2010 Festival Programme

2010 Events

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Thursday 22nd July 2010

Start the 2010 Festival with a bang by joining the short listed authors for this year’s announcement of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Soak up the excitement, cheer on your favourite author and hold your breath in anticipation as the winner’s name is read!

Continue the celebrations and commiserations after the presentation with fellow crime lovers, authors and publishers at the Festival opening party. Ticket price includes canapés and a glass of wine or Yorkshire’s finest ale, Old Peculier.

Friday 23rd July 2010

According to The Literary Review, Brookmyre’s novel All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye is the book you’d want if marooned on a desert island or lost in space. Unbounded wit, absurd plots and sharp satire – don’t miss your chance to explore the unique mind of Christopher Brookmyre. Find out more about the man behind such winningly weird titles as Boiling a Frog and Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks at an event that promises to be like the writer’s latest novel;Pandaemonium!

Christopher Brookmyre will be introduced by 2010 Festival Chair Stuart MacBride.

It’s no joke. Four top writers – Bateman, Jason Goodwin, Robert Lewis and Caro Ramsay – argue the case for a not so United Kingdom by representing their countries – Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland respectively – in the crime fiction battle of Britain. Keeping peace over the potential civil war is American envoy, Joseph Finder.

There’s a long-standing feud between those who write on the deliciously bleak, darker side of life, and those whose characters aren’t hopeless hard-drinking psychotics and cynics. In this panel, authors from each side of the pink fluffy curtain battle it out for supremacy. Hold onto your seats as Simon Brett tries to keep MC Beaton, Tony Black, Simon Kernick and LC Tyler in check.

Crime fiction is a broad church, not just in the topics it tackles but the periods in history it explores. Four writers travel backwards and forwards through time to examine our criminal tendencies through the centuries, from the apex of the Roman Empire to the dystopia of a futuristic Edinburgh. RS Downie, Paul Johnston, Richard Morgan and SJ Parris talk genre-bending as host Laura Wilson does her upmost to keep their heads firmly in the present.

World–renowned forensic experts Professor Dave Barclay, Dr James Grieve and Dr Lorna Dawson from the Macaulay Institute have worked on some of Britain’s highest profile murder cases, and between them have acted as advisors on television dramas and documentaries including Silent Witness, Waking the Dead and Dispatches. See them explain the reality behind the fiction with the help of two award-winning crime writers, Ann Cleeves and Mark Billingham.

She beats Dickens, Shakespeare, JK Rowling – and even Dan Brown! In fact only the bible outsells Agatha Christie. 2010 celebrates 120 years since the birth of the undisputed ‘Queen of Crime’. The woman who gave the world arguably its most famous (and certainly most egg-shaped) Belgian and an unexpected sleuth in the form of a diminutive old lady who likes a good cup of tea, has sold over two billion books, making her the most widely published novelist of all time. What’s her enduring secret?

Join host Dreda Say Mitchell as she attempts to crack the Christie code with help from the novelist’s grandson Mathew Prichard, biographer Laura Thompson and author and Christie admirer Andrew Taylor.

For over fifty years, the CWA Dagger awards have recognised the best crime writing in the UK and abroad. Join the CWA for a champagne reception as the winners are announced for best translated fiction, non-fiction and short story – plus the Dagger in the Library and the Debut Dagger.

Tickets £15 (£10 CWA members). To book, e-mail: tickets@thecwa.co.uk or visit www.thecwa.co.uk/tickets.

Important Note: This event is hosted and managed by the CWA. Tickets are only available via the details listed above. Tickets for the Dagger Awards are not available from the Festival Box Office.

Who better to get the inside story on one Scottish crime writing supernova than another? Ian Rankin and Val McDermid are the biggest and bestselling British crime writers on the block. The scale of their success and their shared Caledonian roots mean it is easy for observers to bracket them together at the top of the literary tree. This exceptional status has led the two authors to form a private friendship, as well as lent fuel to some famously public differences of opinion!

This is the event crime lovers have been waiting for: two of the country’s greatest writing talents going head-to-head. Make sure you don’t miss out.

Vent your murderous frustrations with crime writers Jeff Lindsay and Michael Robotham who will be taking audience suggestions for suitable victims and then cooking up methods for perfect murders on the spot while forensic scientists, James Grieve and Dave Barclay, stand by to identify the flaws in their dastardly schemes. Mark Lawson will be the long arm of the law keeping a semblance of order.

Saturday 24th July 2010

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Yorkshire-born Joanne Harris is best known for penning the uplifting bestseller Chocolat (adapted into the successful film starring Johnny Depp). Her 2005 book Gentlemen and Players explored the dangerous undercurrents at work within a boys’ boarding school and her new novel blueeyedboy is a psychological thriller set in the shiftless world of the internet. Joanne Harris will be introduced on stage by Dreda Say Mitchell.

