Bloody Scotland Photo Gallery

Scotland's International Crime Festival which has been dedicated this year to the memory of William McIlvanney, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Not only is the festival dedicated in his honour, but so too is the Scottish crime Book of the Year Award, now named The McIlvanney Prize.

Stuart MacBride and Caro Ramsay opened the crime festival with their own distinctive brands of humour which left the festival goers wanting more.

They were followed by the hilarious, if somewhat, foul-mouthed duo, Mark Billingham, and Chris Brookmyre. As an aside, Chris won the McIlvanney Prize, and will go down in history as the first recipient.

Chris and Mark sneaking off the stage before anyone has a chance to ask for a refund.

Scotland the Grave was hilarious as each author defended their own part of the country. Catriona McPherson fought the corner for Galloway, Douglas Skelton threatened everyone with a police cosh in an effort to come out ahead of the others, Gillian Galbraith thought Edinburgh was the best crime location, and Russel D McLean defended Dundee. He's a nice lad, Russel. He gave me a shout out by saying he was the only crime writer writing about Dundee until Chris Longmuir (me) came along a couple of years later and then said very complimentary things about my books which I'm too modest to repeat.

Val McDermid, talking about her new book, was next on the programme for me. Val is always entertaining and I enjoy listening to her.

Alanna Knight, a very dear friend and one of my favourite authors presented a new drama production with several willing authors acting the parts. Alanna is on the left of this photo introducing the play and it's actors before the action starts. Gordon Brown, the author not the politician, made a very imposing policeman, although I don't think he needed to keep order while Alanna was speaking.

And here is Gordon, our imposing policeman, reporting to Inspector Faro, who looks a lot like Stuart MacBride.

Now we can see the full cast: Stuart MacBride heading the proceedings, Gordon Brown standing guard on the suspects.

And to finish off Saturday the male authors and female authors pitted their wits against each other in a hilarious quiz. There were a couple of later events, but my granddaughter comes with me to these festivals. She loves them. So the Curly Coo or Darling Clementine wasn't an option for us.

I don't suppose any other crime festival asks the contestants to guess crime show theme tunes played on the bagpipes. But this is Bloody Scotland and anything goes.

Lin Anderson and forensic soil scientist Professor Lorna Dawson were digging up the bodies on Sunday morning. These forensic events are always full of fascinating information.

Next on the agenda was Victorian Gothic with Oscar De Muriel setting his historical crime novel in an Edinburgh lunatic asylum, and E S Thomson featuring a mystery set in a crumbling London infirmary.

Witness the Dead concentrated on how good a witness anyone in the audience would be. The crime author panel was quizzed by Professor Graham Pike, an expert in eyewitness identification, on how their fictional character would investigate the crime which had been shown on the screen, while the audience were asked to identify the criminal. Needless to say, quite a lot of people made the wrong identification despite having clearly seen the perpetrator.

This photo gallery is simply a selection of events I attended, but there were many other events I didn't attend because there were always three choices to pick from. The dilemma at Bloody Scotland is always what to choose and what to miss out on.

I hope you've enjoyed my photos of Bloody Scotland, and if you haven't been to it yet then you really must put it in your diary. It's an unmissable event.

Chris Longmuir

My website: http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

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If you would like a free short story featuring DS Bill Murphy from my popular Dundee Crime Series then visit my website and fill in a form to tell me where to send it. Meet Bill Murphy long before he became a policeman. Get a taste of the child that made the man.

Bloody Scotland Photo Gallery

I had a brilliant time at Bloody Scotland so I thought I'd share some pics with you.

A lively event with Christopher Brookmyre and Denise Mina

Happy chappies waiting to go on stage - Mark Billingham and Stuart Macbride

Stuart Macbride successfully turned Mark Billingham, as well as the audience, into zombies as he read from Skeleton Bob

The Digital Detectives - Ed James, Allan Guthrie, and Alexandra Sokoloff

A bit of light relief. The Elvis Cleaning Team sprucing up Stirling on Saturday

Favourite authors Caro Ramsay, and Alex Gray, being interviewed by Gordon Brown

Entertaining Event - Alanna Knight interviewing Peter May

Ian Rankin and Kathy Reichs in conversation

The rapt audience listening to Ian and Kathy Reichs

Peter Mays speaking at the gala dinner where he was awarded with the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award for Entry Island

Lin Anderson with her forensic team - brilliant presentation involving volunteers from the audience

The forensic volunteers suited up and ready to try out their fingerprinting skills

There was lots more but insufficient time to attend everything or post all the pics I took. If you're a crime writer or reader, and within travelling distance of Stirling, this is one event that's unmissable.

