It isn’t often that you have the opportunity to see so many wonderful authors at a one-off event outside London so it was quite something when fourteen – yes, fourteen! – are going to turn up practically on your doorstep! Coming in from so many countries it allowed us to see the richness of literature across the UK, Europe and Iceland.
Here they are…..
The quality of my photo’s aren’t great, just a few snaps, but I hope they give a flavour of the evening!
Lilja Sigurdardottir (Snare, Trap)
I had seen Lilja, who hails from Iceland and most definitely is it’s ‘Princess of noir’, at Bloody Scotland last year but it was lovely to have an opportunity to chat and get her to sign a(nother) copy of Trap for me, even though I already have both Trap and Snare. Isn’t that a funky stamp 💀 and what a lovely lady Lilja is. It’s just wonderful that the film rights for the series have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California.
Michael Malone (A Suitable Lie, House of Spines, After He Died)
You can’t see him – well maybe just a glimpse of his glasses if you look really closely in the picture above – but he’s definitely there! Michael comes from Scotland – he does all his own translations don’t you know (with thanks to Matt Wesolowski for the translation*) ha, ha! Here’s a glimpse of what he actually looks like.
Will Carver (Good Samaritans)
Will’s reading, description and chat about The Good Samaritans had the audience chuckling, well guffawing, away and continued the wonderfully humorous and relaxed atmosphere.
Johana Gustawsson (Block 46, Keeper)
Just peeking in on the left Johana, who is French but now lives in London, was just lovely to chat to and kindly signed her book for me. Another of these terrific authors to have a TV adaptation currently underway in a French, Swedish and UK co-production.
Simone Buchholz (Blue Night, Beton Rouge)
Simone (sitting next to Johana) comes from Germany and writes the terrific Chastity Riley series. I was delighted to be able to tell her how much I enjoyed her book. Really folks do get yourselves a copy of one or other or maybe both.
Kjell Ola Dahl (Faithless, The Ice Swimmer, The Courier)
I’ll be on Kjell’s Blog Tour for The Courier so *no spoilers here* …. but really I’ve heard it’s…. No, you’ll just have to wait!
Antti Tuomainen (The Mine, The Man Who Died, Palm Beach Finland )
The recently published Palm Beach, Finland has been a massive critical success, with Marcel Berlins of The Times calling Antti ‘the funniest writer in Europe’ and listening to his quips through the evening and his reading you can see why.
Thomas Enger (Cursed, Killed, Inborn)
It was fascinating to hear Thomas talk about writing a story which is for both YA and Adults. He is known for the best-selling Henning Juul series.
Louise Voss (The Old You)
Another lovely chat and book signing Louise (below on the left) has eleven published books to her name and it was a pleasure to meet her and get a copy of The Old You signed – this one’s for a gift.
Steph Broadribb (Deep Down Dead, Deep Blue Trouble, Deep Dirty Truth)
We heard how Steph, (seen here in the middle) known to many as the crimethrillergirl, actually trained as a bounty hunter over in the US in order to write authentically her main character Lori Anderson – now there’s commitment for you!
Helen FitzGerald (The Cry, Worst Case Scenario)
Many of you will know Helen (on the right in the photo above) from The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was made into the much talked about 2018 BBC TV series. I was thrilled to attend the Bloody Scotland event last year and go to the packed out and fascinating The Cry session. Helen, an Australian now living in Edinburgh, has a new book Worst Case Scenario out soon.
Louise Beech (How To Be Brave, The Mountain in My Shoe, The Lion Tamer Who Lost, Call Me Star Girl)
Louise multi-talented – author, playwright and front-of-house theatre usher, what can I say? I have The Lion Tamer Who Lost (shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019) on my TBR list and have heard only good things about it – I will get to it *soon*, honest!
Matt Wesolowski (Six Stories, Hydra, Changeling)
Can you describe a scary writer as endearing? Well if you can then Matt Wesolowski is the one. What an absolutely charming fellow he is! A sharp wit:
*Michael Malone (in a fairly strong Scottish accent) “I translate all my own work” quick as you like Matt (slowly, very pronounced) “Michael tran-s-lates aaaall his own work” Much appreciated by the audience and fellow authors, ha, ha!
He also has a unique way of reading (tap, tap; tap, tap) to conjure up the required atmosphere. I was so tempted to buy Changeling it sounds so good but maybe a bit too scary for me! Then again you never know.
Well there we are a lovely evening was had by all, well by me and several others that I chatted to. It was so good to finally meet Jill (@JillsBookCafe ) a fellow blogger whose blog is well worth a look.
David Ross (Welcome to the Heady Heights)
Sadly David was ill, hope he soon recovered, and could not attend.
Translators
Just a quick shout out, this was spoken about on the evening, to the tremendous folk who translated many of the above books – without you we in the UK would not be able to read those books and wouldn’t that be a great loss for us? This is also true of translation of the above books originally written in English into other languages. Information about them can be found on Orenda’s site.
Finally
The evening was brought to Manchester by Karen and the team at Orenda Books with Waterstones (Manchester Deansgate) and a fine time it was, thanks folks.
