Thursday 23rd July 2009

Start the 2009 Festival with a bang by joining the short listed authors for this year’s announcement of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Soak up the excitement, cheer on your favourite author and hold your breath in anticipation as the winner’s name is read!

Continue the celebrations and commiserations after the presentation with fellow crime lovers, authors and publishers at the Festival opening party. Ticket price includes canapés and a glass of wine or Yorkshire’s finest ale, Old Peculier.

Friday 24th July 2009

Ever since the publication of his first novel and instant bestseller Sleepyhead in 2001, actor and stand-up comedian Mark Billingham has become one of the best-loved authors in British crime fiction. His detective Tom Thorne is now one of the most popular figures in modern crime fiction and his ranks of loyal and dedicated fans swell with the publication of each new novel in the series.

In 2008 Mark’s first standalone novel In The Dark garnered outstanding critical acclaim, and the eighth Thorne novel, Blood Line – every bit as hard-hitting and enthralling as its predecessors – has just been published.

Always entertaining, both on and off stage, Mark Billingham has become a firm Festival favourite as well as one of the UK’s most celebrated crime writers.  He discusses his life and work with author and Guardian crime fiction critic Laura Wilson.

Always a popular panel, join five of the best authors in historical crime fiction – Gyles Brandreth, Ariana Franklin, Jason Goodwin, Caro Peacock and C.J. Sansom – to discuss the growing popularity of the past and what attracts them to their particular period, from medieval mayhem to twentieth-century criminal intrigue. Author Mark Mills chairs.

Guided by international best-seller and Festival favourite Val McDermid, five of the hottest new talents in crime fiction – Duncan Campbell, David Levien, Shona MacLean, Dan Waddell and Lee Weeks – discuss their work, motivation, inspirations and aspirations. An essential insight into the names to look out for in coming years…

Widely regarded as the father of the modern detective story, Poe created an astonishing number of the conventions of crime fiction.  To celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth a panel of admirers Peter James, Laura Lippman, Andrew Taylor and Martin Walker – under the watchful eye of Literary journalist Barry Forshaw, discuss Poe’s writing and his phenomenally fertile imagination, and reflect on a life that was as dark as his work.

What is it like to write for the screen and what does it feel like when your novel is adapted by someone else?  A quartet of successful novelists and screenwriters Neil Cross, Daniel Depp, Frances Fyfield and David Levien, discuss the art and the consequences of book adaptations for TV and film with veteran film writer and broadcaster Barry Norman. They consider the essential differences between writing for page and writing for screen, the qualities that make a novel filmable, and how it’s done.

What part should music play in crime fiction? Can it be a character in itself, or is it just a lazy way of creating atmosphere, and can the anorak get in the way of the author? Four admirers of different types of music – John Harvey and Martyn Waites (jazz ancient and modern), Dreda Say Mitchell (reggae) and Cathi Unsworth (punk) discuss what their favourite sounds bring to the murder party with MOJO magazine’s Andrew Male.

Join an informal get together to discuss the Festivals Big Read book, Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.

Veteran writer Reginald Hill created one of crime fiction’s best-loved ‘odd couples’ in Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, and his books have been made into a hugely popular television series. This highly acclaimed author has been the recipient of the coveted Cartier Diamond Dagger award for his outstanding body of work. He has been producing top-quality novels since his first, A Clubbable Woman, was published in 1970.

Irish writer John Banville began his career as a playwright and literary novelist, winning many awards including the Booker prize for The Sea in 2005 before he turned to crime fiction, writing under the name of Benjamin Black.

Mark Lawson hosts a fascinating discussion about their different approaches to their craft.

Can you tell fact from fiction? Writers tell lies for a living, but how well can they spin a tale to a live audience? Here’s a chance to pit the strength of your inner-lie-detector against a line-up of Christopher Brookmyre, Laura Lippman, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, Denise Mina and Martyn Waites. The panel will reveal secrets about themselves and their work, and it is your job to catch them out in a falsehood. But be warned: if you think they’re telling porkies, and you turn out to be wrong, you will have to pay a forfeit of £1. If you are right, the liar will have to cough up £5!

Remember, truth is often far stranger than fiction… Chaired by Grand Inquisitor Mark Billingham, Secrets and Lies is surreal, anarchic, and very, very funny.

All proceeds go to the Festival’s cause of choice: Yorkshire Cancer Research.

Saturday 25th July 2009

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One of the best, critically acclaimed American crime authors, George Pelecanos has written some of the most dramatic and hard-hitting novels of the last decade. A master of many styles, he has a background in film and television, working with the Coen brothers and garnering an Emmy nomination for his work on HBO’s The Wire. A huge success when he appeared in 2006 he returns to discuss his work, including his latest novel, The Way Home, just published in the UK, with best-selling home-grown thriller writer Simon Kernick. Don’t miss this opportunity to find out what makes the ‘sexiest man in crime’ tick.

Crime fiction is for many identified with big, brash urban landscapes, but some of the hottest properties in contemporary crime fiction come from and write about the greenest of all lands, Ireland.  But what is it about the Emerald Isle that makes it the perfect place for crime of all types?  Four top names – Declan Hughes, Gene Kerrigan, Ava McCarthy and Brian McGilloway – talk about their influences and background, the importance of landscape and history, and the place of politics and religion in their work with veteran (and often controversial) commentator on Irish life Ruth Dudley Edwards.

