Martin Edwards's Blog, page 287

Forgotten Book - The Small Hours of the Morniing

My choice for today's entry in Patti Abbott's series of Forgotten Books is The Small Hours of the Morning, by Margaret Yorke. When I decided to pick one of Margaret's books, I had a couple of dilemmas. First, I'm not sure it's fair to describe them as 'forgotten', since she still has a substantial and devoted readership, even though she has not published a novel for several years. Second, which to choose? One of her strengths was achieving a very even (and high) standard of consistency with h...

Women Who Like Crime Fiction, revisited

The response to my blog post a little while ago about the fact that most crime fiction talks and other events seem to be attended mainly by women readers prompted a host of fascinating comments, which I've been mulling over ever since. On my recent trip to Darnhill Library, for instance, I talked about those comments when answering a question from the audience about the gender of my 'typical' reader.

Richmonde, in a fascinating comment on the blog post, had said, 'We can't just turn up on our ...

Time Management and the Writing Life

Fiona, in commenting on Cath Staincliffe's interesting guest blog yesterday, asked me to talk about my approach to time management, in trying to combine a career as a writer with a day job as a lawyer, as well as domestic life. So I thought the least I could do was to try to rise to her challenge, by giving my own perspective on the writer's life.

My strong belief is that a great deal in life depends upon your mindset and motivation. This helps to explain, I think, how some people are able to ...

Cath Staincliffe on the writer's life

I've mentioned Cath Staincliffe - a fellow member of the Murder Squad collective of Northern crime writers - several times on this blog, and to coincide with the paperback publication of her latest novel, The Kindest Thing, she's also done a kind thing by contributing this guest blog post about the life of a writer:

'Do you ever get bored? The question was asked during an author visit to my son's primary school where I was talking about being a writer. My first response was surprise – it...

Cath Staincliffe - guest blog

I've mentioned Cath Staincliffe - a fellow member of the Murder Squad collective of Northern crime writers - several times on this blog, and to coincide with the paperback publication of her latest novel, The Kindest Thing, she's also done a kind thing by contributing this guest blog post:

'The question was asked during an author visit to my son's primary school where I was talking about being a writer. My first response was surprise – it wasn't a question I'd had before – then laughter....

The Swedish Crime Story

Widespread enthusiasm among British (and, I suspect, American) readers for Scandinavian crime fiction is a relatively new phenomenon. I'm pretty sure that before Sjowall and Wahloo created Martin Beck in their remarkable ten-book series in the 60s, hardly any Scandinavian crime fiction was translated into English, but even until the last ten years or so, there was not much Swedish, Norwegian or Danish (let alone Icelandic) fiction to be found in translation.

All that has changed now. Stieg...

A Visit to Darnhill

It's a privilege, especially in the current economic climate, to have two enjoyable jobs, but one of the drawbacks of my good fortune is that I don't get enough time to devote to writing, let alone to all the ancillary activities of a writer's life. Talks at libraries, for instance, have to be rationed, and usually I can only appear at events within a reasonable drive from work – though on one happy occasion some years ago, I took a couple of days off and flew over to Jersey to give a talk...

Josephine Tey and Nicola Upson

When I first heard that a series of books was to be published featuring Josephine Tey as the lead character, I must admit that I was rather surprised. Tey is one of the Golden Age writers whose work has lasted well, but I've always had the impression that in real life she was a retiring individual, who never married and died relatively young, and who hid behind the pseudonyms of Tey and Gordon Daviot (her real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh.)

Yet Nicola Upson has not only now written three...

Forgotten Book - Dead Man's Bay

Some time back, I featured in Patti Abbott's series of Forgotten Books a novel by Catherine Arley called Woman of Straw, which was filmed with Sean Connery (although I continue to hunt in vain for a showing of the movie on the schedules). That is my favourite of the two Arley books I've read so far, but Dead Man's Bay also proved worth reading.

Arley was a French writer, several of whose thrillers were published in translation by Collins Crime Club in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She was...

Reginald Hill and Short Stories

I mentioned recently that Reg Hill is a fine writer of short stories, and if you are a short story fan who is unfamiliar with them, you have a treat in store. Pascoe's Ghost is a good collection, and it features one story, 'The Rio de Janiero Paper', that I think is truly wonderful. When I came to edit a CWA anthology called Crime in the City, I asked Reg for permission to include it, and I was delighted that he agreed. A very different, but also excellent, story called 'A Shameful Eating...