HARROGATE CRIME FESTIVAL STARTS TONIGHT!

The world class, award winning Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, now in its 14th year, celebrates the very best in crime fiction at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate from the 21st to the 24th of July. The Festival is a prominent date in the literary calendar and has achieved international acclaim for the programming, organisation and atmosphere.

Peter James, author of the Roy Grace series and the Festival’s Programming Chair for this year, has commented: ‘There’s something about crime fiction that makes it truly international. As well as reaching readers in all corners of the world, the writers themselves are often rooted in their homelands, opening up new vistas, street corners and backdrops, always writing themes that are universal, and increasingly so today in our shrinking world in which villains have no boundaries. 2016’s Festival will have a truly international flavour […] There will be the Giants of the Genre we’ve come to expect from a Festival as brilliant as Harrogate, and we’ll be exploring that enticing world of the page turner. Page turners have that magical ability to transport you elsewhere. To keep you hooked, desperate for the next chapter, a little bereft when it’s all over, because you want more. A bit like the Festival really… Prepare to be gripped!’

Peter will discuss the role of real life cases with his friend and advisor, former Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett, at the panel ‘You Couldn’t Make It Up. Or Could You?’ on Friday at 10.00. He will also participate in the panel ‘Set a Scientist to Catch a Killer’ on Friday at 3.30.

But Peter is not the only Blake Friedmann author who is attending the Festival this year: Deon Meyer will join the conversation on South African’s crime scene at the ‘Murder Out of Africa’ panel on Saturday at 2pm, and Ann Granger will take part in the panel ‘The Golden Age’ on Friday at 2pm. Bestselling authors Paul Finch and Paul Gitsham will also attend the Festival.

Our agents Carole Blake, Julian Friedmann, Isobel Dixon, Juliet Pickering and Tom Witcomb will all be present at the Festival.