This weekend saw my first trip to the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate - an amazing weekend! It was brilliant to finally meet some of the authors that I have reviewed for in the flesh, and to be able to chat with members of the amazing Facebook book club, THE Book Club.
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| TBC Gang! |
It kicked off on Thursday evening with the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year, won by the lovely Sarah Hilary….and I also bumped into Mel Sherratt.
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| Lovely Mel Sherratt and Sarah Hilary |
Friday started early with a brilliant "in conversation" between Val McDermid and Sara Paretsky, followed by a signing, and ended with the Dead Good Reader Awards which were brilliant - Marnie Riches, Peter James and Ann Cleeves all picked up awards, and the WONDERFUL Brenda Blethyn who plays Vera in the TV series was also there to pick up the award with Ann, which was presented by Lee Child.
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| Award Winners! |
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| Meeting Val McDermid following her conversation with Sara Paretsky, the v famous CC! |
Saturday was a blur of Pimms, Forensics, an "in conversation" with Ann Cleeves and Lisa Gardner and the brilliant Eddie Izzard being interviewed by Mark Billingham. We got to solve a murder mystery at the evening dinner with our author host, Claire MacGowan (we didn't win), and then went on to take part in Mark Billingham and Val McDermid's quiz (also didn't win - shockingly shit actually! Although Caroline Mitchell did quite well with her beer tasting skills).
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| Team Hall murder mystery solvers |
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| CC with her two favourite Lisas
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It was an absolutely fantastic weekend - worth every penny. I met so many lovely people, including some authors whose books I have LOVED this year, including Claire Mackintosh, Cally Taylor, Graeme Cameron and Alexandra Sokoloff. The atmosphere was lovely and relaxed and the icing on the cake was the huge amount of books provided by lovely publishers in several goody bags that were given out. Mr H is kind of not feeling the same way about the books, but he's got a year to get over it before I do it all again.
Great blog, it was so much fun. I'm very thankful I could put my nose for alcohol to good use (even if my trivia skills were crap) xxx
ReplyDeleteAt least we got a point! There must have been worse in the room? (Maybe not!) x
DeleteWonderful post, I so hope I can make something like this, great pics too
ReplyDeleteLainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
I hope so too Lainy! It would be lovely to meet you!
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