What I shot and thought at Harrogate, Part I

Jay Stringer

This is Parker Bilal, who said: “If Chandler
were  writing today, he’d be writing about
Cairo or Mumbai or Lagos, these new
megacities.”

Chris Brookmyre

Howdy. And may I say it's nice to be back? Here are some photos I shot at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, known to most as, simply, "Harrogate." Photos by me unless otherwise specified.

This is Stav Sherez, whose book The
Intrusions won the festival's novel of
the year award. He also said that of all the
crime writers influenced by James Ellroy,
Don Winslow is the only one who took
what Ellroy did and advanced it.

This is Don Winslow, who stepped
in when the person choosing who
got to ask questions of Winslow
after his onstage interview repeatedly
ignored my raised hand. Winslow,
a prince of a man and a hell of a
writer, said. "There's a fellow down
here who's been trying to ask a
question for a while," and then gave
a long, thoughtful, and wide-ranging
answer to my question about how
he transmutes his meticulous
research into convincing fiction. 

© Peter Rozovsky 2018

Martina Cole with your humble blogkeeper. Her novel
"Get Even" is "a soap opera in the best sense, full of
incident and with empathy for its violent characters,
and taking the tribulations of those characters
seriously. The narrator of the audiobook was
well-chosen, too. I’m guessing her accent is
East London, but not campy or overdone
in the least. It’s good stuff."
(Photo by Ali Karim)

Somber Steve Cavanagh, whose
novel "Thirteen" is brilliantly
executed and excellent fun.

Vic Watson, who kindly invited me
to be a part of Noir at the Bar
Harrogate, where I talked about the
event's history since I staged the
first one in 2008, read a story of
my own, and got a beer spilled
me, which I did not mind, because
the day was hot.