18 May 2018
Panel 14:50 - 15:40
The CRIMEFEST Anthology
Simon Brett is the writer
responsible for the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter, Fethering and Blotto & Twinks
series of crime novels. He was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours
‘for services to literature’. Round the same time he was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Literature. In 2014
he was presented with The CWA Diamond Dagger, one of the highest accolades in
the crime writing world. His writing also includes comedy in radio and
television series such as No Commitments and After Henry. He says he can’t
remember a time when he didn’t want to write.
Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative
years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to
the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in
Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theatre he joined Granada
Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a
presentation director during British TV’s “golden age.” During his tenure his
company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime
Suspect, and Cracker. But left in 1995 at the age of 40 as a
result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see
an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought
six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack
Reacher series. Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series
which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite
an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.
Martin Edwards was born 7 July 1955 at Knutsford, Cheshire and
educated in Northwich and at Balliol College, Oxford University, taking a
first-class honours degree in law. He trained as a solicitor in Leeds and moved
to Liverpool on qualifying in 1980. He
published his first legal article at the age of 25 and his first book, about
legal aspects of buying a business computer at 27, before spending just over 30
years as a partner of a law firm, where he is now a consultant. He is married
to Helena with
two children (Jonathan and Catherine) and lives in Lymm. A member of the Murder
Squad a collective of crime writers. In 2007 he was appointed the Archivist of
the Crime Writers Association and in 2011 he was appointed the Archivist of the
Detection Club. Martin is currently chair of the CWA. For more information
visit:
Yrsa
Sigurðardóttir is an
Icelandic writer, of both crime-novels and children's fiction. She has been
writing since 1998. Her début crime-novel has recently been translated into
English by Bernard Scudder, published in the US in 2007, and the UK in January
2008. She also has a career as a civil engineer.
The Participating Moderator is Donna Moore
Donna Moore was born
in 1962 and led a sheltered childhood in a small English village. A crime
fiction fan from a young age, Donna wanted to be one of Enid Blyton's Famous
Five and fight crime with the aid of only a basket of cucumber sandwiches and a
bottle of ginger beer. She spent her spare time following mysterious strangers
around the village - especially those with cockney accents and a couple of days'
growth of stubble - until a complaint from the new local vicar put a stop to
her sleuthing career. She now lives in Glasgow, where she has a thrilling dual
career as a mild-mannered pension consultant by day, and an unemployed
superhero by night. For relaxation she listens to Dean Martin and The Ramones,
watches screwball comedy and film noir, and enjoys salsa, cha cha cha and
merengue - despite having two left feet.
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