The writer Sarah Waters was born in Neyland, Pembrokeshire. She made her name with her critically acclaimed novels, Tipping the Velvet (1998), Affinity (1999) and Fingersmith (2002), which richly evoke lesbian life and adventure in the Victorian age. Her novels are influenced by her doctoral thesis on lesbian and gay historical fiction. Waters has received many accolades, including Author of the Year at the 2003 British Books Awards. She has been short-listed three times for the Man Booker Prize and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009. Ric Bower was born in London and now lives and works in west Wales. He studied Fine Art in Manchester, and in 2005 gained a first class honours degree in Photography from Coleg Sir Gar, Carmarthenshire. Previous exhibitions include a solo show in 2001 at the Emrys Gallery in Haverdfordwest. An established portrait painter, he has more recently engaged in photographic practice, and was one of the finalists in the Schweppes 2005 Photographic Portrait Prize. Bower's photographic process is very much influenced by historic painting, using rich colour and symbolism to create a highly charged environment, as illustrated by his portrait of Waters.