Val McDermid's Blog, page 6
October 13, 2017
Wisdom replaces Shelley on Theakston crime festival board…
Published October 12, 2017 by Benedicte Page
Hachette’s c.e.o. designate David Shelley is stepping down from the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival’s programming committee after seven years, due to work demands. His place will be filled by Julia Wisdom, publisher for HarperFiction’s crime and thriller list.
Wisdom will join authors Val McDermid, Steve Mosby and NJ Cooper and agent Jane Gregory on the committee, with this year’s “reader-in-residence” Mari Hannah. The programming chair rotates annually and in 2018 will be author Lee Child.
Shelley will retain a link with Harrogate International Festivals, by becoming a Future 50 vice president, working on the Future 50 fundraising scheme to secure its future.
Harrogate International Festivals c.e.o. Sharon Canavar said: “The reputation as the best crime writing festival in the world is a large part in thanks to our dedicated programming committee of industry experts.
David’s expertise, professionalism and commitment has been integral to our success and we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to David.” She added: “We are thrilled that Julia Wisdom will be joining the committee with her wealth of experience and passion for the genre.”
Shelley said: “I have had a fantastic seven years on the Harrogate committee and have been so thrilled to see the Festival go from strength to strength. It speaks volumes about Sharon Canavar and her exceptional team, the amazing programming chairs we have been so lucky to have, as well as the incredible vibrancy of crime and thriller writing. It is a genre really close to my heart and I feel that crime fiction is now starting to be treated with the respect by critics and prize committees that it deserves.”
He added: “I am so pleased that Julia is taking my place and can think of no one more experienced or dedicated to crime fiction. I am looking forward to attending many future Harrogate’s as a punter and seeing the Festival continue to flourish.’
Wisdom said: “I have been a huge fan of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival since it started 15 years ago. It’s always attracted a truly remarkable range of writers from around the world, as well as actors, journalists and industry specialists, amongst others, and has grown in international importance year on year. Of course, I am also a passionate reader of crime fiction and thrillers and am much looking forward to contributing to the programming discussions.”
The Theakston Old Peculier Festival was co-founded in 2003 by Val McDermid and literary agent Jane Gregory with the arts charity Harrogate International Festivals. 2018 will mark its 16th crime writing festival.
Arts body Harrogate International Festivals is aiming to raise £1m to safeguard its future.
From The Bookseller
October 8, 2017
JK Rowling and Val McDermid show their love for Strictly Susan’s Wonder Woman…
Writers JK Rowling and Val McDermid hinted which Strictly Come Dancing contestant has their hearts as they Tweeted their support for Susan Calman’s Wonder Woman performance.
The Scottish comedian delighted the audience, judges and viewers with her performance on the BBC One contest’s movie-themed week on Saturday, dancing the first samba of the series with partner Kevin Clifton.
The Harry Potter author lauded it the best television she has ever seen as Calman swapped the traditional man-woman positions by spinning Clifton on the floor, and the pair included Beyonce’s signature body-pump move.
October 5, 2017
David Higham acquires Gregory & Co…
Published October 5, 2017 on The Bookseller, by Natasha Onwuemezi
David Higham Associates is acquiring Gregory & Company, the agency founded by Jane Gregory in 1987 and representing Val McDermid.
Gregory and her staff will be moving into David Higham’s Soho offices at the start of next year, the company said.
Speaking on the decision to acquire Gregory & Co, Anthony Goff, m.d. of David Higham, told The Bookseller the agency had no desire to “simply get bigger”, but that Gregory & Co was the “perfect fit” for the company.
“We are very proud to be teaming up with Jane now and we see our agencies as a perfect fit: she joins her starry list of authors to our bestselling client list and we look forward to contributing our expertise in film and television and to offering the support of our resources”, he said. “Together we will both be stronger and provide an even better service for all our clients.”
Goff also praised Gregory and her list saying that she has won “huge respect” for the way she has “spotted talent and developed careers”.
“As co-founder of both the Harrogate Crime Festival and the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction), she has also been one of the real game-changers of our industry”, he added.
Gregory told The Bookseller that she was relishing being part of a bigger team and was particularly attracted to David Higham’s film & TV arm.
Gregory added that the move would ensure the “secure” future of Gregory & Co’s authors. “I am so delighted that the Gregory & Co team and authors will be joining DHA”, she said. “It will be fabulous to work alongside like-minded colleagues, to be joining such a well-established and successful agency. This will ensure that our G&Co authors have a secure future. I am really excited by this new chapter for me, our agency and our authors.”
Crime author McDermid, a long-standing client of Jane Gregory’s, said the acquisition would create a “formidable negotiating powerhouse”.
She said: “I’ve been represented magnificently by Jane Gregory for almost thirty years. I owe much of my success to her stewardship of my career, and I’m very much looking forward to the next phase of our publishing adventure. This is a marriage that will build on the strengths of both agencies to create a formidable negotiating powerhouse. I’m delighted to be part of it.”
Along with McDermind, Gregory & Co represents authors including Minette Walters, Nick Brownlee and Rebecca Griffiths. David Higham represents Naomi Alderman, Paula Hawkins and Owen Jones, among others.
October 4, 2017
Judy Murray to join authors at annual Book Week Scotland…
By BRIAN FERGUSON
Wednesday 04 October 2017
Tennis coach Judy Murray, conservationist John Lister-Kay and cookery guru Sue Lawrence will be among the authors taking part in Scotland’s annual celebration of books and literature. Crime writers Denise Mine, Val McDermid, Stuart MacBride and Christopher Brookmyre are all taking part in Book Week Scotland, the nationwide initiative about to be staged for the sixth time.
Matthew Fitt, the writer who is adapting JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books into Scots, will be giving special readings while a signed copy by the author of the second novel in the series will be auctioned off. The programme will also feature a workshop with former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead and an insight into the career of award-winning author Bernard MacLaverty.
September 26, 2017
Letter to the Guardian: Kate Millett Obituary
The importance of Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics
“I tore through Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics over a weekend in 1973. At the time I was in my second year at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, studying English, which was in many respects a deeply conservative course. But after a friend lent me the book, it was as if an explosion had gone off in my head.”
September 16, 2017
Killer line-up as Norwich Crime Writing Festival gets underway…
For the fourth year, the cream of the crime writing world is gathering in East Anglia for the Noirwich Crime Writing Festival.
Among those appearing at the festival are Martina Cole from Essex who has written more than two dozen novels, the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid and mystery and suspense writer Anthony Horowitz.
Martina Cole, Anthony Horowitz and Val McDermid are all appearing at the Noriwich Crime Writing Festival.
Credit: PA Images
Do celebrity book blurbs ‘blackmail’ readers?
Man Booker prize judge Colin Thubron has complained this week that star endorsements bully readers into admiring books, but it’s long been standard practice.
Setting cats among pigeons has long been an unofficial part of the contract for judges of the Booker prize. Remember Chris Mullin’s insistence on “zip–along” novels, or, way back in 1992, AN Wilson’s condemnation of the prize itself as “essentially trivial”?
This year’s flurry of fur and feathers was provoked by a tirade from Colin Thubron on celebrity endorsements. Some blurbs, said the veteran travel writer, “almost blackmail” readers into feeling that “you’re either intellectually or morally incompetent if you don’t love this book or you’ve failed if you haven’t understood it”. Some people, he felt, “seem to earn their living … saying: ‘This is the most profound book of our generation.’”
While he’s right to point out that “blurbs are outrageous in certain places”, it’s hardly a new phenomenon. The novelist Nathan Filer confronted the issue with disarming honesty at a festival three years ago. In a blogpost about the incident, he recalled “a kindly interviewer”, who hadn’t had time to read his debut novel, quoting a rather better-known novelist, who had. Filer’s The Shock of the Fall was “engaging, funny and inventive”, the interviewer assured the audience, in the words of Joe Dunthorne.
September 11, 2017
Letter: Val McDermid on the importance of Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics…
I tore through Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics over a weekend in 1973. At the time I was in my second year at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, studying English, which was in many respects a deeply conservative course. But after a friend lent me the book, it was as if an explosion had gone off in my head.
My politics had always been of the left, but I’d never really encountered a feminist perspective before. Sexual Politics allowed me – it forced me – to look at the world in a different way.
I was on fire with what I had read. I couldn’t stop talking about it. I went into my tutorial the next week and launched into a 10-minute rhapsody about the book and how it had transformed the way I looked at the canon. My tutor, Anne Elliott, a distinguished middle-class English Christian who specialised in The Faerie Queene, listened patiently, then said:“Ah yes, dear Kate. I supervised the thesis that became Sexual Politics.” It was as if Margaret Thatcher had claimed responsibility for Simone de Beauvoir.
September 8, 2017
Book review: Bloody Scotland…
Friday 08 September 2017
LOUISE FAIRBAIRN
Iconic Scottish buildings are the starting point for a dozen leading crime writers in this brilliant collection, writes Louise Fairbairn The Bloody Scotland crime writing festival turns six this weekend, and to celebrate it has produced this anthology in association with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) as part of Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.
A dozen top Scots crime writers celebrate 12 of the country’s greatest built sites by setting a story in each place. In his introduction to these 12 tales tall and true, HES publisher James Crawford describes the collection as “a tribute to two of our nation’s greatest assets”, and the selected authors showcase both the breadth of Scotland’s built wonders and the myriad styles and sensibilities that make up its flourishing crime writing scene.
September 7, 2017
Ian Rankin to captain Scots team at Bloody Scotland football match in Stirling…
Written by Gillian Furmage, 06 September 2017
WHILE we’re used to writers showing off their wit and creativity, this weekend some of the UK’s most beloved authors will putting their fancy footwork on display at a football friendly in Stirling.
Famous faces Ian Rankin and Mark Billingham will be donning footie strips and captaining the Scotland and England teams at the match as part of the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival.
Craig Robertson, crime writer and Bloody Scotland board member, said the Scottish side are gunning for a win after the England team won the cup last year.
He said: “This is the fourth year of the Scotland-England match and with one win apiece and one draw, there is clearly much bragging rights to play for as well as The Bloody Cup.
“The English mob have not shut up about their win in 2016 and it’s time to send them homewards to think again.”
The Scotland team will be captained by Ian Rankin and includes crime writers Craig Robertson, Doug Johnstone, Martin Stewart, Peter Mackay, Lloyd Otis, Thomas Enger and publishing types Jamie Crawford, Danny Scott and Neil Macpherson, husband of Catriona Macpherson.
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