Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3
in conjunction with the Crime Writers’ Association

Tickets are now available for the 2010 Crime Thriller Awards ceremony, to be held on the evening of October 8th in The Ballroom at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London – awards followed by dinner. Amongst other awards, the Gold, Steel and New Blood Daggers will be presented.  The organisers of the Awards are very generously offering Friends of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival the chance to book tickets at a special discount rate! For more information, discounted rate prices and to book, please e-mail
Merric Davidson on merric@agile-ideas.com

For more information on the Crime Thriller season on ITV3 visit:
http://www.itv.com/drama/crimethrillerawards/
To see footage from previous Awards Ceremony visit:
http://www.agile-ideas.com/crime-thriller-awards

For more information on how to become a Festival Friend and the benefits of membership, click here.

Judge Stuart MacBride

2010 Festival Programme Chair and renowned author Stuart MacBride chose  ‘But is it Art?’ by Peter Caunt of Walton Park, Harrogate as the winner of the Harrogate Advertiser short story competition, with Stephen Toase of Sowerby penning the runner up story.

Many thanks to all who entered and congratulations to the winning writers!

The Winning Entry

But is it Art?

“It’s amazing just how much mess a shotgun makes.”

Graham looked at the splatter pattern on the wall, still dripping red onto the floor.

“So what do you think?”

Graham turned to his assistant, “And we clean this up every few hours and he does it again?”

Tarquin nodded, “That’s the idea. People seem to like it.”

“And he uses a real shotgun?”

“It’s very authentic. Apart from the blood of course. He just blasts at a plastic bag full of red paint.”

Graham closed his eyes.

Tarquin went on, “Look there are plenty of precedents. We even have a ‘Jackson Pollock’ hanging in the other gallery.”

“I know about abstract art, but this is more ..”

“It’s performance art. The people come to see him creating it, not just to view the final result.”

“But the artist, he was convicted of armed robbery, you say.”

Tarquin’s eyes twinkled, “That’s the beauty of it, gives the whole thing a lot of street cred. We’ve had some young visitors, people who’ve never been to a gallery before.”

Graham was still a little jet lagged and was regretting leaving Tarquin in charge, “But this must be expensive to run, having to clean up. He can’t do that many performances a day. And I see you’ve dropped the entry charge”

“But the crowds have been huge. They enjoy the participation in the art.”

Graham hardly dared ask, “What participation?”

“Ah, that’s the best bit. After he’s produced the splatter he threatens the crowd with the shotgun. They pay up and love it.”

“I’m sorry, he commits armed robbery multiple times a day in our gallery?”

“As I said, it’s very authentic. He normally collects about five hundred a day. “

Tarquin looked at Graham’s reddening face then added, “And we get sixty-five percent.”

© Peter Caunt

For a limited period, The Book Depository are offering a selection of classic crime CDs from BBC Audiobooks at up to 40% off their RRP – AND with free delivery to over 90 countries worldwide.

You might have read crime books before. But have you listened to one? Heard the voices of the suspects, been gripped as the detective explains to you whodunit and why?

Audiobooks will take you straight to the scene of the crime – with atmospheric music and sound effects, you’ll hear that crucial creak on the stairs and sense the dreadful deed that is about to happen. Just don’t listen in the dark…

With a full cast of expert actors, you’ll feel as if you’re mingling with the suspects, in the thick of the investigation. Whose voice sounds the most suspicious? Who is lying? You’ll sense the underlying tension, hear the real meanings behind words – and maybe even solve the crime before the detective!

A great range of best-selling classic crime favourites are included in the offer, including Agatha Christie, Paul Temple, Sherlock Holmes and the latest from the more recently launched Radio Crimes series.

Click here

to see which titles from the BBC Audiobooks classic crime range are available on this special offer. Offer ends 30th July 2010.

Once again this year the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival has teamed up with the Harrogate Advertiser series to challenge local writing talents to let their imaginations get grisly with our annual short story competition.

The first prize-winner will receive a Weekend Rover ticket, worth £175, allowing entry to almost all the events during the Festival, which runs from Thursday 22 July to Sunday 25 July. The runner-up will get a goody bag of crime fiction books, samplers, bookmarks and other treats.

This year the winner will be chosen by Festival Programming Chair and renowned author Stuart MacBride. To get your creative juices working Stuart has also provided the first sentence of the story for you.

To enter, use the following sentence as your introduction and complete the story in no more than 300 words.

Events in the Summer Festival programme that might be of particular interest to Crime fans include:

Alan Bennett with Alessandro Taverna
Sun 25 July, 8pm
Royal Hall, Harrogate
Click here for details and online booking

Codebreakers: The Story of Enigma
Sat 17 July, 2.30pm
Harrogate Theatre
Click here for details and online booking

Take a trip to the Town Centre Box Office; meet the Festival team and book tickets to make your Summer 2010 in Harrogate a heady mix of cultural delights!

