Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival 2023 - Press Release

THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME WRITING FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 20^THANNIVERSARY FULL PROGRAMME

 

RICHARD ARMITAGE | MARK BILLINGHAM | CHRIS BROOKMYRE |

LOUISE CANDLISH | JANE CASEY | STEVE CAVANAGH | ANDREW CHILD |

LEE CHILD | ANN CLEEVES | REV RICHARD COLES | S.A. COSBY |

FIONA CUMMINS | WILL DEAN | JEFFERY DEAVER | A.A. DHAND |

LOUISE DOUGHTY | CLAIRE DOUGLAS | MARK EDWARDS | HELEN FIELDS |

ELLY GRIFFITHS | JANICE HALLETT | CHRIS HAMMER | MICK HERRON |

SARAH HILARY | CARA HUNTER | LISA JEWELL | DOUG JOHNSTONE |

RAGNAR JÓNASSON | FEMI KAYODE | ERIN KELLY | VASEEM KHAN |

DOROTHY KOOMSON | SHARI LAPENA | MARK LAWSON | T.M. LOGAN |

CLARE MACKINTOSH | IMRAN MAHMOOD | VAL MCDERMID |

CLAIRE MCGOWAN | GREG MOSSE | ABIR MUKHERJEE | STUART NEVILLE |

LIZ NUGENT | S.J. PARRIS | ROB RINDER | LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON |

C.L. TAYLOR | C.J. TUDOR | SARAH VAUGHAN | LUCA VESTE | RUTH WARE | LUCY WORSLEY

 

20-23 July 2023 | Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com | #TheakstonsCrime 

 

 

 

Harrogate, Tuesday 28 March 2023. Harrogate International Festivals has today announced the programme for this year’s 20^th anniversary Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the world’s largest celebration of crime fiction and thriller writing, which runs from 20 – 23 July 2023 at Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel.

 

The 2023 Festival Chair, award winning crime and thriller author Vaseem Khan, has curated a ground-breaking programme. Alongside the special guests headlining the Festival, including literary legends Lee Child, Andrew Child, Lisa Jewell, Ruth Ware, Ann Cleeves, Jeffery Deaver, Lucy Worsley, S. A. Cosby, Val McDermid, and Chris Hammer, the full programme includes some of the biggest names in crime fiction.

 

Exploring everything from the perfect murderous opening, police procedurals and dark obsessions to legal thrillers and the golden age of crime, this year’s 20^th anniversary programme will see a variety of acclaimed crime and thriller authors discussing the genre and influences on their writing, including Janice Hallett, Shari Lapena, Louise Candlish, Abir Mukherjee, Steve Cavanagh, Elly Griffiths, Ragnar Jónasson, Clare Mackintosh, Mick Herron, Will Dean, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Chris Brookmyre, and many more!

 

The Festival will start with Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award ceremony, where the winner of crime writing’s most prestigious accolade will be revealed alongside the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award.

 

This year’s Festival also includes two ‘who dunnit?’ themed author dinners, giving a unique opportunity for crime fans to get to know authors in a fun and informal environment. Richard Armitage, Stuart Neville, David Hewson, Emma Christie, Steph Broadribb, Alex Dahl, Greg Mosse, Leigh Russell, S.E. Lynes and many others will partake in a murder mystery with a twist!

 

The all-star line-up of events includes the return of Val McDermid’s New Blood panel, celebrating four brilliant debut crime writers, and the popularLate-Night Quiz, hosted by McDermid and Mark Billingham, armed with trivia, titles and tricks to test the knowledge of crime fiction fanatics. 

 

Vaseem Khan, award winning author and 2023 Festival Chair, said: “It’s a privilege to chair this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. My late father and I watched Poirot together and we’d never imagined that decades later I would chair a Festival so closely connected to Agatha Christie. It feels special to be the first British Asian crime writer to chair the Festival, and even more special for the monumental 20^th anniversary. The Festival team have pulled together an Avengers Assemble line-up of crime writers to celebrate the monumental anniversary. You’d be (criminally) insane to miss it."

 

Sharon Canavar, Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, added: “This year marks 20 years since the Festival launched in Harrogate, and what wonderful two decades we’ve had celebrating the world of crime fiction. In that time, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival has welcomed some of the biggest names in crime fiction and this year is no exception. In collaboration with our 2023 Festival Chair, Vaseem Khan, we are delighted to announce this year’s full programme for what will be the best Festival yet!”

 

Simon Theakston, Executive Director of Theakston, commented: “This year’s Festival will be another monumental event for the world of crime fiction. It has been a pleasure to be a part of the Festival over the past 20 years and following the full programme announcement, I am thoroughly looking forward to celebrating once again at the world’s best crime writing Festival over a pint of Old Peculier!”

Audiobook April

I wanted to chat about my weird little germ of a theme month happening next month: Audiobook April.

