Our Board of Directors

James Crawford is a writer, broadcaster and commissioning editor. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Take Four Books, and the writer and presenter of the BBC One TV series Scotland from the Sky. For over a decade he worked for and researched Scotland’s national collection of architecture and archaeology, and he is the author of ten books, including Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of History’s Greatest Lost Buildings and The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World - both of which were shortlisted for Non-Fiction Book of the Year at Scotland’s National Book Awards. His forthcoming work The Vanishing Earth: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Extraction is published in September 2026. He is a former Chair of the Board of Publishing Scotland, and in autumn 2024 he was appointed Chair of the Board of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. 

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese author, screenwriter and award-winning social advocate. 

A former mechanical engineer, Abdel-Magied’s debut literary novel At Sea is forthcoming with Canongate in 2026. Also publishing in 2026 is Silverbrook: Yumna and the Golden Horse, the action-packed first installment in Yassmin’s new teen fantasy series. Previous titles include essay collection Talking About a Revolution (PRH, 2022) and two novels for younger readers, You Must Be Layla (Puffin, 2019) and the award-winning Listen Layla (Puffin, 2021).

Yassmin is currently a writer on British continuing drama Emmerdale and her original drama series Cruise Control is in development with the BBC.

The creator of eyesonsudan.net and adviser on the sudandigitalarchive.com, Yassmin is dedicated to the civilian movement in Sudan and the celebration and amplification of Sudanese culture.

Caroline is the managing partner of DWF’s offices in Scotland and leads DWF's tax practice in Scotland. Working as part of a UK wide team of tax specialists Caroline provides commercial tax advice and share schemes advice to a broad range of clients across a variety of sectors. 

Caroline has expertise in Scottish taxes, in particular, land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) and UK employment taxes including IR35, employment status and national minimum wage. She also provides advice and support to clients facing tax and national minimum wage enquiries and investigations by HMRC. 

Caroline is co-chair of the leadership advisory board of Business in the Community Scotland. 

Caroline sits on the Law Society of Scotland's Tax sub-committee and LBTT working group and is a member of the UK employment taxes sub-committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the employment taxes working group of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. 

Anna Day is Head of Culture and Libraries for Leisure and Culture Dundee, overseeing libraries, museums, and cultural venues across the city. She has led major cultural strategies for Dundee and Perth & Kinross, including UNESCO and national initiatives. She was the cultural lead on the new Perth Museum in the run up to and during its opening in March 2024. Formerly Director of Literary Dundee, Anna founded the city’s literary festival and has published and edited multiple books. A former journalist with The Sunday Times and Daily Mirror, she continues to write and chair events at leading festivals across Scotland. 

Alisha Fernandez Miranda is the award-winning Cuban-American author of the USA Today bestselling novel Someone’s Gotta Give. Her first book, the memoir My What If Year, featured on Good Morning America, and was a best new book in People Magazine and the Boston Globe. Her writing has been published in Vogue, Marie Claire, Shondaland, and numerous other publications. 

Alisha is the current chair at I.G. Advisors, a leading social impact agency that consults the world’s biggest non-profits, including the Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation and UN Women. Alisha is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Harvard University, and speaks on women’s empowerment, social impact and sustainability. She currently lives in Edinburgh with her husband and children.

Anna Frame is Communications Director at Canongate Books. An award-winning publicist with more than 15 years’ experience, she has run a wide variety of campaigns and events across almost every genre, with career highlights including Miranda July’s All Fours, Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, Ruth Ozeki’s Women’s Prize-winning The Book of Form and Emptiness, and Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage. She has twice been named the Booksellers’ Association Sophie Christopher Publicist of the Year, was three times shortlisted for The British Book Awards for Publicity Campaign of the Year, and served on the Publishers’ Publicity Circle committee for six years, including as Chair. The publicity team she manages pride themselves on promoting Canongate’s titles creatively, collaboratively and effectively, with campaigns that put author care at their heart.

Tomas Gerrard is Development Manager at Deaf Action, leading fundraising and strategic development to strengthen deaf-led services across Scotland. His work focuses on access, policy and cultural inclusion, building partnerships that improve outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing people. 

He was a key member of the team that produced the first ever Edinburgh Deaf Festival, an innovative festival that not only celebrates deaf culture but works towards accessibility for all across the various festivals taking place during August including the Fringe and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Tomas is the founder of Sign Between the Lines, Scotland’s first BSL Book Club, created to support literacy, confidence and cultural participation among deaf adults. Through this work, he has delivered accessible literature events for hundreds of BSL users across the UK.  

In his spare time, he co-programmes a deaf-led film club, championing deaf stories on the silver screen. 

Hannah is the Philanthropy and Partner Engagement Director at War Child UK, overseeing its high value fundraising teams. Hannah is a fundraising leader with extensive experience in philanthropy, corporate partnerships, special events, volunteer boards, fundraising appeals, celebrity management and communications. She has delivered £1m+ events, managed global celebrity ambassadors and developed compelling cases for support, as well as leading high performing teams with a collaborative mindset. 

Hannah began her fundraising career at National Museums Scotland before moving down to London. Specialising in relationship fundraising at organisations including Asthma + Lung UK, King’s College London, and the NSPCC she then moved to War Child UK. There she held a variety of roles, latterly heading up the Fundraising Engagement department leading their Music, Strategic Projects and Communications teams. She then spent three years as a fundraising consultant with THINK, working with a broad range of charities, before moving into her current role.

A policy and political adviser and media commentator, Liz supports organisations to navigate the twists and turns of UK and international politics.  She specialises in devolved politics, democratic engagement and political communication as well as working across a wide range of policy areas. A regular media commentator and writer on UK politics Liz previously served as Strategic Adviser and Chief of Staff in the Scottish Government.

Alasdair Morton is a qualified Chartered Accountant with almost 30 years post qualifying experience. This has primarily been in the finance and risk management space where Alasdair has fulfilled a number of senior roles for both Professional Services firms and across Financial Services. Alasdair also has significant Board experience in the third sector where he has served on the Board of the National Galleries of Scotland for 8 years as well as chairing their Audit and Risk Committee. 

Andrew currently works as an expert for the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, the European Commission and the Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends. He is Chair of Cinema for All (the national charity for the support and development of community cinema) and a Board member of the Queen’s Hall Concert Hall. Until recently he was Director of a cultural consultancy working across the UK, Europe, South East Asia and MENA. Previous roles include Director of Culture and Community Development for the city of Birmingham, Director of the Hexagon Theatre and Reading’s Town Hall Concert Hall, Northumberland’s first County Arts Officer, lecturer at London’s Laban Centre, and freelance producer. In his spare time Andrew is a keen curler and is also studying art history to find out things he really should have known much earlier in his career. 

Anne has held positions within global financial services for over 30 years and is an experienced change, relationship manager, contract negotiator and delivery manager.  She is currently Global Climate Solutions Lead at Aegon Asset Management, where she develops and promotes investment solutions to help clients meet net zero commitments.  A former Co-convenor of the Edinburgh Green Party, Anne is an environmental campaigner and champion for environmental voices at all levels of government.  Anne is a qualified Mental Health First Aider and experienced Mentor, with particular interest in supporting young women to develop their careers.