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Stand up Comedian Mark Steel is the presenter of several radio and television series including ‘The Mark Steel Lectures’ and  ‘Mark Steel’s in Town’. As well as writing a weekly column for The Independent, his books include ‘Reasons to be cheerful’ and ‘Vive la Revolution’.

In 2011 the award-winning French novelist Delphine de Vigan published a book, ‘Nothing Holds Back the Night’ in which she investigated the events of her mother’s life. Although she tried to reach ‘the truth’ she decided in the end there was only her ‘version’ of the truth, so she called the book ‘a novel’ rather than autobiography. This sparked a huge interest in readers clamouring to know if it was fact or fiction. Her new novel, ‘Based on a True Story’ (Bloomsbury) is inspired by her reflections on truth and fiction following this experience. 

Ira Lightman is the poetry world’s unofficial ‘Plagiarism Police’ – when tipped off about possible plagiarism, he investigates... For The Verb, we gave him the tricky task of Plagiarising himself - we hear two poems, but which is a true Ira Lightman, and which is by his plagiarising doppelganger – Ira Darkman?

SJ Fowler curates the Enemies project, which invites poets to work together on poems to be performed at live events. In a poem especially written for The Verb, Fowler ‘collaborates’ with poets from across Europe, using recordings from Maja Jantar, Zuzana Husarove and Prudence Chamberlain. In the avant-garde tradition, Fowler has a tricky relationship with ‘the original’, finding that it is often fakeness that allows him to access a truth.