Now, I love a good audiobook. I listen to quite a few (mainly due to my drives to/from work) as well as podcasts and I love a good old dancing in my kitchen while listening to the radio or streaming music. And while popularity in audiobooks and podcasts have gone over the last few years, we still have that whole “Is listening to an audiobook reading?” debate. And I’m not going to go down that rabbit hole as I am not nearly smart enough to address this issue. I have my opinions (I say yes, it does), but I understand why some people disagree. Let’s be respectful and kind, and agree to disagree, shall we?

But I want to do a month where my write-ups are focused on audiobooks, whether I buy them from Audible or Apple Books, borrow from my local library or gifted by publishers in exchange for honest thoughts and reactions. And I want to try and be wide on audiobook genres, age ranges and lengths. Some will be short and others will be long (hence why some audiobooks I listened to the past few months I have been very quiet on – been saving them for April).

Because I like this weird idea of mine, I’m gonna take a week or two off blogging so can get a head start on myself. Plus, with Easter round the corner, now seems to perfect time to take a mini blog break. 

Now, before you all go "What about your murder month?", I am still going to be beavering away with that in the background. If I audiobook a crime/thriller audiobook, I will post my thoughts on that in April. If I read it, that will go up in May, but I will say "Murder Month" in the title of the post. I'm hoping to get at least two more crime titles done before the end of March! 

Plus, I have a few titles that I would like to try and listen to this month and a few that I suspect will be curveballs. Any below that you guys are DESPERATE for me to try? And do you want to a hint of some titles that I am considering/tempted to try...?

Murder Month 2023 - Bones Are Forever

I don’t often read the same author back-to-back. I normally like to have a little break between finishing a book by an author and starting another book by the same author. But with Kathy Reichs, I thought I would be safe as she’s one of my fave crime/thriller authors. Plus, am audiobooking. I should be ok to audiobook the same author twice in a row, right?

Title and Author: Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs

Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook borrowed from library audiobook app

Buy from (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

So, here we are, with the 15^th outing of Temperance Brennan (Cold Cold Bones was the 21^st, so I jumped backwards). In Quebec, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is asked to a scene where the body of a baby is found in a vanity cabinet. While there, two more bodies of mummified babies are discovered. When it is discovered that babies didn’t died of natural causes, the hunt to find the mother is on. When all the evidence leads Brennan and the detectives to a desolate diamond-mining town on the edge of the Arctic Circle called Yellowknife, the investigation takes a sharp turn and Brennan finds that the mother of the three dead babies might be a stone cold monster like she thought…

Murder Month 2023 - The Edinburgh Mystery

As you guys know, I do love a good crime or thriller novel. And I seem to be going down a rabbit hole with discovering “forgotten” Golden Age crime writers. I have several on my kindle, waiting to be read (some bought, some from NetGalley for review). But when I saw this collection of crime short stories, set in Scotland, I couldn’t resist. I love Scotland and hope to revisit Edinburgh in the near future (same with Wales, truth be told) and the idea of reading Golden crime set in Scotland was too delicious to past up!

Title And Author: The Edinburgh Mystery and Other Tales of Scottish Crime Edited by Martin Edwards

Publisher: British Library and Poisoned Pen Press

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by US publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy from (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

Murder Month 2023 - Cold Cold Bones

Title and Author: Cold Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought

Buy from (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

I had no plans to read/audiobook Cold Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs this month. I was considering saving this for next month for some reason (either though I preordered the audiobook last year before I cancelled Audible - again. I'm back for the next four month for £3.99 - I know, I'm weak. But am going to ruin their Plus Catalogue for a while so sorry in advance for some weird reviews in the coming months), but out of nowhere, I was desperate to listen to this. 

Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is back in her 21st outing. And it all starts when she helps her daughter, Katy, move house after her stints in the army. Brennan thinks Katy might be suffering from PTSD, but won't say anything. But when the pair return to Brennan's home, they discover a box. With an eye in it. 

From there, bodies begin to slowly turn up that have no pattern. But Brennan can't shake the feeling that they feel awfully familiar. Like cases she's has been involved with in the past. Is she the connection between them? And, if so, the killer is taunting her, watching her, buying their time before they strike...

And when they did, she won't see it coming.

Murder Month 2023 - The Holiday Home

So, February's reading plan was a bit of a car crash. Mainly because my brain didn't want to read what you guys voted for and, at the same time, I was quitting a lot of reads or, if I did stay and finish them off, I was very "Meh" over it. And it felt like I still was in a crime reading frame of mind, rather than going to fantasy and teen, which is my reading bread and butter. Because of this, March is going to be the blog's "Murder Month". I've done this in the past, where I do a theme month of focusing on crime/thriller stories. And I have a good few on my radar that I was to devour before the Easter blog holiday (and I have an idea for a themed reading month for April as well (more about that after my Easter blog break). 

But let's start this murdery month off which a review and let's go with a thriller author I discovered last month and am slowly devouring...

Title and Author: The Holiday Home by Daniel Hurst

Publisher: Bookouture

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof and Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Two couples go away to a remote cabin in Scotland. The wives have known each other since Sixth Form and the husbands barely get along. But a holiday away will do wonders, right? So when one of the wives overhears something that she shouldn't have, it starts a chain reaction which will end with no all of them coming home alive...