Tuesday 25 May 2010

Crimefest panels


I Fought the Law was the slightly mysterious title of my first Crimefest panel this year. I moderated an appealing group comprising Diane Janes, Frances Brody, Alison Bruce and Dan Waddell. The theme was crime fact and fiction. All four panellists have had their first crime novels published in recent years, but they were all very professional and this made for a lively discussion, even at 9 a.m., which is not my favourite time of the day. The audience was excellent, too

I hadn’t met Dan Waddell before, but found him a splendid panel colleague. He has written a couple of books which make use of his knowledge of genealogy, and oddly enough there was a time (probably about 15 years ago) when I did some research with a view to writing a genealogical mystery myself. But I gave up on the idea, and I have no doubt that Dan is much better suited to it than I would have been.

I was asked to reprise the Forgotten Authors panel, which was popular last year, although with a different group of authors. I’d been on panels previously with Caro Ramsay, Caroline Todd and Suzette Hill, but this was my first encounter with Stan Trollip, who is one half of the South African double act known as Michael Stanley.

We talked about a wide range of authors, ranging from John Buchan to James McClure. Caro amused me with her theory that Desmond Bagley and Duncan Kyle were one and the same person, and it has to be said that their photos do bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. A fun panel, and the only problem was that there was so much to say about the chosen authors that 50 minutes simply was not enough.



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Martin - I'm so glad you enjoyed those panels. It sounds as though you worked with some terrific people. I'm happy for you.

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Those panels are never long enough, are they? Yours sounds really interesting, Martin!

Martin Edwards said...

Thanks, Margot and Elizabeth. They were very enjoyable and I hope one of these days I'll be on panels with the two of you!

Dorte H said...

I think the genealogy aspect is very interesting. It is a hobby of mine, and I enjoy it when I come across it in crime fiction. In my current manuscript the main character is also interested in it, but I admit that it is a bit difficult to figure out how much to write about it. There are probably readers who find it very boring.

Mel Docherty said...

I found Dan Waddell's first thriller fast-moving and gripping and look forward to reading his second which came out recently. He was preceded in this new genre by Fiona Mountain, who created Natasha Blake, an engaging 'ancestor detective' who appeared in two excellent novels in 2002 and 2004, the second winning an MWA award. Sadly, what looked set to be a series then stopped, and Fiona has turned (very successfully) to historical novels.

Nigel said...

Of course you might expect me to butt-in here!! Duncan Kyle was a friend and maybe "prodigy" of Desmond Bagley... But I can confirm the photos, though they bear and uncanny resemblance, are not of the same person!! :-D