CrimeFest: Authors Remembered: The Golden Age of Murder, Then and Now

 Thursday, 15 May 2025 

17:00 - 17:50

The panel are Dolores Gordon-Smith (on H.C Bailey)
Katherine Hall Page (on Robert Barnard)
Christine Poulson (on Sheila Pim)
David Whittle (on Edmund Crispin)
and the Participating Moderator is
Martin Edwards (on Martin Russell)

Dolores Gordon-Smith is the author of the Jack Haldean murder mystery series set in 1920’s England, the latest of which is The Chapel in the Woods, published by Severn House, and two WW1 spy thrillers, Frankie’s Letter and The price of Silence. Married with five daughters, a growing number of grandchildren and various dogs and cats, Dolores has been a teacher, a civil servant and a shaker-out of Christmas puddings in a jam factory. Website:

Henry Christopher Bailey ( 1878-1961) was an English author of detective fiction. Bailey wrote mainly short stories featuring a medically qualified detective called Reggie Fortune. 
doloresgordon-smith.co.uk

Katherine Hall Page is the author of 26 amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild books (Wm Morrow/Avon), recipient of Mystery Writer of America’s 2024 Grand Master, Malice Domestic’s Lifetime Achievement, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Crime Master and Agathas for Best First, Best Short Story, and Best Mystery Novel. She has published a cookbook, Have Faith in your Kitchen, Small Plates (SS collection) and books for YAs and Middle Grade readers. She lives in Massachusetts and Maine. 

Robert Barnard (1936-2013) He spent many years as a distinguished academic while establishing himself as one of today's most distinguished crime writers.

katherine-hall-page.org

Christine Poulson writes, she was a respectable academic, with a PhD in the History of Art lecturing at a Cambridge college before she turned to crime. Her first three novels featured literary historian and accidental sleuth, Cassandra James. Deep Water was the first in a series of medical thrillers featuring scientist Katie Flanagan. Her most recent is Invisible, a standalone suspense novel. She has written numerous short stories and in 2018 was short-listed for both the Margery Allingham Prize and the CWA Short Story Dagger.  

Sheila Pim (1909 - 1995)  wrote her first detective novel, Common or Garden Crime, to satisfy her father's thirst for detective stories.

http://www.christinepoulson.co.uk/  

David Whittle was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years, during which time he wrote his biography of composer/crime novelist Montgomery/Crispin about whom he gives talks. He reviews crime fiction for Mystery People. David is an organ recitalist, and also plays in big bands (piano) and folk groups (accordion/bagpipes!).

Edmund Crispin (1921-1978) was the pseudonym of
Robert) Bruce Montgomery.
His first crime novel and musical composition were both accepted for publication
 while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford.

Martin Edwards’ novels include the Lake District Mysteries and the Rachel Savernake books, most recently Hemlock Bay. His non-fiction includes a multi-award-winning history of Golden Age fiction, The Golden Age of Murder, the expanded second edition of which has just been published. He has received three Daggers, including the CWA Diamond Dagger, two Edgars, three CrimeFest Keating awards, and four lifetime achievement awards. He is consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics and President of the Detection Club. 

                                       Martin James Russell (Born 1934)

 martinedwardsbooks.com