Crime Writers at Harrogate

The Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writers' Festival in Harrogate started for us the day before the opening evening. We arrived here, met up with everyone and 'bedded in' to the feel of this very beautiful town. Thursday morning after a quick breakfast in The Winter Gardens under the name of Weatherspoon we were thinking about books. The object being to visit every second hand book shop prior to the award winning event. Afterwards we sped up to the Old Swan to collect our passes and our bag of books each. I declined an expensive hour or so in Betty's and spent some time looking at the seven books that we had doubled up on. I browsed through a few pages and I was impressed and I know that there is a lot to look forward to. This year we received a goody bag, containing more books than in previous years, with ten in it, and after we had examined our catch we removed these seven books from a our pile to take to Spain.

The rain had made the town very wet, but had diminished by the afternoon and the evening was sunny and warm. The Old Swan Hotel stands amongst mature trees and provides an atmosphere in which to socialize and to enjoy the occasion and of course we did.

Mark Lawson presented the evening with Simon Theakston introducing the event and retelling old jokes of previous years. It was light hearted. An achievement award was presented to Jane Gregory for her work, support and enthusiasm from the first festival fifteen years ago until now. She was visibly surprised and lost for words.

Lee Childs was the 'special guest' and was their to receive his award. A very prestigious one to rank alongside PD James, Ruth Randell and Colin Dexter. Lee has now created his 22nd Jack Reacher novel and his impressive acceptance speech paid tribute to fellow writers of his genre and many associated with publishing and the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival. A person having achieved so much and was evidently humble in being ranked alongside some great writers.

The six shortlisted writers were individually introduced by Mark Lawson and were interviewed briefly. The winner was Chris Brookmyre for Black Widow. I have looked at this book, but was not initially inspired. Maybe I should take another look at it, but sometimes the winner may not be the best book around. However, good luck to him and to achieve this result is something to be appreciated and to be proud of.

We had a great day and I was with those people that are important to me and with two friends of course. It is very good to be with those that matter to me. And now to an hour of Lee Child's at 9am in the morning.