St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend 8-10 August 2025 Detecting the Gothic.

 

Our Friday evening started with a 
Meet and Greet
which was held in the Jacqueline Du Pre Building. Hosted by Sarah Hilary in
conversation with Mick Heron.

Sarah invited Mick to tell us about Slough House and spy Jackson Lamb and Mick’s own dark imagination.

6.30 -7.15

We had pre-dinner fizz on Riverside Lawn
followed by dinner in the St Hilda’s Dining Room.
Our Guest Speaker was
Anna Mazzola,
Winner of the 2025 
CWA Gold Dagger
for Best Crime Novel of the Year.
The Book of Secrets.

9.20-10.50
Saturday
After a warm welcome from Sarah Hilary, our first speakers were 
Ruth Ware and Louise Welsh,chaired by Jane Casey.

Ruth Ware.  The title of Ruth’s talk in the programme is:
Something Nasty in the Woodshed: Fear and Anxiety in Gothic Fiction. 

That seem to hint at something malevolent and supernatural. And her brilliant talk  certainly contained something lurking around every corner that we should be looking out for.

Her debut book In a Dark, Dark Wood takes writer Leonora to the English countryside for a weekend break. But the supposedly fun-filled weekend takes a sinister turn. Her most recent book is The Woman in Suite 11. Beware of an all -expenses paid trip to a luxury Swiss chateau.

Louise Welsh. The title of her talk is
Lost in the City, Lost in the Woods.

She studied history at Glasgow university and worked as a dealer in second-hand, out-of-print and antiquarian books. Louise won the ILP John Creasey First Novel award  for The Cutting Room in 2002.  She has written two further books in this series, The Second Cut 2022) and  The Cut Up. (2026)But in all eleven books.  The most recent being To The Dogs.  The cover alone scares me.

And her following nine books all also delve into the murky darkness of the Gothic novel. 

11.20 - 12.50

The next panel was Catriona Ward

and Stuart Turton.

Chaired by Jake Kerridge

 The heading of Catriona’s talk was:

Reading With Our Bodies as a Physical Act
She was born in Washington DC and grew up in the US, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen and Morocco. She now lives in London.  Her books are all classed as Horror.  Her latest one is Looking Glass Sound. A story of friendship,
betrayal, and dark obsessions. 

The heading of Stuart’s talk was intriguingly:
A Big Monkey did it and Ran away:  Why Gothic’ At Its Best When it Isn’t Poe Faced.

Stuart explores the daft edges of gothic crime fiction. Weird conclusions and the oddest characters. His latest book is The Last Murder at the End of the World.

3.00– 4.30

 The Last two sessions of the afternoon were

Olivia Isaac Henry
telling us that Folk Horror is having a revival.

Her most recent book is Hallows Hill A delicious gothic horror treat…...

And William Ryan on how
Photographs Can Shape Atmosphere,
Character and Plot.

5.00 - 6.30

Catherine Ryan Howard talked on serial killers who loom large in crime fiction possess almost supernatural powers, more gothic monster than flesh and blood man. Her most recent book is Burn After Reading, A book I read recently and can heartily recommend.

Stuart Neville. Beyond the Pale: Moving Past the Boundaries of Crime Fiction.

Using the original of the expression  ‘Beyond the Pale’ He looked at how writers often explore beyond the safe confines of crime genre conventions, He explored how the genre’s earliest practitioners, such as Edgar Allan Poe  often flirted with the supernatural and macabre, not drawing a line between one genre and the other.

His latest book, published 28 August 2025, is Blood Like Ours.

 7.20 - 8.00 pm
Drinks Reception and and informal book signing in the Jacqueline Du Pre Building.

8.15pm
The P.D. James Dinner in St Hilda’s College Hall 

It has become a tradition to celebrate the dinner with a special celebrity ‘Whodunnit’

Written by Philip Gooden.

I admit that I was laughing so much that I forgot to take photographs. Oh! Except for one. But he was well disguised,

 Photo left is Julie Luscombe and Lorraine Carpenter, the gap between them is my seat. 

           The highlight of the conference was the
Guest of Honour

Val McDermid

Val spoke on Reinventing the Gothic.

A past that never dies, the Janus face of duality and identity, dark and psychological instability, and excess…

 

She was as always, brilliant, funny and incredibly entertaining. I could listen to her for hours.

After she gave her presentation, she was interviewed by
Abir Mukherjee
(see photograph left)

Ambrose Parry are Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman

They introduced us to a macabre history of Edinburgh and the stealing of corpses. The casual way in which  graves were plundered and bodies stolen is fascinatingly gruesome.

The conference dates for next year are 
4-6 September 2026.