Event: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2023

I started the day by walking Daisy, my golden retriever, up to the venue to collect tickets for myself and my friends. After they arrived in Harrogate, we headed to the Crime Awards in the evening. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the awards, so we were treated to celebratory cupcakes and the usual free drink after the ceremony.

Friday was filled with brilliant panels. I couldn’t resist picking up signed copies of C. J. Tudor’s The Drift and Liz Nugent’s Strange Sally Diamond, which I’d had my eye on for a while.

We had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Abir Mukherjee, who was handing out samplers of Hunted, which sounds fantastic, and he kindly signed them for us. I loved the mention of The Chain on the back too!

I’m also excited about C. M. Ewan’s The House Hunt. We attended an event for it and received a sampler.

Thanks to The Likely Suspects for the proof of Hannah Richell’s The Search Party!

The day was topped off brilliantly by seeing the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers!

On Saturday, we attended a summer party to celebrate the launch of Kate Gray’s The Honeymoon. Thank you so much for the cocktail! I was lucky enough to win a goodie bag, which included a signed proof, beach towel, frisbee and tote bag.

We also enjoyed a free dinner, courtesy of Alex Michaelides. As a British-Cypriot author and with a Greek food van on-site, he kindly set up next to it to sign proof copies of his forthcoming book The Fury.

We attended a fascinating panel on the courtroom within the crime novel, featuring brilliant authors such as Steve Cavanagh, Kia Abdullah, Sarah Vaughan and Helen Fields, chaired by Judge Rinder. Fun fact: I once ended up in the front row for one of the 2020 episodes of JR! Afterwards, I got my copy of Fifty-Fifty signed by Steve Cavanagh – I love the Eddie Flynn series!

The final panel of the day was with Jeffery Deaver! I met him afterwards and got my favourite book (The Empty Chair) signed, along with a proof of his new one (The Watchmaker’s Hand), which releases this November. I’ve been a fan since I was a child – I even emailed him for career advice on getting into writing back in the day, and he very kindly replied!

Sunday marked the final day of the festival. We attended a great panel on the golden age of crime fiction, featuring Janice Hallett, Vaseem Khan, Clare Mackintosh, Ragnar Jónasson and Stig Abell. It was wonderful to meet Janice Hallett afterwards and get my copy of The Appeal signed – she’s one of my favourite modern authors.

After that, we went to the When Sally Killed Harry domestic noir panel, featuring another strong lineup of Shari Lapena, C. L. Taylor, Louise Candlish, Claire Douglas and T. M. Logan.

Another brilliant festival!