| Download Harrogate Crime Writing Festival Audio Files | An Audience With Anthony Horowitz | Serious About Series | A Roundtable Discussion: Raymond Chandler |
| So, What's so funny? Humour in Crime | Late Night show - An evening of Chandler | Fresh Bloood - New Kids On The Block | A Historical Perspective |
| Industry Forum: How to Get Published in the Crime World | Kathy Reichs | Michael Connelly | Reginald Hill | Quiz Night |

Yes, I admit to being a Harrogate virgin. This is my first time at the Festival and must say from the word go, that I thoroughly enjoyed myself, Over the next few pages I hope to give you a personal view of what went on (well, not all of it otherwise I’d have to kill you – I mean, how do you explain Simon Kernick and Richard Burke demonstrating their varied forms of Kung Fu/Aikido in the bar at three o’clock in the morning? See what I mean? There was a lot of drinking (er socialising) at the bar as there normally is on such events. The public mingled with the authors, and the authors … well, mingled. It’s not going to be a blow by blow account. The Cedar Court was an excellent venue where events took place in two main rooms, so there was no running around between panels and hardly a clash to be had.

This was Val McDermid’s last year as the organiser in charge before handing over to Mark Billingham for 2006. And she did us proud. You just had to be there to see her arrive dressed as a spider woman to the strains of Pulp Fiction on the arm of Mark Billingham at the late night quiz. Failing that, look at the photos!

Shots must thanks the organisers of the festival in arranging rooms for interviews and the press passes.

So without further ado, let’s get on with it.

Crime writing fans have spent 12 weeks casting thousands of votes to select rising star, Mark Billingham and his novel Lazy Bones as the first ever winner of the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the only crime literary award to be voted for by the general public. 

Mark beat off strong competition to claim the coveted prize with fellow short listed authors. He pipped to the post a host of other leading names in crime writing including, Simon Kernick, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Minette Walters, Andrew Taylor, Reginald Hill and Alexander McCall Smith. 

In the winning novel Lazy Bones, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is back investigating the murder of a recently released rapist, a suspected revenge killing. When another convicted rapist is also found murdered, Thorne is tasked with connecting the victims in order to solve the case of a cruelly calculative vigilante’s bloody justice. 

Of his win, Mark Billingham said, “I am absolutely delighted to be the winner of the first Theakston’s Old Crime Novel of the Year. Theakston’s, Ottakar’s and the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival have all been hugely supportive and I am incredibly proud to have beaten so many great writers. I am really thrilled that so many people voted.”

As the winner, Mark received £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel at the opening ceremony of the Theakston’s Old Peculier Harrogate Crime Writing Festival presented by sponsor Simon Theakston. 

“It gives me great pleasure to be sponsor of this prestigious literary award. We offer our congratulations to Mark and his novel Lazy Bones and hope that our association with the award will be a long and successful one” said Executive Director, Simon Theakston. 

The original long-list of 20 novels was made up of British authors published for the first time in paperback in 2004. Sponsored by Theakston’s Old Peculier and promoted throughout the UK in Ottakar’s Bookstores, the thousands of votes were cast at Ottakar’s 132 stores nationwide and also online at www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime.

The Theakston’s Old Peculier Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, a celebration of crime and detective literature, is now in its third year and attracts a large and enthusiastic audience from around the world.

Festival Director, William Culver Dodds, said; “We are thrilled to announce Mark Billingham as the winner of the first ever Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. The response from the public has been fantastic and is reflected in the number of votes received. We congratulate him on his win, it is well deserved and we eagerly await the next instalment of the series.”

This page is the home of audio recordings from 2005 Theakston's Old Peculier Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. These files are available for download with the gracious permission of the Festival.

All rights and copyrights are retained by original rights holder.

It’s always impossible to get to every event at the Festival but for the first time we are able to let you download selected panels in audio form. They are all in mp3 format. I’m very grateful to Sandra Einarson, who recorded the sessions, and given us permission to link to her site: http://www.spinetinglermag.com/Harrogate.htm

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/AlexanderMcCallSmith.mp3

RETURN OF THE CONSPIRACY THEORY NOVEL
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/ConspiracyTheoryNovel.mp3

MICHAEL CONNELLY in conversation with MARK LAWSON
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/MichaelConnelly.mp3

RUTH RENDELL
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/RuthRendell.mp3

SEX AND VIOLENCE
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/SexandViolence.mp3

WHERE DID THEY GO WRONG?
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/WhereDidTheyGoWrong.mp3

And so to next year …

Names & Dates for 2006 Released

Acclaimed as the biggest event of its kind in Europe we already have lined up P.D. James, George Pelecanos, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Martina Cole and Val McDermid. 

