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

A Seasonal Message and a Year in Books…

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have an excellent 2011 ahead of you.  Happy New Year!

I will resume the Books for Christmas series shortly.  Sadly, due to a nasty infection I was diverted in December and will carry on posting the collected Books for Christmas series but under a new tag of ‘2011 starts with recommendation heaven’.

You may know me by now.  I try to be a little different.  No year end top tens from me this year; just a look back on 2010’s year in books.  I hope you enjoy it.  It goes some way to explaining why there were fewer posts on this blog during the past year.

January saw the launch of the TV Book Club in the UK.  Bookworms across the country were crying out for this: a book show on terrestrial TV.  Hopes were high as it involved Amanda Ross who had set up the Richard & Judy Book Club.  But readers don’t go that deeply into backroom organisation and don’t really care.  ‘Richard & Judy’ was the brand and it was their word, their recommendations that mattered.  Criticism started early, as soon as the panel was announced.  Hopes were dashed, but bookworms retained patience and gave it time.  Low notes: celebrity central for bragging up a biography; most of the panel and guests; the wrong location, location, location for Jo Brand’s brand of humour.  High notes: Joan Bakewell as a guest; Ian McMillan on Ted Hughes, making poetry accessible; the books selected.  The series returns to our screens in January 2011.

Galaxy National Book Awards Winners 2010

This year's winners of the Galaxy National Book Awards - 'a celebration of the best of British publishing' - were announced on Wednesday. Here they are:

Want to write crime and be published? Want to learn from the professionals?

And want to have fun while you do so?  Well if you do, you'll pleased to know of the second authonomy workshop from HarperCollins coming on Saturday, 11 December.  The information communiqué is reproduced below.  And do click on the link for more information.  You'll find of bags of it to assist in your decision-making and plans.  As Oscar Wilde said, the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it, so book soon before it's too late!

INTRODUCING THE SECOND AUTHONOMY WRITERS WORKSHOP:
CRIME AND THRILLER WRITING

On Saturday 11th December 2010, authonomy.com will go live once again for the next in its fantastic series of writing workshops.

The first workshop ran in July and was hugely successful and enjoyable, with great feedback across the board from the attendees. This time around, the day will focus on Crime and Thriller Writing, offering writers in those genres expert advice and guidance from authors, agents and publishing industry professionals.

The day will cover topics such as characterisation, plot and suspense, as well as a Q&A session in which attendees can find out everything they want to know about publishing in general.

With exclusive access inside one of the UK’s biggest publishing houses, the authonomy workshop series is one of the most exciting and interesting around, not least because it offers the best value, with tickets priced at just £150.

Tutors for the Crime and Thriller workshop include:
- bestselling authors Meg Gardiner and Claire Seeber
- literary agent Camilla Wray from the Darley Anderson agency
- HarperCollins Publishing Director (not to mention Agatha Christie’s publisher) David Brawn
- HarperCollins editors Kate Bradley and Rachel Rayner (who is also an editor on the Killer Reads website)

Tickets are selling fast, but there is time to book your place. Click here to find out more.

CWA Gold, Ian Fleming Steel (Thriller) and John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Winners 2010

Well, this year we have some names to watch.  The New Blood is obviously for an author’s debut novel, but we have the same circumstance with the winner of the Gold, and the winner of the Steel is also in the early days of his writing career.  Many congratulations to Ryan David Jahn, Belinda Bauer and Simon Conway respectively.  In addition to finally meeting Ryan, I also met New Blood finalists Simon Lelic and William Ryan.  All are wonderful people and all are writing excellent novels, so please check out their books if you have not already done so.

Sadly, I did not get to meet Diane Janes on the night as the opportunity did not arise.  While it has been noted that Belinda Bauer was the runner-up for the Debut Dagger two years ago, Diane Janes was ‘highly commended’ for the same award in 2006, with the book that became ‘The Pull of the Moon’, on this year’s New Blood shortlist.  Don’t miss this one either.

There is a little controversy brewing over the Gold and New Blood winners.  Both Blacklands and Acts of Violence are capable of polarising opinion; thus I urge you to read them and make up your own mind.

Due to the judging, I didn’t quite find the right time to post up a review of William Ryan’s The Holy Thief.  This will follow shortly.

Enjoy your reading!

[Picture is of the New Blood winner, Ryan David Jahn.]

ITV Crime Thriller Awards 2010

Here’s a list of the winners from last night (in bold).  Congratulations to them all!

ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Night – Friday October 8th

It’s taking place next Friday night at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London and will be recorded for broadcasting on ITV3 on Tuesday 12 October from 21:00 to 22:30.  The shortlists/finalists for the movie and TV awards were announced this week, but first a reminder of the Crime Writers’ Association’s writing awards shortlists:

Gold Dagger
Blacklands, Belinda Bauer (Corgi)
Blood Harvest, S J Bolton (Bantam Press)
Shadowplay, Karen Campbell (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Way Home, George Pelecanos (Orion)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
A Loyal Spy, Simon Conway (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Dying Light, Henry Porter (Orion)
Innocent, Scott Turow (Macmillan)
The Gentlemen’s Hour, Don Winslow (Heinemann)

John Creasey Memorial (New Blood) Dagger
Acts of Violence, Ryan David Jahn (Pan)
Rupture, Simon Lelic (Picador)
The Holy Thief, William Ryan (Mantle )
The Pull of the Moon, Diane Janes (Robinson)

Now for the screen awards shortlists announced this week:

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.

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.

Harrogate: Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Weekend 2010

And so it came to pass that my favourite crime fiction event of the year took place towards the end of July.  Sadly, this year proved to be only a fleeting visit for me, but what fun!  It was great to meet up with old friends and new, chat, gossip, give out some cake, and do the quiz!  I took my camera, as instructed by @MarDixon on twitter, carried it in my handbag at all times, and then forgot to use it (sorry).  But fear not, for I have trawled the international world webnet thingy to bring you anything I can muster to prove the fun.  Let’s start with the second night, the Friday, before I’d even left the house.

The first shock of the weekend came when I received a tweet telling me I was on a certain quiz team.  Oh dear, how would I manage this?  Someone had already emailed saying ‘Let’s organise a table for the quiz’ but neither of us had got around to anything remotely substantial on this objective.  I had approached an author, tentatively, as he was surely an expert on the golden age of crime fiction - mine and many’s black hole in knowledge.  Suddenly, I found myself purloined/recruited/applied to a quiz team that did quite well two years ago, beating my team by one point only.  What was this girl to do to avoid offending anyone?  (And get the best chance of being on the winning team?)

National Crime Fiction Week – Charity Auction of P D James’s Talking About Detective Fiction

As promised – albeit starting a bit later in the week than originally planned – this blog’s event to mark National Crime Fiction Week is an auction of P D James’s Talking About Detective Fiction to raise money for The Book Trade Charity (whose Action Week was last week).

Oxford’s Bodleian Library Publishing has very kindly donated a copy of the book and it’s a signed and slipcased edition with a RRP of £30.  What better collectible could you hope for?  Who do you know who might appreciate this book for Christmas?  Or for a birthday?  On the weekend of Father’s Day, whose Dad might be prepared to wait a bit longer for something far more supreme than socks?