Chris Longmuir

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

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Harrogate Crime Festival 2012 – Part 3

I can hear you say – at last, thought we were never going to get Part 3 of the Harrogate Crime Festival. that’s because I took time out last week to write about the Edinburgh Ebook Festival, because if I hadn’t the festival would have been over before it was posted. Anyway, thank you for your patience, and here is day three of the Old Peculier Crime Festival at Harrogate.
 
Before I start I want to give you a link. Remember in the last festival post I commented on the furore around the panel Wanted for Murder: The Ebook, when feelings ran high and caused quite a bit of media buzz. Well, the Harrogate Crime Festival site has produced an audio download of the panel discussion. It will cost you £3, but if you want to get at the truth around all the hype in connection with this panel, then you might want to listen to it. Here is the link http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime/shop/wanted-for-murder-the-ebook/

Peter James and Paul Blezard

So, on to Day 3 of the festival. We started off at 9 am, some of us more bleary-eyed than others, with the special guest Peter James who was interviewed by Paul Blezard. He was interesting to listen to and gave us snippets of information about his background. Like the time he worked as a cleaner for Orson Welles, but was sacked after a week because he was ‘not cut out for it’. Similar to a lot of writers he was an obsessive reader as a child, so I suppose his progression to being a writer was to be expected, although he said his first two books were very bad spy thrillers. He also had a stalker for over 5 years, and was given advice by the police to step up home security because they could do nothing unless she killed him. Lots of fascinating information in this interview, although, considering the furore the day before about cheap as chips ebooks, his publisher sells one of his books on Amazon for 20p and he has no say in this.

 

Deadlier than the Male panel

 
I missed the Golden age and the New Blood Panels because I was chatting with Alex Gray and then went out for a welcome breath of air. The Deadlier than the Male panel was interesting. It looked at why women write violent crime fiction, and why the majority of it is bought by women readers. The main points I took from that were –

1.  Violence is associated with males, which makes it more horrific when associated with a female.

2.  Women have a much more terrifying imagination than men.

3.  Women crime readers want to know what makes the dark side tick.

 

Special Event: Luther

 

The Special Event: Luther was something special. The panel was made up of Neil Cross, the creator of Luther; Claire Bennett, the producer of the series; Simon Morgan, police adviser; and two of the show’s stars, Michael Smiley who plays Benny, and Warren Brown who plays Ripley. Neil Cross talked about wanting an iconic police character, a mad copper. He is a lover of the TV show, Columbo, and he wanted to put his mad copper into a Columbo format. I must say I never associated Luther with Columbo before, but as he is the creator I take it he knows what he’s done. The panel also talked about Idris Elba having a ‘presence’, and they never thought they would get him, but he was keen to star in the show. One thing came out that I didn’t know, was that Idris Elba has a soul singer career on the side. There was lots more, but if I detailed it we would be here forever. So I’ll close this panel with the information that the next show in the series – Series 3 – is carnage from beginning to end.

 

Laura Lippman interviewing Harlan Coben

 The last guest of the evening was Harlan Coben who was interviewed by Laura Lippman. Harlan is an excellent speaker and he told us that when he finishes a book, he is empty, and it is only the fear of having to work in a department store which impels him to write again. He says he suffers from a level of insecurity and insanity when he is not writing well. He took up golf a few years ago, but when he is doing something else there is a voice in his head which says he should be writing. But when he is writing he fluctuates between thinking it is crap or genius, and he suffers from lots of self doubt. This was something that appeared over and over again during this festival, the insecurity of writers, no matter how successful, who all fear that they will never be able to write another good book. There is also something else he shares with most writers I know, and that is, if he writes and no one reads it, he is not a writer. He also said that he keeps writing because he hasn’t written the perfect book yet, and he never will. All I can say is that Harlan Coben is a thoroughly nice man.

 

Quizmasters extraordinaire - Val McDermid and Mark Billingham

 Considering Harlan didn’t stop speaking until 9.30 pm you would be excused for thinking the day would be over, but you would be wrong. There was still the infamous Harrogate quiz night chaired by those most experienced quiz masters, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham.

The Scarlet Ladies - Sonia, Justine, Me, and Isobel

 
The quiz is always hilarious with lots of cheating going on and much good natured shouting. I was in the Scarlet Ladies team, which also included Lucy, Isobel, Justine, and Sonia, and we came fifth, which wasn’t bad going. I was really glad we didn’t come first, not as if that was ever a possibility considering the competition we had. I was also glad not to win the raffle. I can hear you asking – why on earth would you want to lose? Well, the reason was the size of the prizes. Massive hampers that I would never be able to carry, let alone get on the train with, plus the largest pile of books to go along with it. There were several of the prize hampers plus books and I was really glad not to have to cart them off. Mind you, the top prize of next year’s Harrogate festival for two, all expenses paid was a beaut.
 