Bookings are already being taken for the 2006 Theakston's Old Peculier Harrogate Crime Writing Festival running from the  20-23 July in the beautiful Victorian Spa resort of Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Accommodation at The Cedar Court Hotel and many events in 2005 sold out, so don't miss out next July!  Make your Weekend Package reservation for 2006 NOW by requesting a reservation booking form.  Email us at: crime@harrogate-festival.org.uk

Want to know what you missed in 2005? click here

Imagine James Bond as a fourteen-year-old schoolboy and what do you get? Alex Rider, the reluctant teenage spy whose gripping exploits have turned Anthony Horowitz into a major best-selling author and the rest of us - kids and adults alike - into addicts of his high-octane adventures. A fascinating and funny talk from the creator of not only Stormbreaker and Scorpia but also Foyle's War.

In his introduction, Anthony joked that he wasn’t a “serious” writer. That he made his living out of lying. He guessed that he was the busiest man in the industry at the moment, a veritable one man crime wave. The worked out that he had written 50 or 60 hours of TV. For the next hour he had his audience in the palm of his hand as he regaled them about his books, TV and theatre works. A lot of interest from the children was about the Alex Rider film. Anthony was happy to tell them that it had a 25 million pound budget, being filmed on the Isle of Man with a cast including Mickey Rourke, Steven Fry, Ewan McGregor and Alex Pettyfer as Alex Rider.

His latest book, Raymond’s Gate came about because he wanted to test himself and push his boundaries. He was inspired by the idea of fantasy/adventure, and demons, devils and monsters. It’s going to be 5 books in 5 parts featuring 5 children from around the world and went on to explain why it works now not twenty years ago when the idea came to him.

For the adults he explained his theory of the heart of a whodunit (you’d had to be there to follow that one). He then spoke about his TV work on Midsommer Murders, Foyle’s War.

Not only is Anthony Horowitz a one man crime wave, he is an excellent entertainer to boot.

The enduring appeal of the series character - from Sherlock Holmes to John Rebus - is undisputed, but do writers create them because they become attached and want to develop them further or is it because their publishers need them for better book sales? And, trickiest question of all, when do you know when to kill them off? Mark Billingham, Frances Fyfield, John Sandford and Cath Staincliffe discuss the pros and cons of the series character with Simon Brett.

Each year, Harrogate chooses to celebrate a Grandee of the Genre. This year it is Raymond Chandler whose Thrillers were described by W H Auden as "serious studies of the criminal milieu… and should be read and judged, not as escape literature but as works of art.” Here to discuss his work and art are three writers and his publisher at Penguin, Michael Connelly, Stella Duffy, Val McDermid and Beverley Cousins, all passionate about the author of such classics as The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye.

Beverly opened the panel by asking each of the panellist when they first started reading Chandler. All but Stella had been reading him for sometime and found that he had greatly influenced them. Beverly then put the cat amongst the pigeons by saying that in today’s publishing world, Chandler may have found it difficult to actually get published, and if he did, then a small publishing house may have taken him up, and definitely no large advance given.

Mike Connelly explained that he would always read chapter two of Little Sisters before he began to write about Los Angeles. Chandler had it down pat, and it would set Mike up to write his own stuff.

The panel then discussed about his novels as a social study, the literary content with Chandler’s ear for dialogue and eye for detail. Stella read out some examples of his descriptions of blondes which had the audience nodding in agreement. One of the things that came out of the panel is that Chandler began writing when he was in his fifties; his cynicism and world weariness comes through in his novels like a sledgehammer.

When dealing with body counts and bloodshed, how can the crime novel be funny? And should you be laughing? Well, here are five writers who know how to do it – be funny, that is. Liz Evans, Jasper Fforde, Stuart Pawson and Malcolm Pryce entertained the audience with tales of mortality and peals of hilarity. Keeping order was Peter Guttridge.

Bishops Nil: Stained Glass Windows 5
Simon Brett takes an obliquely humorous look at one of his literary heroes, Raymond Chandler, with the invaluable assistance of Mark Billingham and Stella Duffy. Not for the faint-hearted.

An excellent panel where Mark and Stella don a multitude of characters to carry off this radio show adaption. Never mind the fact that Mark’s New York accent suddenly switches from hoodlum to Woody Allen, it added to the fun.

Each year, Harrogate showcases the up-and-coming writers to watch. Here, four debut novelists Louise Anderson, Stuart MacBride, Catherine Sampson and Ilona van Mil discuss how they came to write a crime novel and how they set about getting it published. Val McDermid, noted for her passionate support of new writers, chairs.

