Joseph Roth (1894-1939) was born into a Jewish family in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. He served in the Austrian army during World War I, and later worked as a journalist in Vienna and Berlin, travelling widely, staying in hotels and living out of suitcases, while also becoming a prolific writer of fiction. Roth left Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933 and settled in Paris, where he died just before the outbreak of World War II. As well as his masterpiece The Radetzky March, he was the author of over two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, including On the End of the World, The Coral Merchant and Flight Without End, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press.

David Le Vay (1915-2001) was a consultant surgeon in the NHS for over thirty years, as well as translating works from French, German, Spanish and Latin.