Laura Hillenbrand

A constant fixture at the top of The New York Times bestseller list, acclaimed author Laura Hillenbrand has built a career on writing about real-life sporting figures who have pushed the boundaries of physical endurance, all the while suffering from a debilitating disorder which has left her housebound since her late teens. Forced to drop out of college after she was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Hillenbrand spent the next decade writing essays for various equine publications and first came to national attention in 2001 with Seabiscuit: An American Legend, a biography of the 1930s champion thoroughbred racehorse, which two years later was adapted into a seven-time Oscar-nominated feature film. Following an award-winning essay in which she recalled her early battle with her illness in 2004, Hillenbrand then chose to tackle the life of another unsung hero with 2010's Unbroken: A World War II Story Of Survival, Resilience & Redemption, an account of Olympic runner-turned-Japanese war prisoner Louis Zamperini, which again found its way onto the big-screen thanks to director Angelina Jolie.