Friday at Harrogate

FRIDAY 21st JULY AT THEAKSTON OLD PECULIAR CRIME WRITING FESTIVAL
It starts sharp at 9am and runs on schedule throughout the day and evening. It is full on and there is not always time to draw breath!

SPECIAL GUEST. Lee Childs, being a star performer, kicked the morning off with James Naughtie interviewing. It was an accomplished performance and it was an open and honest discussion. And his readers should have been pleased listening in.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY. This was followed by one of the best hours I have spent at Harrogate. Thinking about the names on the panel I had doubts about how it would develop. The theme of justice or the lack of it soon appeared and the depth of the discussions was very interesting. It challenged my mind and set me thinking. The panel was balanced although with only one American, Alafair Burke, to add a North American influence to the other lawyers and advocates. Denise Mina who had studied and taught law had not practiced, but the others had, at least, from time to time. Steve Cavanagh with his involvement in litigation in dealing with those that had been discriminated against took us into present day life as did Matthew Hall with his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan. That brought a topical element to it with soldiers of between 18- 23 being engaged and sometimes judged on what happened. Marine A was quoted as an example. Obviously more authors and books to look at!

THE DARK SIDE with Claire Donoghue, Elly Griffiths, James Oswald, Lesley Thomson and Simon Toyne who were there to investigate the supernatural's ability to push boundaries. It was a well balanced group and lively. On knowing that Elly Griffiths was in the chair for the festival I read her first one in the Ruth Galloway series and also her first Stevens and Mephisto. I might well look at a James Oswald story.

We took time out for lunch and decided to go into ASHES TO ASHES where the writers based their stories in older times. It was interesting, but lacked any dynamism.

DEAD GOOD READER AWARDS. This is where our afternoon took a nose-dive. The week-end rovers that we had did not include this event. We didn't know that until it started. Not good enough really and it was sold out - well almost. It is a good one to go to and two of our party did buy two tickets and come away with a few books and a bottle of JD. Was it worth the entry fee?
It was held in the outside bar which was closed for them to set up and during the 90 minute event.
The inside bar - too small anyway under normal circumstances - had a queue. I ordered two Guinness and when served they were from cans, not cold enough and a double gin and tonic and was amazed when the bill came to seventeen quid. Bloody hell that is expensive especially even more so as we only wanted Guinness on draught. I make no complaint to the writing side of these events, but the comfort and convenience of the customers - us - needs more consideration. I wrote of this and made other points last year.

SPECIAL GUEST.
The next event after this was for Kathy Reichs being interviewed by Jeremy Vine. She is a best seller and is an anthropologist. The series Bones many of us we will be familiar with. She knows her stuff and she is an obviously accomplished interviewee. Jeremy Vine, in his role, said too much, but it ticked along nicely.

The queue for the signing was a long one and so I had to settle for a pint of Theakston's Singing Detective instead of seeing the last performance with Sarah Milligan interviewing Mark Billingham, Lee Child and Val McDermid and that should have been fun, but it had been a long day. Apparently it was hilarious. It was called WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED and if we knew that a missing child enquiry would be cut short! That would help the budgets!