The Old School Writers Circle is a group of friends who periodically meet up to discuss art, writing, and books. The current members studied at the same school in Birmingham, UK, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and now live in various locations around England. Famous literary alumni of the school include, somewhat eclectically, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lee Child, and Jonathan Coe, all of whom are on the circle’s ever-growing list of influences. Projects can be serious as well as playful, confronting unusual and challenging themes through stories that do not necessarily fit squarely within conventional genres.

For their debut publication, The Eleven Associates of Alma-Marceau, the starting point was a shared love of Paris and The Louvre – inspired in part by numerous trips across the Channel by members of the circle over the past twenty-five years. The other driving force was the long-standing interest of circle member Matt Price in esoterica and unusual optical phenomena in the history of painting – ideas explored and brought together by the circle in the form of this curious, engaging, and thought-provoking novel.