Tag: Bristol

Confessions from CrimeFest: Part Three

Leave a comment
Mark Billingham interviewed by Martyn Waites

Mark Billingham interviewed by Martyn Waites

And so onto Saturday!

First up, I headed to the 9am panel Name Your Price: The Hired Gun. Moderated by Meg Gardiner, with panellists Mason Cross, Hanna Jameson, John Gordon Sinclair, and Mark Allen Smith, the panel discussed the attraction of the ‘hired gun’ as protagonist, the mystery surrounding the character that rides into town, sorts out the problem, then disappears again, and the joys (and challenges) of writing them.

Next, I headed to the lounge to interview Mason Cross, author of The Killing Season and creator of the rather mysterious Carter Blake. It was a fun interview to do – watch this blog for the write-up coming soon.

After a leisurely lunch with friends, I headed to one of the main events of the weekend – Featured Guest of Honour: Mark Billingham interviewed by Martyn Waites. Both wearing fabulous western shirts that I’m sure Mark Billingham’s series character, Tom Thorne, would have been proud of, they took to the stage for a lively and entertaining interview covering everything from Mark’s books, the future of police procedurals, Thorne’s taste in music (it changed quite dramatically between the first book and the second) and even dachshund detectives!

Then it was on to the Arcadia Books Reception complete with tasty wine in beautiful Bristol Blue Glass glasses, followed by the Gala Awards Dinner. It was a fabulous evening with the merriment continuing way into the early hours of Sunday morning.

On Sunday I had a hangover, and it was a big one, which meant I didn’t get up very early! But I did make it along to the last event of the festival, Criminal Mastermind with Quiz Master Maxim Jakubowski interrogating contestants: Mason Cross (specialist subject Lee Child), Kate Ellis (specialist subject Josephine Tey), Paul Johnston (specialist subject Dashiell Hammett) and Susan Moody (specialist subject Raymond Chandler). It was great fun playing along in the audience, but the general crime fiction questions in the second round were seriously hard! In the end Paul Johnston was victorious.

And then the weekend was over.

As ever I was determined to resist the festival book shop – my ever multiplying ‘to be read’ pile already stretches across several rooms of the house! But, as usual, I was unable to resist the papery lure of the all those fabulous looking books, and over the weekend bought several bags full.

Authors whose books I’ve added to my mountainous ‘to be read’ pile are: Simon Kernick, Helen Giltrow, Nev Fountain, Tom Wood, Kevin Wignall, Tanya Carver, and Kate Griffin. Along with the latest books of a few of my favourite authors including Mark Billingham (The Bones Beneath), Meg Gardiner (The Shadow Tracer), and a signed copy of The Killing Season by Mason Cross.

All in all, it was a fabulously fun weekend.

Now I’m off to book my ticket for next year!

Confessions from CrimeFest: Part One

2 Comments
The Iceland Noir panel

The Iceland Noir panel

On a surprisingly hot Thursday last week I packed my weekend bag and headed to CrimeFest. Held in Bristol, from the 15 – 18 May the Royal Marriott Hotel on College Green played host to hundreds of crime writers and readers for a long weekend of panels and interviews celebrating and debating crime fiction.

Having checked into the rather gorgeous conference hotel, I hurried along to my first panel of the afternoon: Locked Rooms & Closed Locations: Writing Yourself into a Corner. Here, the panellists Nev Fountain, Thomas Mogford, Anotonia Hodgson, LC Tyler, and moderator, Charles (Caroline) Todd discussed the settings that inspired their own novels, how they’ve used elements of locked room or closed location settings in their writing, and the difficulties that can be encountered when writing a traditional locked room mystery with an entirely plausible ending.

Next, I trotted along to the Iceland Noir panel. Iceland Noir authors Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Quentin Bates, and Michael Ridpath, along with publisher Petur Mar Olafsson and moderator Barry Forshaw, talked about the rise of Icelandic crime fiction, the cold but beautiful landscape of Iceland, and the dreadfulness of the traditional Icelandic food! Each member of the audience was given a raffle ticket, and at the end of the panel one lucky person won an all-expenses paid trip to this years’ Iceland Noir crime writing festival in Reykjavik in November. Sadly that person was not me.

Then it was off to the bar, to catch up with friends, and on to the Crimefest Pub Quiz, hosted by crimewriter, critic, and quiz master, Peter Guttridge. Despite the amount of wine drunk, we were still able to do much better this year – rising one place from last to second from last! We didn’t mind though, it was still a lot of fun.

As I fell into bed in the early hours of Friday morning, I set my alarm for 7.30am and promised myself I’d get up in a few hours time to see the first panel.

Check out Confessions from CrimeFest: Part 2 to see if I managed it …

Shortlists for the 2014 CrimeFest Awards Announced

Leave a comment
CrimeFest logo

CrimeFest logo

The shortlists have been announced for the annual CrimeFest Awards!

Now in its seventh year, the winners of the 2014 CrimeFest Awards will be revealed at the CrimeFest Gala Awards Dinner on Saturday, 17 May 2014. It promises to be a great night, and I can’t wait to find out which of the books from the fabulous novels shortlisted are going to be awarded the prizes.

 

The shortlisted authors and books are …

 

The Audible Sounds of Crime Award:  for the best crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2013 in print and audio format, and available for download from audible.co.uk (Sponsored by Audible UK).

Nominees:

Ben Aaronovitch for Broken Homes, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Orion Audio)

John le Carré for A Delicate Truth, read by John le Carré (Penguin)

Robert Galbraith for The Cuckoo’s Calling, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio)

Peter James for Dead Man’s Time, read by Daniel Weyman (Macmillan Audio)

Peter May for The Chessmen, read by Peter Forbes (Quercus)

James Oswald for Natural Causes, read by Ian Hanmore (Penguin)

 

The eDunnit Award: for the best crime fiction ebook first published in hardcopy and  electronic format in the British Isles in 2013.

