Crime Boom For Town

 

Harrogate, 31 March 2022

Crime boom for town

Whoop we’re back baby. At full capacity, hosting a launch to celebrate the town’s great cultural and tourism offer down in London, just this week. There’s actual dates in the diary for 2022, and whilst the deadlines to deliver everything in the calendar this year are tighter than ever in terms of timescales, I’ll take this over lockdown.

So, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is back and there is so much going on; hundreds of books submitted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, with an ‘Academy’ choosing its very favourite books of the last 12 months to create a longlist. Secret interviews are currently taking place to ensure that everyone on the longlist can be celebrated with free to access online events in the next few weeks.

We’re also measuring up event spaces and booking up hotel rooms. It’s fair to say Harrogate is looking busier than ever for the upcoming summer season. So far we have booked over 1,500 bed nights into Harrogate hotels through the Festival office alone for the Crime Weekend, and we haven’t even announced the programme yet. Clearly this is where our reputation for being ‘The Glastonbury of Crime’ comes from!

The programme is kept heavily under wraps until a big announcement, and as I write this it is tomorrow! We have a host of amazing authors coming to Harrogate in a packed programme across an incredibly busy weekend. International authors are back in abundance with special guests including Tess Gerritsen, Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and John Connolly, with UK headliners including Lynda la Plante, Paula Hawkins, Lucy Foley, Charlie Higson and CL Taylor.

Want more? We’ve got it…

Curated by this year’s Festival Chair, award-winning novelist Denise Mina, the 2022 programme will see some of the most exciting names in crime fiction take to the stage, with speakers including broadcaster and crime fiction debut author The Rev Richard Coles, comedian and writer Frankie Boyle, bestselling creator of the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn book series, Ann Cleeves. They are joined by TV chef and cosy crime writer Rosemary Shrager, crime novelist and President of the Detection Club Martin Edwards, and New Blood panellist and journalist Bella Mackie.

Want more? Over 100 authors are on site, on stage and in the bar, including a variety of acclaimed crime and thriller authors who explore the genre and influences on their writing.

Hungry for more? Fancy solving a crime mystery at dinner, sat next to debut novelist Alan Johnson, getting clues with QI Elf, podcaster, and author Andrew Hunter Murray, or actor and producer Tony McHale? Get yourself booked onto one of our author murder mystery dinners.

Fancy yourself as a quizzer? Book onto the ever popular late-night crime fiction quiz hosted by Val McDermid and Mark Billingham, or just want to know what the next big thing will be? Then come and see Val introduce the ones to watch with New Blood.

It’s fair to say it’s an exciting time and this is only one aspect of our upcoming summer season. As tickets go on sale this Friday, the team is primed and ready and we can’t wait to welcome readers from Harrogate and beyond to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

We hope to see you there!

Sharon Canavar | Originally published in the Harrogate Advertiser on 28 April 2022.