The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is one of a portfolio of events managed and presented by Harrogate International Festivals, a multi-arts cultural organisation and a registered charity. As well as celebrating the biggest names in crime fiction it provides a platform for emerging talent and marks a key date in the literary calendar.

Launched in 2003, the Festival has grown into Europe’s largest literary crime fiction event of its kind, and has achieved international acclaim for its programming, atmosphere and organisation. It encompasses a number of activity strands including the Theakston Old Peculier Awards, Creative Thursday and – subject to funding availability – a number of year-round community and education programmes, such as The Big Read and literacy programmes within schools and communities.

Theakston Old Peculier is the title sponsor of the Crime Writing Festival along with the annual Novel of the Year and Outstanding Contribution Awards.

The Programming Committee, along with the Festival Office, forms the creative force behind the Crime Writing Festival. Made up of a small group of industry specialists, authors, agents, reviewers, editors and/or publicists, the Committee is charged with devising a programme of events for the Festival in partnership with the Festival staff.

This programming process involves developing a diverse schedule of events including elements such as Special Guest interviews, panel discussion themes, cabaret events and creative writing workshops. A key programming objective for every Festival is to create new and innovative ideas which stimulate existing audiences and will attract new ones. The Programming Committee and Festival Office work in partnership to ensure high quality programming which appeals to the broadest possible audience.

The current Programming Committee is made up of the Programming Chair (this is an annual position), Mark Billingham (author), NJ Cooper/Daphne Wright (reviewer), Julia Wisdom (publisher), Steve Mosby (author), Vaseem Khan (author) and Laura Sherlock (publicist).

The Programming Chair, an honorary position, is a crime author who acts as chair of the Programming Committee and as a figurehead for the Festival during their tenure. The Chair is appointed by the Programming Committee in consultation with the Festival Office and is an author who the Committee and Festival Office believe will apply their personality and specialist interests within the genre to create an original and innovative programme within the Festival ethos, in partnership with the Committee and the Festival Office. The 2023 Programming Chair was Vaseem Khan, and the 2024 Programming Chair is Ruth Ware. The 2025 Programming Chair will be announced in autumn 2024.

We produce a number of awards including the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, and the McDermid Debut Award, which celebrates emerging talent and is new for 2024.

The Crime Novel of the Year Award is our longest running award and is now in its twentieth year.

Submissions for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year are open to all publishers, who are invited to submit up to three titles per imprint. Novels written by UK and Irish passport holders are eligible and titles must be published in paperback for the first time from 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2024.  There is no fee at point of entry. The longlist of 18 titles is selected by the Awards Academy.

If you are a new publisher, or a publisher that is not on our list, please contact info@harrogate-festival.org.uk and we will add you to the list for updates.

The Awards Academy is made up of over 30 journalists, reviewers, booksellers, bloggers & podcasters and representatives from within the industry. It includes members from a number of minority communities. The Festival Programming Committee and representatives from all Awards sponsors and partners are also included in the Academy. From 2025, Awards Academy members will be offered a fee for their contribution on the Academy.

All titles are available digitally to all members of the Academy. The Awards Academy members are all avid readers of crime fiction, so we expect they will already have read a significant number of the books that are submitted for longlisting over the course of the previous year. The longlist provides a snapshot in time of the genre, and with the Academy being large and reflecting a range of tastes and viewpoints, we do not expect every member to have read every book that is submitted.

Prior to 2010/11 the longlist was chosen by our bookselling partners, over the years Ottakar’s, Waterstones, WHSmiths and Asda with the general public then voting for the winner both by paper vote and online. The winner was the book with the largest number of votes. The Academy was created in 2010/11 in a bid to create a more equitable solution and re-balance the voting public to avoid those with large social media followings to drive voting vs those authors with a more private approach. The Academy and the longlisting and judging process continues to evolve as we seek to ensure the most representative approach to choosing a winner.

We are always interested to hear from potential members within the industries listed above to join the Awards Academy. We are particularly keen to hear from those who feel they would bring a different perspective to our existing Academy and who can help us achieve our aim of being truly representative of all sections of society – including those who may be underrepresented in the UK crime writing scene – this includes, but is not limited to, individuals of colour, those with disabilities, individuals from the LGBT+ communities or from working class backgrounds. Please contact info@harrogate-festival.org.uk for further information.

For the Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Awards Academy chooses a longlist of 18 titles from the titles submitted by the publishers. Each individual member of the Academy is asked to rank their top 18 books and the titles with the highest overall scores go though.

The public is invited to vote for its favourite from amongst the longlisted titles over a three week period. The general public can only vote once and all votes are deduped at each relevant stage.

The members of the Academy each also vote to create the shortlist by ranking their top six titles, with the online public vote acting as one Academy vote.

Votes are anonymous within the Academy, and the vote is moderated by Harrogate International Festivals.

A select judging panel reviews the 6 shortlisted titles and a winner is chosen by the panel along with the public vote, which makes up one vote on the panel.

The Awards Academy is not involved in judging the winner from the shortlist. Voting is cleared between shortlist and winner voting stages, so every person has the opportunity to vote on both the longlist and for their favourite shortlisted title to win the Award. The public has a window of four weeks to vote on the shortlist. The general public can only vote once on the shortlist and all votes are de-duped at the relevant stage.

The Winner is announced on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and receives a cheque for £3,000, and an engraved oak beer cask from Theakston’s Brewery.

The judging panel is chaired by Simon Theakston, who is Chairman of headline sponsor T&R Theakston LTD, and is made up of radio producer, podcast host and children’s author Joe Haddow, journalist Lisa Howells, genre fiction buyer at Waterstones Gaby Lee, broadcaster Steph McGovern and journalist Matt Nixson. The judges are offered a fee for their contribution on the panel.

The public vote counts as the 7th judge on the judging panel.

Members of the public are invited to cast their votes for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award at harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com.

Only one vote per person is permitted at each stage, and if you vote for more than one author, none of your votes will be counted.

Voting is cleared between shortlist and winner voting stages, so every person has the opportunity to vote on both the longlist and for their favourite shortlisted title.

There is no public vote for the Outstanding Contribution or for the McDermid Debut Award.

In 2023, M.W. Craven won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for The Botanist, with Elly Griffiths Highly Commended for The Locked Room. Ann Cleeves received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her impressive writing career.

The Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award is awarded annually to a crime fiction author in recognition of their contribution to the genre. The recipient of the Award is selected by the Festival Programming Committee and is awarded an engraved oak beer cask from Theakston’s Brewery. There is no public vote for this Award, and the Awards Academy and Novel of the Year judging panel are not involved.

New for 2024, the McDermid Debut Award recognises debut authors of crime fiction.

The Award open to UK and Irish debut authors of crime fiction, and authors who have  already published novels in other genres are not eligible. Debut titles must be published for the first time, in hardback or paperback original, between 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2024.

There is no longlisting stage for the McDermid Debut Award. A shortlist is chosen by a group of successful and established crime writers. The winner will be decided by a judging panel, with members receiving a fee for their work as a judge. There is no public vote for the McDermid Debut Award.

From 2025 the group of established crime writers that select the shortlist will also receive a fee for their contribution to the selection process.

Theakston Old Peculier is the title sponsor of the Crime Writing Festival along with the annual Crime Novel of the Year and Outstanding Contribution Awards. T&R Theakston has been the Festival’s headline sponsor since 2005, having first come on board as a sponsor in 2004.

Waterstones is the Bookseller Partner for the Crime Novel of the Year, and the Express is the media partner.