Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, 2008 17 - 20 July 2008, Crown Hotel, Harrogate Box office: 01423 537230 www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime

The programme for the 2008 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival event at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate follows; author and programming chair, Simon Kernick - Relentless (Corgi) will welcome everyone to the event, along with Simon Theakston, title sponsor.

Among the highlights: special appearance by reclusive bestseller Andy McNab - Crossfire (Bantam). Other special guests include local boy, Peter Robinson - Friend of the Devil (Hodder), as well as Robert Crais - The Watchman (Orion), Jeffery Deaver - More Twisted (Hodder) and Tess Gerritsen - The Bone Garden (Bantam) who will appear alongside panels discussing themes in crime fiction and a brand new late night panel for 2008, The Balloon Game, hosted by Radio 4’s Mark Lawson - Enough Is Enough (Picador).

Panel discussions will include such sticky subjects as They Can Kill You Anywhere which focuses on the merits of choosing certain settings, Bloody Women is an opinionated panel which will thrash out whether women can get away with writing more explicitly about violence. Two ends of the crime spectrum are explored when ‘tec to Tech looks at the relentless advance of technology and CCTV, stifling the movements of criminals. Will it also stifle the writing of crime authors? While Cosy Crime Fiction looks at the phenomenon of Agatha Christie and asks both why this genre is still so popular, but also why some crime writers have such a dismissive attitude towards it. Plus many more…

2008 will also see the fourth Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, won by Val McDermid in 2006 for The Torment of Others, and debut crime author Allan Guthrie in 2007 for Two Way Split. The long list will be announced in spring and featured in Waterstone’s Bookshops.

Now in its 6th year the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is still the largest event of its kind in Europe and a firm date in the national festival calendar.

The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival takes place at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate from 17 – 20 July 2008. Accommodation and Weekend Rover ticket packages are available now on 01423 562303.

Lizzie Forbes-Ritte, PR Manager / Tel: 01423 562303 / Email: lizzie@harrogate-festival.org.uk

Theakstons Old Peculier Prize for the Crime Novel of the Year 2008 key dates:

Event Timetable

Thursday 17 July

TOP Crime Novel of the Year
TOP Opening Night Party

Friday 18 July

Special Guest:
Peter Robinson - Friend of the Devil (Hodder) Interviewed by: Simon Kernick - Relentless (Corgi)
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of thirteen novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library.

True Lies
A discussion of how close or far the average crime writer is from the realities of the crimes he or she is covering. Four writers known for their background in the justice system, or their intimate knowledge of a particular genre, express their opinions.
Chair: Denise Mina - The Last Breath (Bantam)
John Connor - Falling (Orion)
Charlie Owen - Foxtrot Oscar (Headline)
Nigel McCrery - Still Waters (Quercus)
Francis Fyfield - The Art of Drowning (Sphere)

New Blood
A staple of the Festival, this will meet some of the best up and coming crime authors.,
Chair: Laura Wilson - Stratton's War (Orion)

Readers Group Lunch
A new event for 2008 featuring a unique opportunity to meet your favourite crime authors over lunch.

Damaged Heroes
Do the best crime fighters have a dark side? If your job is to defend the law you need a variety of weapons - but should a dark side be one of them? In this panel, a mixture of writers whose lead characters are known for their wilder impulses, and those whose heroes are of purer heart, discuss whether there's any room for deceit, intimidation and violence in the search for justice.
Chair: Peter Guttridge - The Once and Future Con (Speck Press)
Simon Kernick - Severed (Corgi)
Chris Simms - Savage Moon (Orion)
Dreda Say Mitchell - Killer Tune (Hodder)

Discussion on Religious Symbolism in Crime Fiction – Angels & Demons
Chair: Natasha Cooper - A Greater Evil (Pocket Books)
William Broderick - The Gardens of the Dead (Time Warner)
Chris Kuzneski - Sword of God (Penguin)
            Anne Perry - We Shall Not Sleep (Headline)
           Michel Benoit

James Bond/Ian Fleming
Chair: Simon Brett - Death Under the Dryer (Macmillan)
Philip Kerr - A Quiet Flame (Quercus)
Joseph Finder - Power Play (Headline)
           Catherine Sampson - The Pool of Unease (Macmillan)

Special Guest - Robert Crais - The Watchman (Orion)
Interviewed by: Mark Lawson - Enough Is Enough (Picador)
Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. He journeyed to Hollywood in 1976, where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Cagney & Lacey, Quincy, Miami Vice and LA Law, receiving an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues.
In the mid eighties Crais created Elvis Cole and Joe Pike and his first novel, The Monkeys Raincoat won the Anthony and Macavity awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. He has since written 10 more Elvis Cole novels which have been translated into 36 languages around the world.