Troubled masculinity is a staple – even a cliché – of crime fiction. Why is it that male and female readers alike have come to love this parade of drunken adulterers and borderline psychotics? Allan Guthrie, Paul Johnston, Simon Kernick and Robert Lewis, all writers with disturbed, disturbing and sometimes downright deranged leading men, look at the appeal of the bleak universe inhabited by their flawed heroes. N J Cooper rules with a rod of iron.

A firm Festival favourite. Free to attend, the Readers Book group takes the book group out of the living room. This informal and relaxed hour brings like-minded people together to share their love of reading great crime fiction.  This year, the Festival Reader in Residence, award-winning novelist Ann Cleeves will be leading a discussion of newly published novels by first time authors. For this year’s reading list, see Reader in Residence.

Click here for the 2009 Reading List.

Why do lesbians make such successful crime-fiction writers, and why do they give the straight male opposition sleepless nights? Stella Duffy, N J Cooper, Val McDermid and Manda Scott, four of the best gay women crime writers, who   between them embrace a wide range of styles and subject-matter, discuss their writing, the pros and cons of labels, and the more controversial aspects of their work with journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson.

Chairman Simon Brett attempts to keep order as M C Beaton, Christopher Brookmyre, Ann Cleeves, R J Ellory and Laura Wilson harrumph, turn the air blue and foam at the mouth about everything that gets up their noses in crime writing, from anthropomorphism and abuse of semi-colons to clichés and hackneyed plot lines.

Shocking, sickening, repulsive, amoral… how far can – or should – a crime writer go? Is everything permissible, or should authors censor their worst impulses before they reach the page? Four of the edgiest authors working in the genre today – Megan Abbott, Denise Mina, Caro Ramsay and Zoë Sharp – discuss how to handle everything from cannibalism to zoo-ophilia. All this and the sheer joy of creating mayhem: not for the faint-hearted. Chaired by the scariest Aberdonian of them all, Stuart MacBride.

Don’t miss this opportunity to chat with your favourite authors over a delicious dinner, and participate in a unique game of whodunnit devised by Festival reader-in-residence Ann Cleeves. They all make a living out of murder, but tonight, one crime writer will die. Listen to the witness statements, follow the forensic evidence from Scene-of-Crime Officer Helen Pepper, and then decide which of the sinister suspects is the guilty party. Featuring special appearances from N J Cooper, Stuart MacBride, Cath Staincliffe and Martyn Waites, the guest authors hosting tables this year include:

Tom Cain, Andrew Grant, Matt Hilton, Steve Mosby, Chris Simms, Jacqueline Winspear, M C Beaton, Nicola Upson, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Zoë Sharp, James Twining and Dreda Say Mitchell

Ticket price includes a two-course meal and a glass of wine.

Attracting the Festival’s biggest ever audience when he appeared in 2007, Lee Child makes a welcome return to this year’s festival, so book early! A victim of corporate restructuring at Granada TV in 1995, Lee decided to spend a few pounds of his redundancy payment on pencils and paper. The result, his first novel Killing Floor, was an immediate success, and launched the ‘Jack Reacher’ series which has grown in sales and impact with each instalment. His – and Jack’s – latest book is Gone Tomorrow, which was published earlier this year.

He is interviewed by author and Observer crime-fiction critic Peter Guttridge, with a special appearance by Lee’s brother Andrew Grant. As well as giving a unique insight into his sibling’s life and work, he will introduce his own first novel, Even, just published in the UK.

Hugely popular and hotly contested, the quiz is a chance to test your knowledge of crime trivia from pseudonyms to theme tunes against authors, publishers, agents, and other fans. Hosted by Mark Billingham and Val McDermid, with the incomparable Stuart MacBride and Laura Wilson keeping score.

Sunday 26th July 2009

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From Beatrix Potter and Robert Louis Stevenson to Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling, children’s literature is chock-full of crimes and misdemeanours. Jasper Fforde, Christopher Fowler, Suzette A Hill and Yrsa Sigurdardottir discuss their earliest inspirations and models as, under the watchful eye of Andrew Taylor, they recall how their first steps in reading taught them to appreciate, and, later, to emulate, a jolly good mystery.

Creator and Producer, David Simon and author and Wire scriptwriter George Pelecanos talk to best-selling American author Laura Lippman to give a fascinating insight into a TV series which has been described as ‘the greatest of all time.’

This is an unmissable opportunity to see two of the creative masterminds behind the critically acclaimed American TV drama share the inside track on the off-screen story.  A slow-burning television phenomenon, The Wire aired for the first time in 2002 on US cable channel HBO, and ran for over 60 episodes until its final episode in March 2008.  Praised for its realistic portrayal of urban life and challenging exploration of social and political issues, The Wire has become one of the first ‘sleeper’ television dramas, having found a wider audience, greater plaudits and an ever-increasing amount of international attention since going off air via the series DVD releases and through simple word of mouth.

If you want to catch up before you come, then tune into BBC2 who are currently giving the show its first UK terrestrial screening.

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