CWA Annual Conference 2023

 

York, 21-23 April 2023
by Lizzie Sirett
Photographs courtesy of Gary Stratmann

The conference this year was held in York at the Radisson Park Inn, with magnificent views of the River Ouse. The conference began with a Jubilee Reception in the banqueting room at the Mansion House, where we toasted the CWA’s 70th year anniversary. 

I am sorry that I cannot identify all the people in the photograph above What I can do is say that it was a fun evening. The venue was lovely.

  Maxim Jakubowski welcomed us all to the Mansion house.He was pleased to inform us that the CWA membership has risen to 1000

The picture on the left is, left to right, Vera Morris, author of the Anglia Detecive Agency series. Me, Roger Bullock and Kate Ellis, best known for her series featuring Police Inspector Wesley Peterson.
 

 

A few more photographs of the evening were taken by
Leigh Russell’s husband Mike Leigh.

 Above left: Alison Morton, author of Roma Nova series, Lizzie Sirett, and Leigh Russell, who writes the Geraldine Steel series. Her new series features Poppy the dog.
  

In the photo on the left is Leigh Russell, Christine Poulson, whose most recent series features young researcher Katie Flannagan,  Jean Briggs, who writes historical mtsteries featuring Charles Dickens as the detective, and Martin Edwards, author of a series set in the Lake District and whose most recent series is set in the 1930's featuring Rachel Savenakeeditor of twenty-two anthologies, and his wife Helena. 

Photograph right: Vaseem Kahn, Chair of the CWA with Leigh Russell

The first talk at 9.15am on Saturday morning was by Veronica Bird who rose through the ranks of the prison service and became a governor in some of the most difficult prisons in Britain, earning herself an OBE . An abusive father made life a misery.  Escape came in the form of a scholarship to a Quaker boarding school, although her time here was cut short when her mother died and Veronica was summoned home to take care of her siblings.  "I knew I had to get away from home because of the abuse," she said, and initially applied to the police force.  The prison service offered free accommodation and the possibility of promotion and so Veronica joined that instead, intending to stay for only 2 years until she got her feet on the ground.

10:15-11.15.

DCI Vanessa Smith, Cyber Crime Team Manager, DCI Yorkshire & Humberside Region Cyber Crime Team. She began her career as a special constable at the age of 18 joining West Yorkshire police as a full–time officer in 1994.  She has won 11 Commendations for Bravery. In 2015 Vanessa  was appointed to spearhead her force’s first cybercrime unit and hand-picked a team of leading  IT experts, before rising to the rank of DCI.

Vanessa was followed by Professor Barry Strickland-Hodge.
See photo right. He is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, a  Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. Livery of the Society of Apothecaries, Freeman of the City of London, and visiting Professor of Prescribing Practice at the uUiversity of Leeds. His interest include the  history of Pharmacy.

In the afternoon there were several options available, including a guided murder tour of York.

 On Saturday evening we all gathered in the bar, where the Dagger Longlist was announced.

We then went by coach to our dinner venue and what an amazing venue it was. It was totally undercover, but it looked as though we were sitting outside, The photo far left above, shows the entrance to the venue, but it was nothing compared with the actual dining area.  We were outside but inside.

Our after dinner speaker was Simon Brett who is the author of so many wonderful books, including. Charles Paris Series.  Mrs Pargeter, and more recently the Blotto Twinks series. He was as  always entertaining.

The first speaker on Sunday was Alice Murphy-Pyle who who talked about HarperNorth’s current trends that publishers are looking for.

She was followed by Steven Keogh who was
with the London  Metropolitan police for 30 years. This was followed by a Q&A. I greatly
enjoyed this discussion particularly as Steven completely destroyed the myth of the Murder Board that all the detective series I watch on TV use, including the Vera Stanhope series, and many others.  He explained convincingly that it doesn’t exist, not least because there are so many investigations going on that if everyone had a Murder board there would be no room for anything else.  Quite an eye opener.

 

The next a talk on successful self-publishing was by Karen Charlton, author of the Detective Lavender Mysteries which are based on  the fictional adventures of
Stephen Lavender, a real-life detective with the Bow Street Police  in London.

And Karen Menuhin who writes a 1920’s cosy crime series featuring Heathcliff Lennox. WW1 war pilot. Named after the hero of Wuthering Heights by her romantically minded mother.