It is a privilege to photograph writers, and Jacqueline Crooks was a memorable one to work with. Her debut novel Fire Rush, a story steeped in dub reggae and the lives of a Jamaican community in 1970s London, was shortlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction and named by The Observer among its best new novelists of the year. Her earlier short story collection The Ice Migration was longlisted for the Orwell Prize.

For her Novel Author Portrait Package we worked in studio, seated at a dark wood table, against two painted canvas backdrops in ochre and green. The table and warm canvas tones give the portraits a literary, considered feel, the kind of image that sits well on a book jacket, a festival programme or a publisher's author page.

An author portrait carries real weight. It appears alongside your work for years, so it is worth getting right. If you are a writer who needs portraits for a book, press or your website, see the author portrait page.