Crime authors can be a darkly devious bunch. It’s not about happily ever after; it’s about how much fun you can have torturing your protagonists. Four writers on the bleeding edge of crime fiction invite you into their dark and twisted worlds. Ray Banks, Stella Duffy, Charlie Williams and Craig Russell get gritty with host Martyn Waites. Brace yourself: this ain’t gonna be pretty.

People are obsessed with looking for The Next Big Thing. Well, look no further. International bestseller Val McDermid has done the work for you. She’ll be introducing some of the brightest new talents of 2010 – Belinda Bauer, Attica Locke, Liam Mcllvanney and Stuart Neville – and letting them explain how they came to produce their extraordinary debut novels.

This year the Festival’s new Reader-In-Residence Martyn Waites is turning readers’ attention to outstanding writers whose books, for one reason or other, have not yet achieved the widespread success or recognition that they so richly deserve. The Book Group will be discussing Second Shot by Zoë Sharp and King of the Road by Charlie Williams. Get reading and join in the discussion!

White-knuckle readers – those who like a good helping chills with their kills – are a growing breed. More and more, crime books are ratcheting up the terror factor to spinechilling levels as traditional boundaries between genres become less important. Barry Forshaw keeps the lights firmly on while discussing things that go bump in the night with Karen Rose, Peter James, Steve Mosby and Christopher Fowler, four writers who have stood on both sides of that fine line between horror and crime.

Pretty much every writer of crime fiction is held up as “the next Ian Rankin” at some point – is it journalistic shorthand, or just laziness? The man himself (the real Ian Rankin) talks fiction, friction and identity crises with four of the biggest contenders for his throne: Paul Cleave (New Zealand’s Ian Rankin), Allan Guthrie (Scotland’s, erm, other Ian Rankin), Alex Gray (the female Ian Rankin) and Chris Simms (the Mancunian Rankin candidate).

From Wilkie Collins to Arthur Conan Doyle, from Agatha Christie to Ian Fleming, from Dorothy L. Sayers to Reginald Hill, the lineage of great crime writing is indisputably British. Isn’t it? Crime’s own English rose NJ Cooper promises to remain impartial as U.S citizen Joseph Finder, Aussie Michael Robotham and Brazilianborn Chris Carter make the case for their countries own literary pedigrees. Maintaining a stiff upper lip on behalf of the Brits is James Twining.

Join the Festival’s Reader-in-Residence Martyn Waites for a delightfully devious dining experience.

With the help of the crime author at your table you’ll join forces with your fellow diners to murder the main, deduce over dessert, and conclude over coffee. Guest authors hosting tables this year include: Bateman, Sean Black, Simon Brett, Alison Bruce, Chris Ewan, Diane Janes, Erin Kelly, SJ Parris, Caro Ramsay, Craig Robertson, Imogen Robertson, Craig Russell, LC Tyler, Charlie Williams, Anne Zouroudi.

Ticket price includes a two-course meal and a glass of wine.

Slaughter: the perfect name for a perfect crime author. Known for her relentless plotting and searing forensic detail, Karin Slaughter’s writing never backs away from the realities of violent crime. Making a rare UK live appearance, the American author will be talking to Mark Billingham about her work, the benefits and pitfalls of global success and her new novel Broken, published in July.

We’re not saying it gets deadly serious, but there are quizzes and then there’s the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival quiz. The crème de la crème of crime authors, publishers and fans show no mercy as they battle it out to prove who are the real criminal masterminds. This is your chance to test your team’s knowledge against some of the best brains in the crime business. Quizmasters Val McDermid and Stuart MacBride ask the questions to determine who will be waving aloft the coveted cup.

Sunday 25th July 2010

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Let’s face it, Daniel Craig might be doing his best to keep the Fleming flame alive, but shaken martinis and enemies peeking out from behind the Iron Curtain are old news. Today our global conflicts are as much clashes between cultures than countries, the technological revolution has given ordinary people tools previously only in the hands of spymasters, and women are world leaders not window dressing. So where do we look for the next generation of high-octane international thrillers? Meg Gardiner considers the future of the action hero with help from Sean Black, Jeremy Duns, Jo Nesbø and Zoë Sharp.

Mark Lawson talks to two of the US’s most intriguing exports to find out if they share more in common than a name and profession. Jeffery Deaver, author of the best-selling Lincoln Rhyme series and brilliant raconteur, is already a firm favourite with Harrogate audiences. He’ll be joined in conversation by Festival first-timer Jeff Lindsay, author of the acclaimed Dexter novels; books that have inspired a cult US television series and made millions of readers confront an uneasy dilemma: Should you ever like a serial killer? Expect an intriguing blend of moral ambiguity and high entertainment from the meeting of these two Jeffs!

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