It's that time of year again. It's time for my annual
excursion to Stirling to attend Bloody
Scotland. This is Scotland 's
very own crime writing festival, and it's hard to believe this the fourth year
it has been running, and it just keeps getting better and better.
This year was slightly different though, because I took my
thirteen year old granddaughter with me, and she had a ball. I have no doubt
she enjoyed it because she wants to go again next year.
The other thing that was different was the hotel. The
Stirling Highland Hotel was completely booked, so we checked into the Golden
Lion. It was an older hotel, but the service and accommodation were top class,
although the lift was deadly slow. On the other hand, we didn’t have to climb
the hill to get to the hotel. I swear that hill up to the Stirling Highland
Hotel gets steeper every year.
Because Amy was coming with me to Bloody Scotland, I had to
wait until she finished school for the day, so we weren’t able to get to Stirling
in time for the first event which was a shame because it meant we missed Val
McDermid and Peter May in conversation. However, we were in time for Whose
Crime is it Anyway, three top crime authors improvising a crime story on stage
from clues and prompts from comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli, the audience, a
spinning wheel, and phrases from a copy of Katie Price's (Jordan)
autobiography. The authors, Caro Ramsay, Christopher Brookmyre, and Kevin
Wignall, took up the challenge with gusto each one contributing and twisting
the plot in turns. But just as they were getting into their stride Hardeep
threw them a curveball from one of the prompts. Needless to say as the story
developed it became more and more outrageous, and the writers more and more
manic. It was a hilarious event and I'm sure the laughter of the audience must
have been heard all over Stirling . This was a
fantastic start to a great weekend.
The first event on Saturday morning was Forensics with Val
McDermid and Lin Anderson. I had been looking forward to this, and it didn’t
disappoint. They started the event off with the thing that most crime writers
know, that when writing stories forensics is only a tool and that it is the
character who creates suspense, But then they branched off into the rise of
technology, and how this has impacted on storytelling. The discussion ranged
over a wide-ranging variety of topics such as – computer science, maggots,
blood spatter DNA, toxicology, soil forensics, and so on.
Some interesting facts came to light during the discussion.
For example, did you know that flies can smell blood from a kilometre away, and
even if they can’t get to them they will lay their eggs, even through zips if
necessary? As for blood spatter, pigs are used to test this because their blood
splatters just like human blood. The most interesting thing I heard about DNA
was in relation to maggots. Apparently maggots tear flesh, and you can get
fragments of DNA from between their tiny teeth. I’ll pause for a shudder here.
Oh, and before I forget, there is a bone in your ear which can be analysed to
reveal where your mother was living when she was pregnant with you. All very
fascinating stuff.
Keeping up with forensic details is a massive task because
science is constantly changing, therefore it is up to the writer to make things
sound authentic. And a word of warning from Val – it’s the things you think you
know that trip you up.
We attended other panels and events, but those two were the
highlights as far as I am concerned. Although this year, because I had my
granddaughter with me, I actually went to the football match – English authors
versus Scottish authors (I’m not a football fan). It was hilarious and I found
myself shouting, along with everyone else, when a goal was scored. And it resulted
in a five all draw (I think). I believe that last year the Scottish authors won
by fourteen goals to one.
All in all we had a great weekend, and arrived home on
Sunday night absolutely knackered.
Chris Longmuir
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