Half-term has come around, and it couldn’t have got off to a better start that the third Death In The Dales festival. Located in Sedbergh, England’s Book Town, it’s a three day event bringing together creators of all sorts of crime fiction to celebrate the genre in all its forms.
Friday night kicked off with Noir At The Bar. Matthew Booth introduced Detour from 1945, the story of Al who makes some unwise choices as he crosses the US from New York to LA to meet up with his fiancée. I really enjoyed this, and Matthew’s insight into the oddities in the narrative made a lot of sense and added to the film immensely.
Next morning, after a trip to the motorway services and back – I wasn’t sure I could get to the Friday evening do, so couldn’t book a room in Sedbergh – the various panels kicked off. I’m not going to go through the panels one by one – partly because I didn’t take a notebook – but if you want an individual breakdown, take a look at the photos at the bottom of the post. Sorry some are a bit out of focus…
Death In The Dales, organised by Jean C Briggs, author of a series of Charles Dickens mysteries, is up there with Bodies From The Library, as one of my favourite events. Because it has a relatively small scale, it’s a very friendly affair. The authors don’t rush off after their panels, most hanging around for the whole weekend, and are all very approachable. I had the chance to catch up with a number of them who I’ve know for a number of years – Kate Ellis, Martin Edwards, Anthony Johnston, Dolores Gordon-Smith – and to talk to authors who I’ve only met the once or only over the internet = Matthew Booth, Marsali Taylor, Tom Mead and Victoria Dowd. I also got to meet some authors for the first time, like Fiona Veitch Smith and Priscilla Masters – many thanks to Priscilla for the free book! And apologies if I’ve missed anyone out.
The panels vary between discussions on loose themes, individual presentations and a bit of entertainment. One of the highlights was Martin Edward’s murder mystery play, Murder At Monksdale Manor, where a team of Dolores, Tom, myself and Robin the dog, solved the crime – credit to Tom for spotting the crucial bit. So my school can look forward to a copy of Martin’s latest book, Miss Winter In The Library With A Knife, which Martin kindly dedicated to the school. Dolores’ talk on her local murder, the unsolved Gorse Hall Murder, was fascinating too, even if it seems pretty obvious who the killer was…
I’d strongly recommend this conference next year. It is hands-down the most friendly book conference that I’ve been to, and while it can be a bit difficult to get to, it’s definitely worth it. I’ll certainly be heading back next year.
And now here it is in pictures:
