Val McDermid's Blog, page 3
March 19, 2018
Crime writer Val McDermid says terrorists are ‘not evil’…
The Scottish author was once described as the ‘leading pathologist of everyday evil’.
Scottish crime writer Val McDermid has said she believes terrorists are not evil.
The best-selling author, once described as the “leading pathologist of every-day evil”, said nobody is “all good or all bad”.
Kirkcaldy-born McDermid warned making such judgements “gives you the licence to act at will” and leaves “no room for redemption”.
“People sometimes characterise terrorists as being evil; they are not evil,” she said in an interview with Indian news website Scroll.in.
“They are people who have done a terrible thing. But they probably love their young ones, they probably love their wives. They are not the guys painted in pictures.”
She added: “I think it’s very dangerous for us to go down those routes of categorising them as evil because then that gives you the licence to act at will and there is no room for humanity, humane behaviour for redemption, to change.
“So I really believe that there is some evil within us and some good, and all we can do is to try to keep that balance on the side of the angels I suppose.”
McDermid has reportedly sold more than ten million books in 30 languages and is best known for her Tony Hill series, the basis for the TV show Wire in the Blood.
Read the full article at STV News…
March 17, 2018
Most Scottish authors want to break up the Union – why don’t they write about it?
Glasgow’s annual book festival, Aye Write!, is getting underway. Now in its 11th year, big name writers making appearances include the philosopher AC Grayling, broadcast journalist Robert Peston, crime writer Val McDermid and the mountaineer Chris Bonington.
The name of the festival is a play on “aye right”, a sarcastic Scottish way of saying no. This encapsulates much about the literary outlook in this part of the world – a vernacular defensiveness, a strident overcompensation in the face of imagined English snootiness about Glaswegian speech. A neutral might conclude that the arts in Scotland exist in a state of perma-froth at presumed metropolitan condescension.
If support for Scottish independence can be considered a proxy for such froth, there is certainly much in evidence. At the time of the 2014 independence referendum, the Scottish literary scene was near unanimously in favour of a Yes vote – nowhere close to the 55-45 split among the wider population.
This normally disputatious crowd felt overwhelmingly that the Union was inimical to Scottish culture and that the literary tradition would best flourish with independence. Little has changed since. Don’t expect much enthusiasm from them about Theresa May’s Britain at this year’s festival.
March 16, 2018
VAL MCDERMID’S RESEARCH ADVICE: GET ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS YOU DIDN’T ASK…
UK – Scottish crime writer Val McDermid told an audience at Impact 2018 that the best research and insight into people’s lives comes from the answers to the questions you haven’t asked.
Interviewed by Martin Lee, Acacia Avenue’s co-founder and strategist, McDermid was speaking at the climax of this week’s MRS conference.
She talked about her childhood in Kirkcaldy in Fife, how a sole Agatha Christie novel (sitting alongside a bible) at her grandparents’ house sewed the seed of her crime fiction career, and how a love of libraries allowed that seed to grow and flourish.
Born into a working class family, McDermid later became the first student from a Scottish state school to be admitted to St Hilda’s College Oxford.
But this course of her life hinged on a strategy of deceit during her childhood. As a nine year-old, she had to fabricate her mother being ill in order to take adult books out of the library. The ruse worked for years and McDermid’s muse was fed by works including those of Christie.
But that minor crime came back to bite her. When she attended an event at the library, her mother in tow, and the two librarians whom she had lied to were there, apparently very surprised. “Mrs McDermid,” they said to her mother, “we thought you must be dead, being an invalid all those years.”
McDermid’s literary beginnings were not in crime, but in an attempt to “write the great English novel”. A failure, but one that was subsequently transformed into a play, and saw McDermid gain an agent and the accidental status of playwright at age 23.
March 7, 2018
Live Literature author at Largs Library…
AUTHOR Doug Johnstone will be visiting Largs writer’s group as part of the Live Literature scheme organised by the Scottish Book Trust, writes Julie McLaughlin.
All members of the public are being welcomed to the free event taking place on March 19 from 10am to 12 noon.
Notably his work has received praise from the likes of Irvine Welsh, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Megan Abbott and Christopher Brookmyre.
Johnstone has had eight novels published including “Fault Lines” in eBook form, which was released in February of this year.
Among his many accolades his book ‘Gone Again’ was an Amazon best seller and ‘Hit and Run’ was placed as an Amazon number one.
As well as this his novel, “The Jump” was a finalist for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year.
Doug has had a wide-ranging career having worked as a freelance arts and entertainment journalist since 1999 and a lecturer in creative writing at Strathclyde University, as well as a writer in residence.
He is also a mentor and manuscript assessor for The Literary Consultancy and Emergents in the Scottish Highlands.
Read the original article online…
February 21, 2018
International book festival to hit the road…
Organisers of the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) are taking their show on the road with a new pop-up event.
Authors Val McDermid, Christopher Brookmyre and Mark Billingham, as well as broadcaster Sally Magnusson, tennis coach Judy Murray and football commentator Archie Macpherson are to take part in the three-day ReimagiNation: Glenrothes festival.
The event will host talks, music and poetry in Rothes Hall, as part of the EIBF Booked! programme which has previously staged mini festivals in Cumbernauld, Irvine and East Kilbride.
Christopher Brookmyre is among the writers appearing at the pop-up festival “Glenrothes is the penultimate stop on our journey and ReimagiNation is all about looking at the places we think we know in new ways, and we hope the people of Glenrothes and book lovers everywhere will feel inspired by the stories that are shared at the festival.”
Scottish Crime Writer Val McDermid is among the writers appearing at the festivalClara Govier, head of charities at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “We are so delighted that the support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery is once again helping the Edinburgh International Book Festival reach communities across Scotland, allowing them access to what the Book Festival offers outwith its home in Charlotte Square Gardens.
