Crime Fest Lessons #4

I enjoyed last year’s panels and interviews. And I took notes. Thus I here offer for your delectation my 20 top tips and observations from CrimeFest 2017 panellists.

See you at this year’s CrimeFest.

These from a sparkling Doyle-Christie panel, When Your Character is a Classic, with Alison Joseph, David Stuart Davies, Cavan Scott and Andrew Wilson, moderated by Peter Guttridge:

On copyright:

“Characters can be copyrights, but there are no legal issues in using real people.”
On invitations:

“Agatha Christie was invited to speak at the Sherlock Society in 1959. She stood up, waved, and sat down again.”
On studying:

Back in the day, David Stuart Davies remembers being told “Conan Doyle is not important enough for a PhD.”
On appropriation:

Dame Jean Conan Doyle said to DSD “You’re a very naughty boy. You should find your own characters.”
On appropriacy:

“We want to be true to the spirit and detail of the novels. If Conan Doyle were alive today, he would be writing differently.”
On our misapprehensions of Sherlock:

“Holmes threw back his head and laughed.”

 

Please Feel Free to Share: