Iain Banks
Scots novelist Iain Banks sprang to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. The Times acclaimed him as 'the most imaginative British novelist of his generation'. In late 2004 he was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Richard Dawkins
“Darwin’s Rottweiler”, Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. An outspoken secular humanist, and sceptic, he first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, and has since written many best-selling popular books including The God Delusion.
Stephen Fry
Polymath Stephen Fry is a writer, actor, novelist, filmmaker and television personality. In 2001 he began hosting QI, an intellectual panel game that has become one of the most-watched entertainment programmes on British television. He has spoken publicly about his experience with bipolar disorder and presented a documentary on the subject, Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic-Depressive.
AC Grayling
AC Grayling is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written and edited many books on philosophy and other subjects, including a biography of humanist and literary critic, William Hazlitt. For nearly 10 years, he was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British Philosophical Association, the Aristotelian Society.
James Lovelock
The originator of the Gaia theory, Professor James Lovelock is an independent scientist, author, researcher, environmentalist, and futurologist. A lifelong inventor, Lovelock has created and developed many scientific instruments, some of which have been adopted by NASA in its programme of planetary exploration.
Polly Toynbee
Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee is a journalist and writer. A former BBC social affairs editor, she was associate editor of the Independent and co-editor of the Washington Monthly. Her many books include Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain and Lost Children: Story of Adopted Children Searching for Their Mothers (1985). She was appointed President of the British Humanist Association in July 2007.
Iain Macwhirter
Iain Macwhirter is the Rector of the University of Edinburgh and an award-winning political commentator for The Herald and Sunday Herald. He has also been a presenter of BBC political television programmes from Westminster and Holyrood for nearly 20 years.
Christopher Brookmyre
HSS President since April 2008, Christopher Brookmyre is an award-winning novelist and playwright, often credited with the invention of the genre 'Tartan Noir'. At the launch of the society’s education policy, he said "Children necessarily must invest the sincerest trust in what their teachers tell them. Thus the same institution that tells them one plus one equals two should not then be telling them that three persons add up to one God."
