Thousands enjoy Crime Writing Festival
FOR a festival which celebrates all things dark and gory, the atmosphere at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is surprisingly light.
Now in its eighth year, the festival is going from strength to strength and this year sold more than 8,000 tickets to a weekend of events.
It began with an opening ceremony which also featured the announcement of the winner of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
Building the excitement in the room, there were two other matters to be dealt with as the authors wait nervously in the audience. Firstly, Simon Theakston, executive director of festival sponsor T & R Theakston, took to the stage to announce the company was extending its sponsorship for a further five years.
The audience - which included many regular attendees, from readers and crime fiction fans to authors, agents and publishers - cheered enthusiastically for Theakston, an keen festival supporter who was also on the judging panel for the award.
The second announcement of the evening was the festival's first ever outstanding contribution to crime fiction, presented to Reginald Hill.
Despite a career spanning 40 years, Hill, the creator of Dalziel and Pascoe among other novels, said Theakstons would be a more worthy winner for its unfailing support of the festival.
"I'm really delighted with the honour of being given the first one," he said. "Of course, I would like to thank the festival committee for their kindness and their perspicuity for selecting me as the first recipient."
Finally, compere Mark Lawson announced the winner of the crime novel of the year - which, he said, had been predicted by his Jack Russell, Mystic Fred, to be R J Ellory's A Simple Act of Violence. The scientific prediction, with Fred choosing from all eight novels scattered around his back yard, followed on from Paul the Octopus's success at the World Cup and proved to be completely accurate.
A visibly stunned Ellory took to the stage and said: "I'm literally speechless. I've been nominated many times and I seem to only win anything in French. What that says about my books, I don't know."
Having gathered his thoughts, he said the award was an acknowledgement for doing something slightly different in his novel, adding: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm grateful beyond words."
For an interview with R J Ellory, plus reviews from the festival, see this Friday's Harrogate Advertiser.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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