In late September, I was lucky enough to spend three days attending crime fiction festivals and, technically, I could call it work.
My long weekend started in London on the Friday with Capital Crime - London’s first crime writing festival. I heard talks from some incredible bestselling authors, including Anthony Horowitz, Peter James, Mark Billingham and Robert Harris. I ran into authors I knew as well as contacts from publishing and TV production. And I got to meet some brilliant bloggers who I recognised from Twitter!
On the Saturday, I took a train up to Lancashire for the Morecambe & Vice festival. M&V is a small-scale crime fiction festival, now in its third year, with a hint of theatre about it and a massive dollop of fun. A highlight of the afternoon was being part of the audience while Adam Croft recorded his hilarious Partners in Crime podcast.
The following day, I was on an author panel with crime writer and former psychiatric nurse Barbara Nadel, and academic Dr Liz Brewster. We discussed the overlap between crime fiction and mental health - not only how psychological issues are portrayed in thrillers, but also how reading crime fiction can boost wellbeing (fact).
My Sunday highlight was meeting Prof Dame Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist who has inspired at least three characters in Val McDermid’s novels, and whose incredible work is captured in her book All That Remains (recommended). Sue and I were both interviewed live on BBC Radio Lancashire after the festival - another first for me!
Then it was back to London on the train and back to the reality of Monday morning - but still feeling a warm glow from having connected with crime fiction communities both north and south.