Well, that’s Day three finished, time to stagger to bed. There’s only Sunday morning to go now before it’s all over for another year. But I’ll tell you about Sunday the next time.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Harrogate Crime Festival 2012 – Part 1

It’s that time of year again – the time all crime writers look forward to – the Harrogate Crime Festival, where crime writers and readers gather to celebrate crime fiction in all its varieties.

Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, where the crime conference is held

I’m not entirely sure what you would call a gathering of crime writers – would it be a murder of crime writers? Maybe not, because we don’t want to be associated with crows. After all it’s a murder of crows, isn’t it? What about a massacre of crime writers? Do you think that would suit any better? If you have any ideas I’d love to hear them.

Anyway, whatever you call them, you won’t find a bigger gathering anywhere this summer, than Harrogate. They all gather at the Old Swan Hotel, that’s the one where Agatha Christie was found after her vanishing act more years ago than I care to remember.

This is the tenth Harrogate Crime Festival, although to give it its proper title I should be saying the Theakstons Old Peculier (yes the spelling is correct) Crime Writing Festival. The first one took place in 2003, and it was meant to be a small weekend of literature events that would be part of the larger Harrogate International Festival. However, probably because of the early involvement of Val McDermid, it was like Topsy, it grew and grew, until it is now the largest and most prestigious crime fiction event in Europe.

Over the years many of the biggies of the crime writing world have appeared at Harrogate, including PD James, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, and many more. Not forgetting our international counterparts such as Jeffrey Deaver (a favourite of mine), Michael Connolly, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Jo Nesbo, I could go on and on. But you don’t want a list of names of the world’s most prestigious crime writers, do you? You want me to get on and tell you about this year’s festival. The only thing is, there is so much going on, there is no way I’ll be able to get it all into one blog post, so I’ll talk about each day in a separate post, so you’ll just have to watch this space

Well, I arrived on Thursday afternoon. There were people there before me because the festival runs a creative writing day prior to the opening events on Thursday evening. I have taken part in the creative writing day in past years and it is something well worth attending. But because I didn’t do it this year I won’t comment on it.

Mark Lawson, from BBC Radio 4 Front Row

The festival started on Thursday night with the presentation of the awards. Mark Lawson introduced this with a hilarious speech, and I’m sure the laughter could have been heard in Harrogate town centre. The locals must have wondered what was going on.

Some of the bits I remember was where he referred to Cambridge being like downtown Detroit, and Oxford as the most lethal town in England, while going for a walk in Suffolk was quite risky because you’d be lucky to return from it. He also reckoned that with the recent reported drop in UK crime figures we’d all soon be out of a job.

 

Colin Dexter, author of the Morse series

Mark Billingham then came on stage to announce the recipient of the lifetime award for an outstanding contribution to crime fiction. This was presented to Colin Dexter, by Simon Theakston, the festival’s sponsor. Colin entertained us with a short speech, laced with his usual dry humour, and he got a standing ovation from the audience. He was a very popular choice for the lifetime award. But I wasn’t surprised by this, because Colin is a lovely man whom I’ve had the honour to meet on several occasions, and I still treasure the photograph he gave me earlier this year, of his portrait which hangs in the Randolph Hotel.

After this came the presentation of the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award which was won by Denise Mina, for End of the Wasp Season. I’ve read Denise’s Garnethill trilogy and she’s a great crime writer, so I made a note to myself – get End of the Wasp season as soon as possible.

Denise Mina with the Theakston Old Peculier award for crime novel of the year

We finished up with the Festival opening party, which was mobbed and quite quickly became uncomfortably hot. However, no one seemed to mind and there was lots of networking, chatting and meeting up with old and new friends. I spent a fair bit of the time with Sonia, Lucy, Justine and Isobel, and we had a lovely time.

The top tier of the cup cake mountain at the festival party

Oh, and by the way, Justine is now my BFF because she told me she’d read my book, Dead Wood, and loved it. She also said she was reading another author (quite a famous one, who shall be nameless), and thought my book was the better of the two. Yay, The perfect end to a perfect day.

From left - Isabel, Lucy, Sonia, and Justine

Well, that’s Thursday taken care of, I’ll write about the Friday events in the next post, so watch this space, and I’ll try not to be too long.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk