IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)

The Times Cheltenham Literary Festival 2010 (8-17 October)

Some highlights of this year’s festival, starting with crime; but see here for more detail and booking availability.  My personally selected highlights follow:

Crime
James Ellroy Fri 8/10 Everyman Theatre 20:45-22:00 £8
Alexander McCall Smith Sat 9/10 Main Hall 16:00 £9 – on his new novel The Charming Quirks of Others.
Alexander McCall Smith Sun 10/10 The Daffodil 12:30-15:00 £35 – Friends’ Festival Lunch.
Sherlock Holmes Mysteries Sun 10/10 The Playhouse 13:00 £6 (£4) – a family event for ages 9+.
Jo Nesbo & Stuart MacBride Thurs 14/10 The Inkpot 20:45-22:00 £6
Ann Cleeves & Andrea Maria  Schenkel Fri 15/10 Town Hall 19:00 £6
Andrew Taylor, Penelope Lively & Susan Hill Sun 17/10 Garden Theatre 16:00 £7 – discussing ghosts in their fiction and the power of the supernatural on the page.

Other Authors
Sebastian Faulks Sat 9/10 Everyman Theatre Noon-13:00 £8 – discussing most recent novel ‘A Week in December’.
Amanda Craig, Louise Doughty & Sarah Dunant Sat 9/10 Parabola Arts Centre 16:00-17:00 £6
Jilly Cooper Sat 9/10 Everyman Theatre 20:45-22:00 £9 – making a ‘welcome return’ talking about her new novel Jump!
MI6 Revealed Sun 10/10 Main Hall 10am £7 – Keith Jeffery’s History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949.
Dawn French Sat 16/10 Main Hall 14:00 £30 (reserved) – ticket includes an exclusive signed copy of her first novel, A Tiny Bit Marvellous, and the discussion focuses on this.

Politics
Shirley Williams Sat 16/10 Main Hall 10am £10 – she will be looking back on her career and sharing her experiences.

In the ‘Money Talks’ series:
Will Hutton Sat 9/10 Everyman Theatre 18:30 £7 – discussing politics, greed and inequality.
Howard Davies, Will Hutton & John Kay ‘Financial Futures’ Sat 9/10 Garden Theatre 20:45-22:00 £10 – exploring the economic challenges of a changing world.

More for the Family & Massive Fun!
Dr Who Quiz Sat 16/10 Town Hall 16:00 £7 (£6)

Music
Stephen Sondheim Wed 13/10 Town Hall 18:30-19:30 £12 – looking back on his illustrious career and presenting his new book, Finishing the Hat.

Terror’s Reach – Tom Bale

ScotKris was quick off the mark in reading this one and furnished us with a very positive review back in June.  At the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July, I was talking to someone from the Netherlands who’d love to see Tom Bale published there.  Having enjoyed the first ‘Tom Bale’ – Skin and Bones – I didn’t want to lose momentum with this author.  Then, two fortuitous moments arrived: I received a lovely copy from the fabulous collectors’ choice book store, Goldsboro Books in London; and it was in my hands just as I felt the need for a good, quick read thriller.  As soon as I started reading, the sense of ‘devour’ took over and Bale scooped me up again with his plotting and the urgency of his storytelling.

Terror’s Reach is a fictional island, at the nether-reaches of Chichester Harbour.  Taking Sandbanks at Poole in Dorset as inspiration, Terror’s Reach is also a millionaires’ paradise, but with far fewer residents and housing, and also cut-off from the mainland with only a narrow bridge to link it.  Terror’s Reach is home to two competing businessmen: Robert Felton and the Ukrainian, Valentin Nasenko.  Our protagonist, Joe Clayton is employed in the Nasenko household as a bodyguard to Nasenko’s wife, Cassie and her children.

Crime Function News

An offer available from the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival:

Special Offer for Festival Friends
Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3
in conjunction with the Crime Writers' Association

Tickets are now available for the 2010 Crime Thriller Awards ceremony, to be held on the evening of October 8th in The Ballroom at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London - awards followed by dinner. Amongst other awards, the Gold, Steel and New Blood Daggers will be presented.  The organisers of the Awards are very generously offering Friends of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival the chance to book tickets at a special discount rate!

Full price tickets are £149 + VAT, but Friends of the Festival can book tickets at the special rate of just £99 + VAT. To book, please e-mail Merric Davidson on [email protected].

For more information on the Crime Thriller season on ITV3 click here.
To see footage from previous Awards Ceremony click here.

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For more information on how to become a Festival Friend and the benefits of membership, visit the Friends page on the Festival website.

Petition to Protect Public Lending Rights for Authors

Public sector budget cuts are inevitable in the current economic climate.  But when it comes to penning work, the famous high-income authors like J K Rowling and James Patterson are so few and far between they are effectively oddities in the world of publishing.  For the average author, income is low and comparable to the fees for a private members’ club in London.  Thus, the part of that income which comes from public lending rights (PLR), earned through library borrowings, is key to the author. 

In the climate of cuts, three bodies have come together with a petition to alert the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, that the PLR is not a subsidy but a legal right.  In their petition, The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, The Royal Society of Literature and The Society of Authors have also noted that ‘…over the last three years, while public spending has been buoyant, PLR’s allocation has fallen by 3%: over 10% in real terms.’

The petition has now been signed by nearly 4,500 and there is still time to add your name, which I urge you to do.

This week, a letter was sent by signatory Baroness James of Holland Park OBE (writing as P D James) to Jeremy Hunt and you can read it here.

For the majority of authors, their working world delivers a tough market and not a lucrative market.  Cuts may be inevitable, but so is fulfilling a legal agreement.  If you haven’t already signed up, I urge you to do so now.

Roam Free: the making of an IKEA advertisement with cats as the stars

I have to admit I loved this...