You can also buy tickets to Harrogate International Festivals events:
By Phone – Booking Hotline: 0845 130 8840
Or Online – www.harrogate-festival.org.uk

Download the catalogue to discover murders in a sleepy middle-England village, vengeful republican paramilitary killers and which Scandinavian detective series you should read when you’ve finished the Millennium trilogy.

The competition is now closed – many thanks to everyone who entered. We had a fantastic response with hundreds and hundreds of entries and we’ve now whittled all these stories down to three finalists and we’re asking you to vote for your favourite.

Read all three stories and cast your vote here!

Congratulations to the three finalists: Revell Cornell, Ed Harvey and David Jack Smith.

Each finalist wins the opportunity to attend the Festival’s Crime Fiction Creative Writing Workshop, Creative Thursday, on Thursday 22nd July at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate.

On Thursday evening the overall winner will be revealed by Stuart MacBride at an exclusive reception hosted by Alibi at the Crown Hotel.

Joseph Finder

Improve your writing technique courtesy of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival’s creative writing course for aspiring writers. Hone your novel and short story writing skills with a day-long programme of workshops and seminars led by bestselling crime writers, publishing industry professionals and real-life crime experts.

The programme include intensive writing workshops led by the international thriller writer Joseph Finder and hugely successful UK authors Stuart MacBride & Allan Guthrie, the chance to quiz three world-renowned forensics experts, and the return by popular demand of  the Dragons’ Pen – our literary version of the television show the Dragons’ Den and just as dramatic!

Creative Thursday’s full day progarmme of tutorials and seminars with leading industry professionals will improve any writers’ toolkit. It will also provide a valuable insight into the publishing world, as well as prepare you for some of the common perils and pitfalls!

Price: £95 per person

Click here for full details and how to book…

Get on board with the Big Read by reading one of the most iconic crime novels of all time, Murder On The Orient Express, and coming along to one of our special Big Read events to share your thoughts on this famous book by the ‘Queen of Crime’.

Festival Reader-In-Residence Martyn Waites will be taking a whistle stop tour of the North of England to meet readers in Yorkshire, Lancashire and the North East. Click here for event details.

Thanks to the generous support of publisher HarperCollins, the Festival will be distributing a limited number of free copies  of the Big Read book via our partner libraries in North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Newcastle, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. Reading groups in these areas wishing to take part in the Big Read should contact their local library.

www.bigread.org.uk

L-R: (back) Dreda Say Mitchell, Martyn Waites, Jane Gregory, Laura Wilson, Simon Theakston, Selina Walker, Stuart MacBride; (front) NJ Cooper

Some of the biggest names in the crime writing world gathered last night in Harrogate to celebrate the launch of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival programme. Described by Festival Chief Executive Sharon Canavar as “one of the strongest line-ups yet”, the world-famous crime festival will welcome such genre giants as Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and this year’s Festival Chair, Stuart MacBride.

The murderous mix of events will take place on 22^nd – 25^th July 2010 at The Crown Hotel, Harrogate. Highlights includes a celebration of 120 years of Agatha Christie; special guest appearances from Christopher Brookmyre, Jeffery Deaver and Joanne Harris; a series of debates guaranteed to raise temperatures including: are the Brits the best crime writers in the world?; and the much anticipated introduction to the “new blood” writers – a showcase of the most exciting emerging talent on the scene.

This year, in an exciting new collaboration to mark the programme launch, festival-sponsor Theakstons Old Peculier has teamed up with six of the UK’s leading crime writers to create a series of limited edition labels on bottles of their famous ale. The authors – Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Stuart MacBride, Simon Kernick, NJ Cooper and Simon Beckett – were tasked with writing a brand new crime story for the back of the beer bottle. The twist? They could only use ten words.

Stuart MacBride said: “Write a whole story in ten words? Piece of cake. Or at least that’s what I thought. Turned out to be true too – writing a story in ten words is easy, it’s writing a good one that’s difficult. But with any luck I hope people will pause for a moment in the midst of savouring their drink to take a squint at the wee stories and maybe decide to try a crime novel they wouldn’t have before. Beer and a good book, what could be better?”

Simon Theakston, Executive Director of T&R Theakston explained the partnership: “We are immensely proud of our association with Harrogate’s world-class crime fiction festival and the new labels featuring these ten word stories by the cream of UK crime writers are a further demonstration of the innovative nature and ongoing success of our partnership. I hope fans of Old Peculier and fans of crime fiction alike will enjoy collecting the six stories and reading them while appreciating a bottle of fine ale!”