Our Patrons
Armando Iannucci is a writer and broadcaster, who has written, directed and produced numerous critically acclaimed television and radio comedy shows. His screenplay for the film In The Loop was nominated for an Oscar at the Academy Awards, and his iconic series for BBC – The Thick of It – was nominated for 13 BAFTA Awards, winning 5 during its four-series run. Armando’s HBO comedy Veep has picked up numerous awards including four Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series over the last four years, and his BAFTA-nominated film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield was released in January 2020. In 2017 he published Hear Me Out, a new book on classical music, and released the feature film The Death of Stalin, which was nominated for 2 BAFTAs and won Best Comedy at the European Film Awards. He is currently in the midst of pre-production on Season 2 of his new HBO series, Avenue 5, which stars Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad.
Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve CH CBE FBA Hon FRS FMedSci MRIA was educated at Oxford and Harvard, where she worked under John Rawls. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 1999, sitting on the cross benches.
She lectures and writes on justice and ethics, and on the work of Immanuel Kant. Recent publications also address questions about accountability and trust, justice and borders, the future of universities, the quality of legislation and the ethics of communication.
Patrick McGrath was born in London. He is the author of three collections of short fiction, including and ten novels, including Asylum, Trauma and most recently, The Wardrobe Mistress. His screenplay of his novel Spider was filmed by David Cronenberg and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in Britain, and an honorary doctor of the University of Stirling.
John Saunders was called to the bar in 1972 and practised as a barrister specialising in criminal and licensing cases. He became a QC in 1991. He first became a Judge in 2004 as Recorder of Birmingham and a High Court Judge in 2007. He gave up being a full time Judge in 2016.
From November 2016 to January 2020 John was the Vice Chairman of the Parole Board of England and Wales and has been very involved in the issues arising from the Worboys case.
From October 2016 to July 2017 he was a visiting fellow at Magdalen College Oxford carrying out research into various aspects of the criminal law.
Antony Duff works on philosophy of criminal law, including issues about punishment and imprisonment. He was a founding co-director of the Robina Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, and has led research projects on the criminal trial and on criminalization; he also chaired a British Academy working group which produced A Presumption against Imprisonment in 2014, and now works in penal reform issues as a committee member of Howard League Scotland.
Antony Duff works on philosophy of criminal law, including issues about punishment and imprisonment. He was a founding co-director of the Robina Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, and has led research projects on the criminal trial and on criminalization; he also chaired a British Academy working group which produced A Presumption against Imprisonment in 2014, and now works in penal reform issues as a committee member of Howard League Scotland.
Antony Duff works on philosophy of criminal law, including issues about punishment and imprisonment. He was a founding co-director of the Robina Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, and has led research projects on the criminal trial and on criminalization; he also chaired a British Academy working group which produced A Presumption against Imprisonment in 2014, and now works in penal reform issues as a committee member of Howard League Scotland.
The Rt Hon Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing DBE