Miss Benson's Beetle

Rachel Joyce (Author)
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.
Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Rachel has written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family near Stroud.

Juliet Stevenson (Reader)
Juliet Stevenson is one of the most respected actors of her generation. Having studied at RADA, she has spent much of her stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
Her many films include Truly, Madly, Deeply (for which she won The Evening Standard Film award for Best Actress), Emma, Nicholas Nickleby, Mona Lisa Smile and Bend It Like Beckham.She was awarded the CBE in 1999.

Rachel Joyce (Author)
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.
Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Rachel has written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family near Stroud.

Juliet Stevenson (Reader)
Juliet Stevenson is one of the most respected actors of her generation. Having studied at RADA, she has spent much of her stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
Her many films include Truly, Madly, Deeply (for which she won The Evening Standard Film award for Best Actress), Emma, Nicholas Nickleby, Mona Lisa Smile and Bend It Like Beckham.She was awarded the CBE in 1999.