sweep of history.

Matthew J Lyddon. Born in the UK, he took a First Class Honours in Politics with Social Philosophy with Applied Ethics. Matthew is now completing a PhD at Cardiff University.

Litta Magnus-Andersen. The daughter of WWII chanteuse Lale Andersen, she married a Canadian national at war's end. The 1981 biography of her mother 'Lale Andersen - Die Lili Marleen' corrects many of the myths associated with her mother's life and the period.

Prof Mats Oscarson. Born in Sweden, Prof Oscarson is an international authority in Language Testing and Assessment as well as a language teaching materials writer.

Colum Regan was born in County Cork, Ireland. He studied drums and piano as well as attending Drama School. By his mid-teens Colum had already been in many stage productions and was drumming with two different rock bands. Colum teaches music, performs solo and with groups such as Mabons and is a regular at World Music festivals.

Kerry Sanson was born in Manchester. After Drama School she taught music and drama to children and adults of all ages as well as touring worldwide as a performer with Spin Rock Candy and New Druids. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and continues to teach and perform.

Our Location

Tythegston is a tiny village between the towns of Bridgend and Porthcawl, which are themselves about halfway between Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and the city of Swansea.

Tythegston is about one mile from the sea, where part of the Atlantic Ocean muscles up the Bristol Channel to create the highest tide in Europe. At Rest Bay in Porthcawl surfers enjoy one of the best spots in Britain for surfing. Nature lovers can roam the high sand dunes between Porthcawl and the estuary of the river Ogmore. The dunes are so impresive that they are regularly used as film locations. Credits include some scenes in David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia'. Famous athletes, including world champion hurdler Colin Jackson and legendary international rugby players like JPR and JJ Williams trained there, and still do, for the sheer, exhilarating beauty of the place. The scenery has provided long-term inspiration for poets and novelists, such as Dannie Abse and Robert Minhinnick.

Fossil hunters can enjoy the geological formations laid bare by wind and sea at Southerndown, or walkers to the west of Porthcawl can stand at the top of a sand dune and look down into the tower of an eleventh century church buried by the encroaching sand hundreds of years ago.

Kestrel Books is delighted that modern technology allows companies like ours to establish themselves in such places and still communicate swiftly and effectively with the rest of the world.