I’m just back from four days at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which, as ever, was a wonderful mixture of interviews, panel discussions and a crime-writing knees-up.
Our first evening was very special: we saw Colin Dexter, creator of the Inspector Morse series, honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award, and ‘tartan noir’ writer Denise Mina win the Crime Novel of the Year Award for her ‘hugely atmospheric and haunting book’, The End of the Wasp Season.
Scene of the crime: the ‘chalk outline’ and ‘blood splatter’ that greeted us on arrival at Harrogate Station
As ever, there were a bewildering number of fascinating and (in some cases controversial) sessions to attend over the following three days. Karen from Euro Crime was spotted quietly tapping away on her laptop in the audience, and her notes on a variety of events, including ‘America’s Got Talent’, ‘Writing for Your Life’, ‘Drawing the Line’, ‘Crime in Another Dimension’, and the John Connolly interview are available here. Many thanks, Karen!
This lucky blogger was given the chance to interview four outstanding crime writers –Arne Dahl (Sweden), Camilla Läckberg (Sweden), Stuart Neville (Northern Ireland) and Jason Webster (UK/Spain) – and also had interesting chats with authors Liza Marklund (Sweden), Margie Orford (South Africa) and Antonio Hill (Spain). Norwegian publishing sensation Jo Nesbø‘s wide-ranging discussion with Mark Lawson completed a very satisfying festival that showcased the best of international crime fiction.
I’ll shortly be posting a series of ‘Theakston Files’ (a nod there to one of my favourite TV detectives), with interview transcripts and notes from the Nesbø session. Hope you enjoy!
Mrs. Peabody Investigates 
Mrs. P – Thanks for sharing a bit of your experience. I’m very much looking forward to the rest of your files. 🙂
Thanks, Margot. Lots of frantic transcribing to do now!
It sounds you have enjoyed it very much. I’m eargerly waiting for your interviews and next posts
Thanks, Jose Ignatio. I’ve been twice now and have loved every minute – Harrogate is outrageously fun.
I enjoyed meeting you ‘unmasked’, Mrs P and look forward to reading your interviews. Are you planning to come up for Bloody Scotland?
One of the nicest parts of the festival for me this year was meeting so many ‘virtual’ friends for the first time 🙂 Alas, I won’t be able to make Bloody Scotland, which is a shame, as it looks like a fantastic programme. Perhaps next time!
Thanks so much for your great tweets from the festival, and for this post. I am very much looking forward to your interviews, especially of the authors who are translated into English.
You’re welcome, Maxine. Tweeting ‘live’ was really fun. I had a recording mishap one time when interviewing an author and thus am always nervous about the technology, but happily all of this year’s are now safe and sound in three different locations!