James Hogg (1770-1835) was a Scottish poet and novelist. A growing enthusiasm for Scottish poetry led to the publication of his dialect Scottish Pastorals in 1801, and to the friendship of Sir Walter Scott. In later years he published a number of volumes of verse, encouraged by Scott, and in 1824 his masterpiece, The private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.


Karl Miller was born in 1931. In 1979, he founded the London Review of Books, a journal he edited for many years. Earlier in his career, Miller was literary editor of the Spectator and the New Statesman, as well as editor of the Listener. His books include Cockburn's Millennium, Doubles, Authors (OUP, 1989) Rebecca's Vest (Penguin, 1994) and Dark Horses (Picador, 1998).