“Residents from Glenrothes are certainly in for a treat.”
Read the original article…
February 13, 2018
A prize for thrillers without female victims divides opinion…
LONDON (AP) — It’s a chilling cliche of thrillers that women often end up abducted, abused or dead.
One writer is so sick of the violence that she has set up a book prize to reward crime novels “in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.”
The Staunch Book Prize offers a 2,000 pound ($2,800) purse and is open to published and unpublished books alike.
London-based writer Bridget Lawless founded the contest last month after growing weary of violence against women being a “go-to motivator” in books, films and TV shows.
The contest has some writers and readers cheering, but others say it could deter authors from tackling tough issues. Scottish crime writer Val McDermid says “not to write about it is to pretend it’s not happening.”
February 9, 2018
Columnfortably Numb: Your Psych Reviews For February…
JR Moores , February 9th, 2018 08:06
The album format will never die, says JR Moores, not where psych rock is concerned. With Deep Hum, Bardo Pond, Death Pedals and more Back in the days when I should have shown more spunk, spending my Friday nights schmoozing in trendy wine bars in order to secure some vague semblance of a career, there was nothing I would rather do than draw the curtains, collapse under a cosy blanket and watch BBC2’s Newsnight Review while clutching a bottle of blended budget scotch. Sadly that show has since been axed under the pretence that our attention spans can no longer countenance a visual programme in which a cluster of public intellectuals sit around a coffee table to debate and discuss recent cultural happenings and, besides, that does all sound like a disconcertingly French pastime. In the philistine-celebrating and expert-phobic climate of Brexit Britain the term ‘weekly arts round-up’ will soon mean the televised execution of blindfolded members of the liberal elite – Will Self, Val McDermid, Simon Callow, The Reverend from Reverend And The Makers and a Grayson Perry pot shaped as the comedian Josie Long.
February 7, 2018
Crime writers Abir Mukherjee and Graeme Macrae Burnet on bringing tartan noir to Kolkata with Val McDermid…
Written by Gillian Furmage, 06 February 2018
CRIME writers Abir Mukherjee, Graeme Macrae Burnet and Val McDermid are setting off on an adventure to India together.
The trio will be championing Scottish crime fiction at the world renowned Kolkata Literary Festival.
They will also launch Bloody Scotland, an anthology of twelve tartan noir tales.
The Sunday Post chatted to authors Graeme and Abir before they set off, and found out the links between Scots and Begalis run deeper than you might think.
ABIR MUKHERJEE, author of A Rising Man and A Necessary Evil, will be acting as a ‘sort of guide’ for Graeme and Val.
Raised in the West of Scotland, Abir’s parents are originally from Kolkata, a place he often uses as the setting for his novels.
January 31, 2018
Scottish crime authors open new chapter in India…
By Kirsteen Paterson @kapaterson
KILLER writers are heading for India to sell “tartan noir” to a new audience.
Major names in crime fiction will launch a “thrilling” anthology of “dark Scottish tales” at the Kolkata Literary Festival (KLF) next month.
Celebrated author Val McDermid, Man Booker Prize nominee Graeme Macrae Burnet and bestseller Abir Mukherjee will travel to the city – which has a population almost as big as Scotland’s – for the event.
The collection, titled Bloody Scotland after the annual crime fiction festival held in Stirling, features 12 stories from authors including Ann Cleeves, Denise Mina and Lin Anderson and comes as the literary event seeks to increase the reach of Scottish novelists.
It will also be published in America, with Kolkata-based literature house BEE Books handling the Indian release.
The firm has also set up deals to publish two works by Macrae Burnet – The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau and The Accident on the A35.
The Glasgow-based author said: “I’m completely thrilled to be travelling to Kolkata for the first time, particularly in the company of two such renowned writers as Val and Abir.
“It promises to be a very exciting and enlightening trip. And I’m particularly pleased that through the partnership with BEE Books, two of my novels will be made available to local audiences at an affordable price.”
The move is part of a project supported by the British Council
to “grow the global reach” of Scottish literature and follows previous work to introduce more readers to classic crime fiction.
Jenny Brown, chair of Bloody Scotland, said: “We’re delighted to be working with BEE Books on this innovative partnership to introduce Indian readers to Scottish crime fiction by bringing writers to the Kolkata Literary Festival, and by making their work more accessible in Indian-published editions.
“We know from our visit to KLF last year that there is a huge appetite for Scottish classics including the Sherlock Holmes mysteries and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.
“Now we want readers to try contemporary writing.”
January 24, 2018
ARTS NEWS: Play, Pie and a Pint season includes Val McDermid, installation in Shetland, New Music award shortlists revealed…
Val McDermid. Image: Gordon Terris/Sunday Herald
THE spring season for the A Play, a Pie and a Pint plays at Oran Mor in Glasgow has been announced.
It will begin on February 12 with It’s Behind You by Alan McHugh, which will be followed on February 19 by Lorna Martin.
It will be followed on February 26 by Aye, Elvis by Morna Young.
Morna Young is recipient of the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship 2017 and the New Playwright’s Award 2014.
The play beginning March 5 will be Rishta by Taqi Nazeer.
Rishta is Taqi Nazeer’s playwriting debut as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Breakthrough Writers programme.
That will be followed on March 12 by Alan Muir and on March 19 by For the Love of Chekov (The Dating Game) by AS Robertson, McGonagall’s Chronicles by Gary McNair beginning March 26, Rachel’s Cousin by Ann Marie Di Mambro on April 2, Margaret Saves Scotland on April 9 by the crime writer Val McDermid.
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