Nominees:

A.K. Benedict for The Beauty of Murder (Orion)

Thomas H. Cook for Sandrine (Head of Zeus)

Sara Gran for Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway (Faber and Faber)

Elizabeth Haynes for Under a Silent Moon (Sphere)

Val McDermid for Cross and Burn (Sphere)

Derek B. Miller for Norwegian by Night (Faber and Faber)

Denise Mina for The Red Road (Orion)

Thomas Mogford for Sign of the Cross (Bloomsbury)

George Pelecanos for The Double (Orion)

Anne Zouroudi for The Feast of Artemis (Bloomsbury)

 

The Goldsboro Last Laugh Award: for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2013 (Sponsored by Goldsboro Books, the UK’s largest specialist in first edition, signed books).

Nominees:

Colin Bateman for Fire and Brimstone (Headline)

Alan Bradley for Speaking from Among the Bones (Orion)

Colin Cotterill for The Axe Factor (Quercus)

Shamini Flint for A Calamitous Chinese Killing (Little, Brown)

Carl Hiaasen for Bad Monkey (Little, Brown)

Suzette A. Hill for A Little Murder (Allison & Busby)

Derek B. Miller for Norwegian by Night (Faber and Faber)

Teresa Solana for The Sound of One Hand Killing (Bitter Lemon Press)

 

CrimeFest runs 15th – 18th May 2014 in Bristol, UK, and will be featuring guest authors including Mark Billingham, Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Simon Brett, who will be joined by the likes of Ben Aaronovitch, Jasper Fforde, Nicci French, Lars Kepler and Peter James.

The CrimeFest programme includes a full schedule of panel events and interviews, and aspiring crime novelists can also attend the CrimeFest Crime Writing Day, which includes a workshop with M.R. Hall and William Ryan, and a Pitch-an-Agent event where aspiring authors can pitch their unpublished manuscript to a top line-up of literary agents.

To find out more about CrimeFest, and the authors attending the convention, pop over to www.crimefest.com/attend.html

CRIMEFEST is here!

2 Comments
CRIMEFEST logo

CRIMEFEST logo

Hurray, today is the start of CrimeFest – a wonderful crime writing convention held in Bristol, England.

I’m heading there today and will be soon be enjoying the great panels, interviews, and other writerly goings on from Thursday to Sunday this week.

If you spot me be sure to come and say hi.

Oh and watch this space for updates …

Related articles

CrimeFest announce their 2013 Awards Shortlists

2 Comments
CRIMEFEST logo

CRIMEFEST logo

There’s not long to go before the annual CrimeFest crime writing convention running from 30th May – 2nd June in Bristol, England.

A highlight of the event is the CrimeFest Awards, and this week the shortlists for 2013 have been announced.

First up, is The Audible Sounds of Crime Award. This award celebrates the best crime audiobook published in both print and audio in 2012. Shortlists and winning titles are selected by Audible.co.uk, the UK’s leading producer of downloadable audiobooks.

And the shortlist is:

– Michael Connelly for The Black Box read by Michael McConnohie (Orion Audio)

– John Grisham for The Racketeer read by J.D. Jackson (Hodder & Stoughton)

– Peter May for The Lewis Man read by Peter Forbes (Quercus)

– Jo Nesbø for Phantom read by Sean Barrett (Random House with Isis Publishing)

– Ian Rankin for Standing In Another Man’s Grave read by James MacPherson (Orion Audio)

Next up is The Goldsboro Last Laugh Award. This award is for the best humorous crime novel of 2012. The shortlist and winning title are selected by a team of British crime fiction reviewers.

The shortlist is:

– Colin Bateman for The Prisoner of Brenda (Headline)

– Simon Brett for The Corpse on the Court (Severn House)

– Declan Burke for Slaughter’s Hound (Liberties Press)

– Ruth Dudley Edwards for Killing The Emperors (Allison & Busby)

– Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May and the Invisible Code (Doubleday, Transworld)

– Hesh Kestin for The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats (Mulholland Books, Hodder & Stoughton)

The next up is the eDunnit Award. This award recognises the best crime fiction ebook published in 2012 in both hardcopy and in electronic format. The shortlist and winning title are selected by a team of British crime fiction reviewers.

The shortlist is:

– Andrea Camilleri for The Age of Doubt (Mantle, Macmillan)

– Ruth Dudley Edwards for Killing The Emperors (Allison & Busby)

– Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May and the Invisible Code (Transworld)

– C.J. Sansom for Dominion (Mantle, Macmillan)

And finally, the H.R.F. Keating Award. This award is for the best biography/critical book related to crime fiction ebook published between 2008 and 2012. Again, the shortlist and winning title has been selected by a team of British crime fiction reviewers.

The shortlist is:

– Declan Burke & John Connolly for Books to Die For (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012)

– John Curran for Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks (HarperCollins, 2009)

– Barry Forshaw (editor) for British Crime Writing: an Encyclopaedia (Greenwood World Publishing, 2008)

– Christopher Fowler for Invisible Ink (Strange Attractor, 2012)

– Maxim Jakubowski (editor) for Following the Detectives (New Holland Publishers, 2010)

– P.D. James for Talking about Detective Fiction (The Bodleian Library, 2009)

Now the shortlist has been announced, the nominees have to wait it out until the winners of each award are  announced at CrimeFest’s annual Gala Dinner on Saturday 1st June. With so many great books on the shortlists it’s going to be a tough call.

I’ve got my ticket and I can’t wait to find out who the winners are.

To find out more about CrimeFest hop on over to www.crimefest.com