The Balloon Game with Mark Lawson - Enough Is Enough (Picador)

Saturday 19 July

Special Guest - Jeffery Deaver - More Twisted (Hodder)
Jeffery Deaver is the New York Times best-selling author of nineteen suspense novels, including The Blue Nowhere and The Bone Collector. He has been nominated for three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and is a two-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers Award for Best Short Story of the Year. Deaver lives in California and Virginia.

They can kill you anywhere
In this panel, four big-name thriller writers who set their high-octane tales of violence and betrayal in very different settings, from the supposedly sedate suburbs to the murky world of international terrorism, explain what their particular ‘locale’ has to offer to the reader, and what made them choose to concentrate their stories where they do.
Chair: C.J. Carver - Gone Without Trace (Orion)
Jeff Abbott - Fear (Sphere)
Diana Wei Lang - Butterflies for the Dead (Picador)
Meg Gardiner - Kill Chain (Hodder)

Tec to Tech
A bleak future for crime? With the relentless advance of technology, and the proliferation of CCTV, stifling the freedom of criminals to operate, what does the next twenty years and beyond hold for crime writers? Four authors with their novels set firmly in the present discuss how they’re going to adapt, or indeed, whether they’re going to bother adapting at all.
Chair: David Hewson - The Garden of Evil (Macmillan)
David Wolstencroft - Contact Zero (Hodder)
Cody McFadyen - The Face of Death (Hodder)
Peter Lovesy - The House Sitter & Upon a Dark Night (Sphere)
Natasha Cooper - A Greater Evil (Pocket Books)

Special Guest: Sam Bourne speaker - Last Testament (HarperCollins)
Sam's novel The Righteous Men, meanwhile, was a number one bestseller in the UK last year, and has been translated into no less than twenty eight languages.

A dirty job but someone’s got to do it.
How do crime writers cope with the stresses and strains of this, one of the oddest of jobs? Four very different writers offer both tips and warnings as they talk about their experiences getting published, staying published and moving up the greasy pole.

Chair: Quentin Jardine - Death's Door (Headline)
Jo Nesbo - The Redbreast (Vintage)
Roger John Ellory - A Quiet Belief In Angels (Orion)
Thomas H Cook - Master of the Delta (Quercus)
Barbara Nadel - Pretty Dead Things (Headline)

Bloody women.
Is it true that women writers can get away with writing more explicitly about violence, particularly of a sexual nature, than their male counterparts? If so, why is this? Two authors from each gender get together to discuss.

Chair: Stuart MacBride - Broken Skin (Harper)
Simon Beckett - Written in Bone (Bantam)
Tess Gerritsen - The Bone Garden (Bantam)
Mark Billingham - Death Message (Little Brown)
Chelsea Cain - Heartsick (Pan)

Fiona Bruce (Fiona Bruce has presented BBC1's Crimewatch programme for the past 6 years)
&
Jacqui Hames (Jacqui Hames is one of Britain's best-known real life Detectives, having co-presented the BBC 1's Crimewatch for 16 years)
Discuss their new book.

Special Guest – Andy McNab - Crossfire (Bantam)
Interviewed by: Laura Wilson - Stratton's War (Orion)
Andy McNab joined the infantry as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was 'badged' as a member of 22 SAS Regiment and was involved in both covert and overt special operations worldwide. During the Gulf War he commanded Bravo Two Zero, a patrol that, in the words of his commanding officer, 'will remain in regimental history for ever'. Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestsellers, Bravo Two Zero, which was filmed in 1998 starring Sean Bean, and Immediate Action. He has since written 15 novels, his latest Crossfire is the 10th in the Nick Stone series.
Besides his writing work, he lectures to security and intelligence agencies in both the USA and UK.

Late night quiz show

Sunday 20 July

Cosy Crime Fiction
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Why, in these changing times, and ninety years after Agatha Christie’s first novel was released, does the traditional ‘cosy’ mystery remain so popular? Was Agatha the best crime writer who ever lived? Is her work, and the work of their successors timeless in an ever-changing world? Why, too, do some crime writers have a dismissive attitude towards this particular sub-genre, and are these criticisms at all justified?
Chair: Paul Johnston - The Death List (Mira Books)
Jill Paton Walsh - The Bad Quarto (Hodder)
MC Beaton - Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye (Constable Robinson)
Catriona McPherson - Bury Her Deep (Hodder)
Colin Cotteril - Thirty-Three Teeth (Quercus)

Special Guest – Tess Gerritsen - The Bone Garden (Bantam)
Interviewed by: Paul Blezard - A writer, a broadcaster and a presenter with Oneword Radio,

Tess Gerritsen, an internationally best-selling author, took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published and she has since written eight more romantic suspense novels, and nine medical thrillers. Her books have been translated into 31 languages, more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the "medical suspense queen".

The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is a celebration of the best in crime fiction. It is promoted by the north of England’s leading arts festival, Harrogate International Festival which was founded in 1966. Set in the attractive floral spa resort at the gateway to the North Yorkshire Dales, Harrogate is forever known as the town where the great crime novelist Agatha Christie disappeared and Sherlock Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle regularly visited.