The Theakstons Crime Writing Festival is the largest event in Europe dedicated to the celebration of crime fiction. The Theakstons Festival crew had been tweeting us all up into a fervour for the past few months…and now finally it was happening and I was going.



As I stepped from the train onto the station platform at Harrogate my old Dutch mate from last year’s Theakstons Crime Festival Bo de O’Utline greeted me with a cheery wave.



But there wasn’t much time to hang around and catch up on crimes past. It was full steam ahead for the Old Swan Hotel and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The awards were hosted by the ever loquacious and always amusing Mark Lawson. We were introduced to a stellar (with apologies to Peter Theakston that’s stellar not Stella) line up of nominees with Mark Billingham kicking off the proceedings. But in the tried and tested tradition of classic crime writing I’m going to make you wait to discover who this year’s successful criminal mastermind was.

Mark Lawson and Mark Billingham


Next up was an award to PD James of an Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. Mark Lawson and Val McDermid both sang the praises of the woman who Val fittingly described as the ‘Queen Mum’ of crime fiction. But no one could be left in any doubt that everyone in the packed-to-capacity room shared their regard for this icon of crime writing when her appearance on stage was greeted with a prolonged and heart-felt standing ovation. There was barely a dry eye in the house. But my personal stand-out moment of the Festival came as the room began to empty, when Val McDermid attempting to clear a path through the still buzzing audience to enable PD James to leave, flung her arms wide and uttered the phrase every crime writer must one day dream of hearing, ‘Legend coming through!’

PD James and Val McDermid


For some that might be enough excitement but there’s no room for slackers at the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival. It was on to the Festival opening party. Meet the Twitter gang who helped drink the bar dry of Theakstons at the Thursday night opening party! I have to admit to having drunk the last pint of Theakstons ‘Crime of Passion’, which had been brewed especially for the Festival. Lol!

David Jackson aka @Author_Dave, me aka @nic_ford, Pam Reader aka @Pamreader, Mel Sherratt aka @writermels, Rebecca Bradley aka @RebeccaJBradley.
Missing in frantic action, doing a great job taking snaps and notes are Maria Barrett aka @MariaBarrett and Keith Walters aka @keithbwalters.


Harrogate is a fabulous setting for the Festival. The old time elegance of its architecture and the presence of possibly the best tea rooms in the world in the shape of Bettys only add to the relaxed and leisurely ambience. The choice of the Old Swan Hotel, itself once at the centre of perhaps the greatest of all crime mysteries – the disappearance of Agatha Christie- as the new venue for the Festival was both inspired and inspiring.

Harrogate doesn’t just have a blooming great crime festival, it’s in bloom too.



Everyone goes to Bettys!


Friday night was just as star studded as the preceding evening with the charmingly suave Peter James, this year’s Chair of the Crime Writer’s Association, acting as our host for a gala reception in which the winners of five of the CWA Daggers & the nominees for the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards were revealed.

Peter James


Whether you’re a writer (published or aspiring), a crime fiction fan, a publisher or an agent Harrogate in July is the place to be. Where else would I have had the opportunity to chat with everyone from exciting new authors like Dave Jackson to international bestsellers like Peter James; meet top agents like Carole Blake and Jane Gregory or brush shoulders with crime fiction luminaries like Stuart MacBride and Lee Child. Oh yes that reminds me, Lee Child: the winner of this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

Lee Child


Next year I hope to catch up with another of crime fiction’s rising stars Mari Hannah, we promised to meet up…but fortune decided otherwise! I hope we’ll always have Harrogate and Theakstons Crime Festival…

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Stonehenge: A Landscape Revealed
Residential Course: Urchfont Manor, Wiltshire from Friday dinner 3 June to Sunday lunch 5 June 2011



Stonehenge is an iconic prehistoric monument visited by millions and known worldwide. New archaeological research has transformed our ideas about how the landscape beyond the monument itself was inhabited and understood in prehistory. This course explores the impact of these discoveries and includes a field trip to some of the less well known archaeological sites of the wider Stonehenge Landscape including Durrington Walls, Woodhenge and its environs and the Cursus.



Spend the weekend with me, Dr Nick Snashall, National Trust archaeologist for the Stonehenge & Avebury World Heritage Site. I’ll reveal the very latest discoveries and the exciting new techniques that are being used to unlock the secrets of one of Britain’s most precious landscapes.


We’ll visit this site near Woodhenge where we recently discovered the large postholes of Neolithic mortuary platforms – I’m in the top left posthole!




To find out more information about the weekend you can download the course handout which gives more details of site visits, lectures and timings.


This English Heritage pdf leaflet describes the importance of Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site and provides a handy map of the area showing many of the monuments we’ll be exploring.


If you’d like to join me for this weekend of discovery you’ll find contact information and a booking enquiry form on the Urchfont Manor website.





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The Theakstons Harrogate Crime Writing Festival is the largest event in Europe dedicated to the celebration of crime fiction. With over 70 best-selling UK and international crime writers and a programme of 20 plus events it’s no surprise that over the last seven years it’s become the place to be for lovers of crime fiction. This year has proved no exception with over 8,000 tickets sold and I wanted to go…


…but I had to work! Then fate intervened, a meeting was cancelled and I arranged to have Thursday and Friday free. I still couldn’t make the Saturday Quiz night or the tweetup arranged by @crimeficreader because weekend work in the form of the Festival of British Archaeology called. But being a glass half-full kind of a girl I decided to head north by train to start my investigation into Yorkshire’s criminal inclinations anyway.


As soon as I stepped down onto the station platform at Harrogate the presence of a criminal element was in evidence!





Despite mixed reviews about its quality I’d decided to risk booking in at the St. George Hotel and Spa (booking via Laterooms.com). My single room was clean, acceptable and cheap. And just as importantly the imposing old building that is the Crown Hotel (the conference venue) was only five minutes walk away. Perfect!





After a shower and change of clothes I headed off to the Crown. The bar was already awash with crime fiction fans, authors, literary agents and publishers. And if I had any lingering doubts that this was the place to be they were dispelled when I met first Val McDermid and later Peter James. The main event of the evening was the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, won this year by R.J. Ellory for A Simple Act of Violence. But fine though Ellory’s writing is, for me he was upstaged by the understated eloquence of Reginald Hill (who received a life-time achievement award) and the power of divination of our host Mark Lawson’s Jack Russell. Forget Paul the psychic octopus if you want to predict the result of next year’s OP Crime Novel of the Year what you need is a Jack Russell.


Next morning well breakfasted and with time to kill before my selected session of the morning I headed out into the bright sunshine to enjoy a long relaxing cup of tea in that most deservedly enduring of Yorkshire institutions Bettys Tea Rooms.





Suitably refreshed I headed back to pick up my ticket for Knitting Needles at Dawn. With the charming and urbane Simon Brett in charge it was no surprise that the diverse authorial talents of MC Beaton, Tony Black, Simon Kernick and LC Tyler entirely failed to come to blows in this ‘cosy versus noir’ debate. But they did provide an hour of entertaining insight into how they viewed their chosen genre.


The white blur centre stage is all my camera phone could pick out of them!





I left Harrogate thoroughly satisfied with my decision to trek north and with every intention of being back for more next year. Beat that for a long weekend: two Festivals, Val McDermid, Peter James, tea at Betty’s and a psychic Jack Russell.


UPDATE 26/07/10: Listen to exclusive audio sessions from the Theakstons Harrogate Crime Writing Festival (including Knitting Needles at Dawn) now up on the Yorkshire Post website.



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