Harold 'Hal' Lister was a glaciologist, explorer and academic whose career included participation in many notable polar expeditions and academic research into glacial recession in both North and South polar regions. Born in 1921, Lister served in both the Merchant Navy and Royal Navy during World War 2, afterwards, he attended King's College (later Newcastle University) and studied Pure Science. He then went on to undertake a PhD at Cambridge University. While there he also participated in several notable polar expeditions including the British North Greenland Expedition (1952-1954). From the late 1950s until his retirement in the late 1980s Lister worked as an academic in the Geography Department at Newcastle University, leading teaching and research on glaciology, and leading field trips to arctic regions.

Joanne Limburg was born in London in 1970, and studied Philosophy at Cambridge. She has since gained an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies, and now works as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. She won an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry in 1998, and her first book, Femenismo (Bloodaxe, 2000), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second collection, Paraphernalia (Bloodaxe, 2007), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her latest book is The Woman Who Thought Too Much (Atlantic Books, 2010), a memoir about OCD, anxiety and poetry.