Unusual Authors
Elli Tikvah Sarah
A graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc. Sociology, 1977), and ordained by the late Rabbi Lionel Blue (Leo Baeck College, London, 1989), Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah became the first lesbian to lead a mainstream congregation. Following retirement as Rabbi of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue (December 2000-April 2021), Elli is now the congregation’s Emeritus Rabbi. A pioneer in the area of LGBTQ+ inclusion and same-sex marriage, putting this commitment at the heart of their work as a congregational rabbi, Elli is also deeply committed to promoting human rights, social justice, interfaith dialogue, Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, and tikkun olam, repair of the world, and has written extensively on all these themes. Publications include: Trouble-Making Judaism (David Paul Books, 2012) and Women Rabbis in the Pulpit (co-edited with Rabbi Dr Barbara Borts, Kulmus, 2015). Elli adopted the middle name ‘Tikvah’ (‘Hope’) in 1998 because ‘my journey has taught me that whatever the challenges and obstacles we face, individually and collectively, we must embrace hope (tikvah)’.
Unusual Publications:
Breaking Binaries. A progressive rabbi engages with contemporary issues (March 2026)
Sacred Days in a Year of Destruction. Reflections in poetry on October 7, 2023 and its aftermath (Autumn 2026)
Helen M. Stringer
Helen Stringer is a historian and writer. She holds a doctorate in History from the University of Sussex, and, for thirty years, taught in schools in London, Cambridge, and Northampton. She has published essays on early modern history in The Historical Journal, Sixteenth Century Journal, and Huntington Library Quarterly, and articles on educational topics in the Times Educational Supplement (TES) online. In 2025, her biography of the seventeenth-century proto-feminist, Rachel Speght, was published by Liverpool University Press (English Association Monographs Series). Burning Silence, forthcoming with Unusual Publications, is her first work of creative non-fiction writing. She lives in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.
Unusual Publications:
Burning Silence. Reflections on landscape and the present moment (Summer 2026)
Sandra Hill
Sandra Hill studied Fine Art at Central St Martins, with post-graduate studies at Chelsea College of Art. She became fascinated by the influence of eastern philosophy on the mid-twentieth century art-scene, and travelled and studied for several years in both India and Japan. She later worked with French sinologists Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée, and co-founded Monkey Press to further their work with classical Chinese texts. Sandra teaches a module on Daoism for the Temenos Foundation, and recently consolidated her interests through an Arts Practice PhD with The King’s Foundation, School of Traditional Arts, where she is currently a research co-ordinator and supervisor.
Unusual Publications:
Sacred Space: An exploration through the visual traditions of Judaism and Hinduism
(with Jess Wood) (Winter 2026)
Meditations on Blackness (Spring 2027)
Jess Wood
Jess Wood was awarded her PhD from King’s College, London (2025), which focused on how arts practice as research could contribute to biblical exegesis. For two years prior to this, Jess was a student the King’s School of Traditional Arts in London, where she studied the techniques of Islamic and Christian traditional arts (such as tile-making, illuminated miniatures, and icon painting). In her thesis, Jess used – among other media – manuscript painting to make series of miniature artworks which engaged directly with selected stories in the Hebrew Bible. Jess continues to put emphasis on the importance of the hand-made materials with which she works, and the correlation between the pigments and their qualities (such as cinnabar and lapis lazuli), and the concepts of ‘presence’ revealed in biblical stories. Unlike most manuscript painters, while Jess works with calligraphy, she also uses abstraction as a means of exploration and expression. Before studying traditional arts, Jess worked as an artist for several decades, and taught art and theology at Winchester University. She was also co-founder and Director of Allsorts Youth Project in Brighton (1999-2019). In 2012, Jess was awarded an MBE for her services to LGBT+ youth work.
Unusual Publications:
Sacred Space: An exploration through the visual traditions of Judaism and Hinduism
(with Sandra Hill) (Winter 2026)