Martin Edwards's Blog, page 288

Talking about Crippen

Public speaking is something I've done often over the years, yet I'm far from being a 'natural'. I spend my youth dreading and therefore avoiding it, and when I became a solicitor, I coped with advocacy (in less formal employment tribunals rather than conventional courts) by treating each case as a battle to be won. I started lecturing on legal topics in my 20s, but found this hard going, and I still try to dodge it when I can.

When my first novel was published, I found my first ever radio...

Poisons and Poisoning

One of the unexpected pleasures of the CWA conference at Abergavenny was a talk by a writer I hadn't heard of before, called Celia Kellett. Her subject was Poison and Poisoning, which just happens to be the title of a book she published recently on the subject.

Maybe it's my fondness for Christie, maybe it's my interest in the Crippen case, but I have a weakness for mysteries featuring poisons, and I did find Celia Kellett's talk fascinating. Unfortunately, she didn't have many copies of her ...

Seaside Crime

Last Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far, and I was due to travel from Middlesbrough to Boroughbridge for the CWA lunch. It seemed a shame to waste such glorious weather. So I decided to take a quick look at a seaside resort I've never visited before. This was Saltburn by the Sea, some miles north of Whitby (a resort I know quite well) and lacking Whitby's Dracula connection, but nevertheless, as I found, a place of real charm.

Saltburn has a pleasant-looking beach, a historic...

Changing Direction as a Writer

One of the biggest dangers for any writer, at least in my opinion, is that of finding yourself on a treadmill, perhaps trapped in a formulaic type of writing. Even if it's a winning formula, there is a real risk of becoming stale, and of losing the excitement that is so important to writing. If an author doesn't feel excited by what he or she writes, there's little chance that the reader will be excited, either. So it's very important to keep fresh.

That's one of the reasons why I like...

Murder in Middlesbrough

One of the drawbacks of combining a full-time job with writing is that it's far from easy to fit in events where one can meet readers (and prospective readers!) But it's something I enjoy a good deal when I can manage it, and I had a bumper day last Saturday.

I'd been invited to take part in the Middlesbrough Literary Festival, and I drove up during the morning to Acklam Library to give a talk about Dr Crippen's life and misadventures. I've given this talk several times, and there are usually ...

Back to where it all began

Yesterday I returned to somewhere which holds a special place in my affections – the Crown Hotel in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire. This is where, almost 23 years ago, the inaugural meeting of the Northern Chapter of the CWA was held. And our latest lunch took place there on a day of marvellous sunshine. Numbers were down from the usual levels, no doubt due to the competing demands of the World Cup, the One Day Cricket International, Wimbledon and Glastonbury (well, maybe not Glastonbury...

Helen Simpson

One of the articles in the new issue of CADS, from regular contributor Liz Gilbey, provides a very interesting account of the Australian born Golden Age crime writer Helen Simpson, whose first detective story appeared in 1925, when she was just 28.

I learned a lot about Simpson from this article that I didn't know before. She was an early, and youthful, member of the Detection Club, and contributed to The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Anatomy of Murder. But she did a good deal more...

Paul Temple Intervenes

Dating from 1942, Paul Temple Intervenes is an early radio drama written by Francis Durbridge has been exhumed from the BBC archives and is now available as a two-CD set. The sound quality (especially of the sometimes startling incidental music) is not great, but so many gems have been lost by the BBC that one is grateful for those that have survived. And I enjoyed listening to it whilst commuting.

This was one of the first Temple serials, and the writing, production and acting were not as...

Forgotten Book - The Crime of the Century

It's safe to say that, of Kingsley Amis's books, The Crime of the Century is one of the least known, even to experienced crime writers. So, although Amis remains a well-read author, this quirky little volume is a suitable subject for Patti Abbott's series of Forgotten Books for Friday.

I first became aware of The Crime of the Century when it appeared in a rather good, though regrettably short-lived paperback series known as Dent Mastercrime. This, in 1987, represented the story's first...

Witness to Murder

Witness to Murder is a 1954 movie which I stumbled across the other day and found surprisingly enjoyable. The premise is engaging, if not totally original – a woman sees a murder committed in the apartment block across the road, but can't find anyone to believe her story, and becomes increasingly paranoid.

So we are in Rear Window territory, although Cornell Woolrich wasn't responsible for the screenplay, which was the work of director Chester Erskine. The cinematographic style takes Witness t...