Speakers

Jen Cownie (English, Hertford, 2005) is one half of the tarot reading duo Litwitchure, and co-author of Wild Card. She splits her time between working as a strategy director for ad agency VCCP, and her creative work – most recently, exploring Europe by train for the podcast mini-series Continental Garbage.

Francine Stock (Modern Languages, Jesus 1976) is a British radio and television broadcast journalist and novelist. She joined the BBC in 1983 as a producer and was one the original presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Francine is also an author, and her novels include A Foreign Country (1999) and Man-made Fibre (2002).

Mary Ann Sieghart (Wadham, 1979) is author of the best-selling book, The Authority Gap. She spent 20 years as Assistant Editor and columnist at The Times, has presented many programmes on BBC Radio 4, is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and was Chair of the judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022.

Lisa Roberts KC (St Catherine’s, 1988) took silk nearly ten years ago and from 2020-2022 was Leader of the Northern Circuit in charge of all 1500 barristers in the Northwest. She became a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 2020 and is the Inn’s senior representative for the Northern Circuit. Lisa specialises in environmental law, health and safety and professional discipline.

Alexia Loizou (Brasenose, 2021) has recently finished her Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature at Brasenose, where she was JCR President in 2023.