CrimeFest 2023: Saturday 13 May: Interview

 

 

Saturday. 12:30-13:20
Featured Guest Author Elly Grifiths
interviewed by Barry Forshaw

Elly’s first four books were published under her real name which is Domenica de Rosa, which in Italian means Sunday of the rose.  She always felt it was a writer’s name, andpractised writing her signature.  Although she has an Italian father she was born in London.

She actually wrote her first book when she was eleven, it was called The Hair of the Dog,  Which, she said must have been something my parents talked about. But in her mind it was to make something better.  She never finished it.

After graduating from  King’s College London she worked in a library and then got a job as a publicity assistant at HarperCollins.  She said she  loved working in publishing and eventually became Editorial Director for children’s books. She talked about the enjoyment of writing children’s books and yes, people are killed in her children’s books, but she said the thing to do is just to kill the teachers, not the children.

It was when she was on maternity leave that she started to write her first book, which would become her first published novel, The Italian Quarter. 

Asked by Barry where did the name Elly Griffiths come from, Elly explained that It was her agent Jane Wood that came up with the name Elly Griffiths.  She’d thought of taking her grandmother’s name Helena, but somehow she became Elly.  She recalled an later interview with Jane Wood and asked her ‘how did I get to be Elly?’  Jane replied ‘I think it looked a bit tidier’.

She had decided not to go back to HarperCollins after her maternity period was up, but was offered ‘A lovely treat’ to edit letterland, which was created to teach phonics using a story-based approach. The set-up was weird, she said, and can only be described as a poisoned chalice. Example: for the letter ‘F’ Fireman Fred’s Hose fits firm in his

fist. She did try to point out that some people might see a double meaning there. However, she did write few herself Poor Peter’s Perfect Pizza and several others.

She talked about Italy, family and identity. One amusing story was that her father won a scholarship to a posh school, and he hated it there.  But he came away from there knowing that it doesn't matter what qualifications you have, it doesn't matter what you do, the only way to get on in England is to have a posh voice. This backfired on him when the war started and all the Italians were rounded up, and they couldn't believe that an Italian could speak so posh, so they thought that he was as spy. She touched a little on being brought up as a Catholic. I was much amused by the fact that her father didn't go to church as he was a ‘freelance’ Catholic. He thought that God loved everybody, but had a particular ‘crush’ on him.

She also talked about her meeting her husband Andrew in a city wine bar. He was with a group of lawyers’ and they got chatting and he told her didn't want to be a lawyer, what he really wanted to be was an archaeologist. She thought, Oh! how sweet, and decided to marry him.  He gave up the city job and went back to university and qualified as an archaeologist. Obviously, while Andrew was qualifying things were tight and they had two children by then, so for  a holiday they went back to Norfolk where she had holidayed as a child.

She said, it was walking across Titchwell Marsh, when Andy mentioned Prehistoric man and said he thought that marshland was sacred, because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, a kind of bridge to the afterlife. As he said these words said Elly, ‘the entire plot of The Crossing Places appeared, fully formed, in my head and, walking towards me out of the mist, I saw Dr Ruth Galloway. And I knew everything about her. I didn’t think that this new book was significantly different from my ‘Italy’ books but, when she read it, my agent said, ‘This is crime. You need a crime name.’ Hence Elly Griffiths.’

She had a two book deal, but was careful to leave the first book with an emotional cliff-hanger. Those of us who have avidly devoured the fifteen books in this series must, like me, be wondering and hoping, will there be more?

The Elly Griffith Series

The Crossing Places
The Janus Stone
                        The House at Seas End                        
A Roomful of Bones
                                  Dying Fall                                       
The Outcast Dead
The Ghost Fields
The Woman in Blue
The Chalk Pit
The Dark Angel
The Stone Citrcle
The Lantern Man
The Night Hawks
The Locked Room
The Last Remains

www.ellygriffiths.co.uk

CrimeFest 2023: Friday 12 May

 

Friday. 13:40-14:30: Guilt And Innocence

The panel are L to R. L F Robertson (Moderator) Abi Silver,
John Lincoln, John Buckler and Graham Bartlett

Graham was a police officer for thirty years during which he was a homicide senior investigating officer and a strategic firearms and public order commander.   He is now an award-winning author. His message is ‘Write what you know’. He has now written two books Bad for Good and Force of Hate. I can attest they are both brilliant.  Taxed with police corruption, he responded ’ there are some bad apples out there.’   But there are many links in the chain leading up to murder. Motivation is important, but there is a whole series of events that lead to a crime.

Abi said she tried writing 20 years ago. Then did commercial law for 8 years, and then tried again, with women in central roles. Her first book was defending the innocent.

Like Abi, L F Robertson  is a lawyer. She has worked for many years on death penalty cases. In her words ‘It’s a long slog’.

They were asked if they get fed up with negativity pointed at the law. Abi responded that they have a role to help and protect the rule of law.

John Lincoln, who has written two books featuring Gethin Gray, observed ruefully that British PI’s are nothing like the American ones.

The discussion was guilt and innocence, and FL Roberston related a story where an ill-educated young man went to jail for a minor offence, but was drawn into a bad crowd in the prison and ended up doing an evil thing.  But then there are many ordinary people who end up doing evil things.

There were several questions and observations from the audience specifically about someone being able to pay for a top clever barrister and getting away with their crime.  The conclusion was ‘It’s the system we have to live with . We have a process and we have to live with that process.

I found it a fascinating discussion and I am only sorry I  couldn't write fast enough to give a more detailed account.  

CrimeFest Conference 2023: Thursday 11 May

 

Bristol, 11-14 May 2023
There were 49 events over the four days
these are a few of my favourites
by Lizzie Sirett
Photographs courtesy of Gary Stratmann

 Thursday 17:00-17:50. Authors Remembered

L-R: Martin Edwards, David Beckler, Chris Curran, Pter Guttridge and
John Lawton

David Beckler writes the Sterling & Mason and Antonia Conti series, pacy thrillers with character and a social conscience.  His most recent book is A Nuclear Reaction which is set in a dystopian London. He talked on 

Friedrich Durrenmatt  (1921-1990)
who was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author gained fame largely due to his avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire.

Chris Curran is a huge fan of Daphne Du Maurier, Barbara Vine and Patricia Highsmith, Chris writes dark psychological suspense. Her latest novel, When the Lights Go Out, is set in the atmospheric Forest of Dean. She presented to us

Vera Caspary aka Sergei Marinoff (1899-1987)
an American writer. whose best known novel was Laura, which was made into a seuccessful movie. Her novels revolved  around women who are menaced, but who turn out to be neither victimized nor rescued damsels.                          

Martin Edwards is the author of 21 novels, including the Lake District Mysteries and the Rachel Savernake books, and also an acclaimed history of crime fiction, The Life of Crime. He received the CWA Diamond Dagger for the sustained excellence of his work. Martin spoke about Scottish author

Margot Bennett. (1912-1980)
She worked first as a copywriter in the UK and Australia and then as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War before turning to writing. Her output in crime fiction was relatively small, yet successful. She won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1958 with Someone From the Past.

Peter Guttridge has written 18 crime novels and was the mystery reviewer for The Observer newspaper for many years.  He has a two book deal for mystery thrillers about 18th century smugglers in Sussex and Kent, the first of which will be published at the end of 2023. He chose to talk about

Donald Hamilton (1916-2006).
An American western, mystery and espionage writer, whose best know character was Matt Helm, a professional assassin working for a secret government agency. Helm, code named Eric, was a much more ruthless agent than his British colleague, Ian Fleming's James Bond.

John Lawton lives in a hilltop village in the Derbyshire Pennines. His latest novel Moscow Exile, is book 5 in the Joe Wilderness series, published 4 May 2023  by Grove Press. John spoke on

Stanley Ellin. (1916-1986)
who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He became a full-time writer in 1946 and was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1980.

 

As I was hosting a ‘newbie’ panel at the quiz which began at 8 pm, I had arranged  to eat at Giuseppe’s at 6pm. Accompanied by John Sirett, Mike Ripley, Zoe Sharp and Christopher Huang, we made our way there. The food is great. It is in fact the oldest Italian Restaurant in Bristol, and I heartily recommend it.

As in previous years the quiz master was Peter Guttridge author of the mystery series featuring journalist Nick Madrid and more recently the Brighton Mysteries.

 

Photo  Left -
Dolores Gordon-Smith and 
Mike Linane

Below -
Lizzie, John Sirett
and Felix Francis

On the left the triumphant winners of the Quiz.
Martin Edwards, that font of all crime fiction knowledge with Dolores Gordon-Smith.
 Below diving into the prize are:
Mike Ripley,
Christopher Wang,
and Zoe Sharp and far right Alison Bruce.

 

 

A good time was had by all and then we headed for the bar.
Photo on the right Lizzie Sirett with
Andrew Child, Aka Andrew Grant.