The historical crime novel is as popular as ever but what attracts authors to a particular period? Four authors Susanna Gregory, CJ Sansom, Edwin Thomas and Jacqueline Winspear writing about England in four very different periods: Medieval, Tudor, Post-Trafalgar and the London of the swinging 1920s. A lively panel, chaired by crime writer, Peter Guttridge, where each of the speakers told of their experiences in writing their historical novels. Susanna told an amusing story of how a reader contacted her and explained that he got her research wrong over a coin, and it spoilt the whole book for them. This brought about some banter of getting the balance right without the books suffering from anachronisms.

Reflecting the entire professional journey from typescript to published book on the high street shelves our panel includes an agent, a partner in a small independent publisher specialising in crime fiction and a publishing director in an international publishing house.

  A full audience turned up to discover the trade secrets of the publishing world with the industry’s top experts: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown Literary Agency, Lynne Patrick, Crème de la Crime Publishers, Kate Bradley, Book Club Associates & Jon Howells, Ottakar’s. Chaired by Jane Wood of Orion Publishing Group.

  Advice was free flowing from the obvious “love something different” to “70% of crime readers are women”. Jonny Geller explained that you should “write from the heart … don’t be a copycat … The voice is important as it is something only you could have done.” Many names were bandied about as examples: Mike Marshall Smith, David Woolsencroft, Jake Arnott, Sam Baker and Ian Rankin.

  Kate Bradley and Jon Howells explained how they thought the market worked. Kate’s experience with BCA showed that its membership was female driven; their readers did not like foreign settings, translated crime wasn’t working for them. Amongst their best selling authors were James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell and Ian Rankin.

  Jon Howells went on to explain that how important the book cover is in terms of sales, plus the price. It’s a tough, competitive life out there and he has to take into consideration whether or not the novel is part of a series or a stand alone, the author’s backlist and the publisher’s background. With Ottakers they promote a new writer every month across the crime genre.

  The floor was opened to Q&As which ranged from Should I send in sample chapters? Blurb over manuscript, timing of manuscript. Also covered was the importance of agents, although Crème de la Crime does not adhere to agents sending in manuscripts. One big tip for wannabes out there was: Find the right agent, do your research, write a brief letter and enclose three sample chapters … And good luck!

For her first event in the UK in a number of years, The Sunday Times bestselling author and world class forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs appeared in a forum where she discussed her work as a forensic anthropologist, and her own passion for archaeology, has driven her work. It was a complete sell out and she enthralled the audience.

Michael Connelly

MICHAEL CONNELLY in conversation with MARK LAWSON
http://www.spinetinglermag.com/downloads/MichaelConnelly.mp3

For nearly three decades Reginald Hill never wrote two consecutive Dalziel and Pascoe stories, then suddenly at the turn of the century he wrote four in a row.  Now he has broken away again and produced a non-series novel, The Stranger House. What made him desert the bipolar duo? And how long will the separation last? These and other probing questions was put to him by Natasha Cooper, crime writer, ex-publisher and journalist.

I’ve seen Reg in conversation before, but am always happy to see him again. He is always entertaining, even at nine o’clock in the morning. So for the newcomers he spoke of his early days when his career advisor told him to become a long distance lorry driver. A piece of advise that Reg didn’t thankfully take to heart. He said that he writes a Dalziel and Pascoe novel when he feels there is one to write, not because he has to churn one out. The novels are not planned but develop as they go and he often finds that he par it down by 50% to make the final manuscript. As far as murders in the novels go, he has no interest in the mechanics of the murder, the blood and the gore.

At the end of August The Collaborators was republished, which Reg cited as one of his favourites. Sentimental in parts, it exposes the nastiness and horrifying human behaviour. He went on then to explain that he couldn’t write graphically about child murder but about the emotional background as in On Beulah Heights.

For an hour Reg Hill delighted his audience and only had time for one or two questions before getting back to his cold croissants.

Anyone can join the Pub Quiz with a Crime Twist. Do you know your Allingham from your Billingham or your Christie from your whisky? Staying sober enough to ask – and even answer - the questions are Val  McDermid and Mark Billingham.

OK, this is where we get to blow our own trumpet. SHOTS’ team won the quiz. Only narrowly, mind you. The team was made up of Myles Allfrey, Liz Hatherell, Ayo Onatade, Peter Guttridge, Thalia Proctor and yours truly Mike Stotter. Under the name of VODKA SHOTS we took the cup and getting ready to defend it in 2006.