Firstly, it was a cracking festival again this year, much enjoyed by all I imagine. (It certainly looked like it!) The enthusiasm appears to grow with each year. As a measure of how enjoyable it is to be there for the weekend, let me tell you that I had a smile on my face all the way home. It's incredible fun.
Secondly, Val McDermid won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for The Torment of Others, which she said she hadn't expected and was therefore "gobsmacked". Congratulations to Val.
Further posts will follow over the next few days, but I'm sorry to say that coverage this year will not be as detailed as last year. It was exceptionally hot. All sorts of implements were commandeered as fans within the audiences. As such, it was hard enough to stay conscious and listen in the events, let alone take detailed notes - but I did manage it for a few events. There will also be a delay on posting the few pictures that I took, as my camera and PC have become estranged, with the software no longer recognising the camera. (Any ideas anyone?)
My Highlights
I'd promised myself that I'd only be buying two books at the festival. However, following the New Blood panel (and the "crime novel of the year award" interviews with the short listed authors) I bought six books I hadn't planned on. Dreda Say Mitchell, Clare Sambrook, Cathi Unsworth, Allan Guthrie and Lindsay Ashford were all very interesting in their own ways, so the books just had to be bought there and then... More on New Blood in a later post.
Peter Guttridge conducted a very entertaining interview with Kate Atkinson, which was also a challenge, which made it even more entertaining. For me, Atkinson was a "riot" and had some very interesting things to say.
Peter popped up again chairing the Building on Success panel, but then he is head and shoulders above the rest. Alex Barclay, John Rickards, Michael Robotham and Louise Welsh gave great insights into the publishing industry in recounting their own experiences. More on that one later too.
And speaking of Alex Barclay, I later had a wonderful chat with her at the bar. I admitted to her that I'd previously made a somewhat oblique reference to her novel Darkhouse on this blog. She exclaimed "Oh, I saw that!" Apparently, the post gave her quite a laugh. Barclay is an approachable and effervescent Irish lady, and Darkhouse has now made great headway travelling up my TBR pile.
Simon Brett's stage version of Foul Play was again a great laugh, with Mark Billingham and Stella Duffy providing more of their superb and unique performances. This year, based on Agatha Christie's work, and using the tardis approach to time management, transporting us back in time for the evening, it was oh-so-wonderfully politically incorrect! Laura Wilson, as one of the investigators, was excellent and game for a laugh in class war scenarios and "up the duff" insights. The other investigator, Australian author Shane Maloney stood his ground well when reminded that his country was a nation of colonials and convicts. A little bit more later, on that one, too...
The soothing voice of Paul Blezard directed the panel members for The Gritty City - that was another great panel session with Margaret Murphy, Denise Mina, Chris Simms and Paul Charles. It was interesting to get a feel for how the authors get a feel for the cities they choose to write about.
It was good to catch up with Denise at the book signing and have a laugh with her about an inadvertent "spot on" comment about pregnancy that I made in 2003 on a writing course she taught with Val at Ty Newydd. And finally, I did get to congratulate Denise on starting her family...
Denise is a very interesting author - her books can depict such bleak and awful circumstances, and yet the author herself is jam packed with cutting humour, keen observation of human life and form, and empathy. The latter two characteristics are major building blocks for her well respected and acclaimed novels. I'd guess the first is what keeps her sane. (Denise, if you do happen to read this, it was good to see you and catch up after all that time.)
On Saturday afternoon Frances Fyfield conducted an excellent interview with P D James. She was sure to emphasise at the start that P D James is not just a prolific author, but also someone whose life in public service should be recognised and remembered. She brought out all the best in P D James, as an author, and as a woman whose life has inspired and motivated her writing career. P D James was wonderfully open and direct and left the room with a well deserved and respectful standing ovation. More later...
In the panel entitled "What's wrong with popular fiction?" a lively debate ensued. Ian Rankin made a couple of hilarious observations - one about poor book marketing and another about his input into the recent Guardian summer holiday reading recommendation list (he was honest - some others perhaps not so, he felt). Robert Goddard made an excellent and insightful comment about The Sunday Times's "Review" magazine's book review section. Mo Hayder indulged with cracking comments about her research and a funny story about a reader's feedback, delivered personally...
In A Foreign Perspective Paul Johnston was wonderfully acerbic and dry in his delivery when drawing out the details of how each author gets the setting right when dealing with a country not of their own birth or domicile. Mark Mills, Barbara Nadel, Craig Russell and Robert Wilson were enlightening with their disclosures. As some of you know already, I love Wilson's Falcon series. It was good to meet him at the signing and later in the bar. His book publicity photographs have him looking a tad stern. But I found him excellently approachable and as sweet as a jelly bean. Mark Mills delivered fascinating facts that led to Amagansett (that later became The Whalebone House in paperback). Barbara Nadel and Craig Russell both have unique settings for British authors - Turkey and Germany respectively - and both know their countries of setting extremely well.
The Late Night Quiz Show - what can I say? It's so much fun and a favourite of mine. "My team" entered the hall and couldn't find a spare table. Panic, panic! Someone said "Speak to Jane", so I did. Jane is Jane Gregory of literary agent fame, festival organiser and party animal extraordinaire. When I said we'd run out of tables she said "Sit at the side and demand the sheets from Mark Billingham when he arrives". We did and then we didn't. Jane came back to our huddled group against the wall and kindly directed us to a newly free table. We made a team of four (fluctuating in number until the night and the time) but then Jane popped back again with another two people to make a full contingent of six. It was all so last minute that we just had to name the team lastminute.con! The bottom score was 12, the winning score 79, so at 61 we were proud. Chris proved yet again that he's tops on theme tunes and the other Chris, who occasionally comments on here, was excellent on authors and their publishers amongst many other things. The extra two, I'm sorry I've forgotten your names already, were also excellent. Lastly, Kat doesn't miss a thing, if she can help it. My thanks to all of you. I'm pleased to note that I was told my "competitive spirit" did not prove to be too overbearing for the team. But that author Mark Mills is naughty - he was on the next table and tried to look at our answer sheet at one point. No. No. No. It was folded or hidden after that.
The quiz is so much fun. This year "costumes" had comperes Mark Billingham and Val McDermid in gold lurex jacket and formal penguin outfit respectively.
The 2006 winning team was based around the Crimesquad website, with last year's winners the "vodka shots" team, based on the Shots Mag team relegated to second place. Simon Kernick did well. Last year derided for his lack of ability for recognising a picture of his own head; this year he was on the winning team. Strategic "quiz team placement" methinks...
Lastly - crime goes academic - the seriousness of crime fiction is often debated. Ian Rankin is on record as saying that he hopes it will make it into the educational sphere and this year, at Harrogate, he observed that it is, with students contacting him for answers to questions... The panel on What's Wrong with Popular Fiction ventured into the same territory, but with a different angle. Kat, who joined our quiz team, is an academic with a research project that is based on crime fiction. At her request, I say no more at this stage. She wants to wait until her website is launched so that I can provide the necessary link when I impart the details. I feel that readers of this blog may be able to help her, so please return in the future to see what her research is all about.
It was good meet up with people I met last year (or before, in another world) and to make new contacts. That's what a festival like this means - shared interests and the resultant networking, as well as direct access to authors.
I think 2006 was a vintage year. My thanks to Mark Billingham for the excellent programme and execution, as he was Programme Director for 2006.
The Quiz is also used as a time for acknowledgements and this year the programming committee sees three changes due to those moving on. We were told that publisher Maria Rejt and Jane Bradish Ellames had confirmed their end of life in the Programming Committee. In making the announcements, Val highlighted that the original idea for the Crime Writing Festival, as attached to the main Harrogate Festival, had come from Jane Bradish Ellames. Jane is more familiar to many attending as she has had a more public profile, donning the roving "for questions" microphone within the audience during events and making the introductory announcements.
Also, Mark Billingham relinquishes his role to Natasha Cooper for 2007.
Next year the Festival runs from 19 to 22 July and special guests include Lee Child and Joanne Harris.
Chocolat anyone? Or should that be crime? Now that's a mystery. Has Joanne Harris swapped her general/literary tube ticket for the crime fiction line? East to West, crime is best...
You'll have to be there to find out. Onwards and upwards again...
Great to have fun with both of you on the weekend, Kat and Chris.
So much talk of journeys... Kat, if you accepted my offer of a lift, you'd have spent as long in the car as by train. I accidentally took the M6 toll road, which added exra time and cost. The M50 was shut between junctions 2 and 4, so I took the M5 and had another toll to pay. A good choice I'd say though. As you read Pelecanos, I familiarised myself with three service stations and the M6 toll road; tipped a skinny latte in the car and fretted when the fuel warning light came on. (I had to make it to Tesco as I had a voucher for 5p off per litre.)
As for the quiz, there were no dummies on lastminute.con - yourself included Kat. If it wasn't for you, we'd have stayed strayed on that John Connolly answer path for a start! You put us back on the excursion to Barclayland. And you answered other questions.
Posted by: crimeficreader | 26 July 2006 at 23:09
A great weekend, and a wonderful induction into a 'life of crime'. Thanks for being tactful about my near useless contribution to the quiz!
I spent my seven hour trip back to Swansea reading George Pelecanos' The Big Blowdown, which I can whole-heartedly recommend. George had many interesting things to say about pushing the boundaries of the crime genre during his talk at the festival, and The BB undoubtedly reworks the crime novel in a brilliant way. It's the first of the Washington DC Quartet, and I'll be hotfooting it down to the bookstore to add the next installment to my summer holiday reading pile very soon.
Already looking forward to the festival next year!
Posted by: Kat | 26 July 2006 at 12:17
Well, my journey home was probably more stress-free than yours! I made Harrogate to Edinburgh in about three hours, and I wait with baited breath to see how many speeding tickets I picked up on the A1...
A most enjoyable weekend, very sociable and entertaining.
Posted by: Chris | 24 July 2006 at 12:05