DAN VAN DER VAT, author and journalist, was a foreign correspondent on The Times of London for a decade, and later Chief Foreign Leaderwriter on The Guardian until he left to write books on naval history and related subjects.Of his dozen books, three won awards, two were bestsellers and his work has been translated into 14 languages. He still writes occasionally for The Guardian.
MICHELE WHITBY manages the "Par Ici" shop in Twickenham, where the work of local artists and craftspeople, several of them still based on Eel Pie Island, is sold. Before that she spent 12 years running a workshop on the island, where she produced top-quality leather goods. She enjoyed a friendship with Arthur Chisnall, the self-appointed social worker and concert promoter at the heart of Eel Pie Island's 50s and 60s heyday, and he left her a mass of invaluable papers and photographs.
