2021 Digital Festival

#gwylcrimecymru21

 

The Digital Festival was live from 26th April to 3rd May 2021.

Links to recordings can be found below.

Crime Cymru are grateful for the generous sponsorship of

Aberystwyth town council.

 

 

all events are partnered by local bookshops. Should you be inspired To purchase a book by one of our APPEARING GUESTS, please use provided safe links to BUY on-line.

digital festival production

Crime Cymru Digidol 21 is produced by HAKA  Entertainment of Aberystwyth.

https://hakaentertainment.co.uk/about/

Event 1. Monday 26th April, 6pm – HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CRIME?

Our launch event. Crime Cymru associate member, Amy Williams interviews CWA Diamond Dagger winner, Martin Edwards, award-winning Swansea author, Cathy Ace and up-and-coming Crime Cymru talent, Gail Williams about their very different approaches to crime fiction.

 

 

Partner bookshop. Cover to Cover, Mumbles. https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/cover-to-cover

cathy ace

Cathy Ace was born and raised in Swansea. Now a Canadian citizen, she digs deep into her roots by creating a cast of characters from all four corners of the United Kingdom

Cathy’s short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies. Two of her works, “Dear George” and “Domestic Violence”, were produced by Jarvis & Ayres Productions as “Afternoon Reading” broadcasts for BBC Radio 4.

Cathy won the 2015 Bony Blithe Award for Best Canadian Light Mystery, and was shortlisted again in 2017 and 2018. Her first novel of psychological suspense, ‘The Wrong Boy,’ became an Amazon #1 bestseller shortly after its launch, won the IPPY AWARD Bronze Medal for Best Regional E-Book (All Fiction) in the 2018/2019 competition and was a finalist in the International Book Awards (IBA AWARDS) 2019 in the Suspense/Mystery category.

Cathy was Chair of Crime Writers of Canada from 2016-2018, and is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Crime Writers Association (UK), Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and, of course, Crime Cymru.

http://www.cathyace.com/

G B williams

G B Williams is from Swansea and is one of Crime Cymru’s up and coming talents. Born in Kent, she moved to South Wales as a supposedly first step on a year around the world. She met a Welshman, kissed him, and said goodbye to the travel. She got engaged in Ireland, married in medieval costume and honeymooned in a tent moving around Scotland.  After that, she obtained a degree in Business Administration, a course she began when she was eight months pregnant with her son and which ended when six months pregnant with her daughter.

A member of Sawnsea Writers Circle, Gail is the author of five book, the most recent of which, The Chair, is published by Black Bee books.

Be sure to ask Gail about her other love – Steampunk. Before turning her mind to crime writing, Gail was one of the genre’s most popular authors.

www.gailbwilliams.co.uk/ 

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards is the latest recipient of the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in UK crime writing.

He is the author of twenty novels, most recently Mortmain Hall and Gallows Court. He also conceived and edited Howdunit, a recently published masterclass in crime writing by members of the Detection Club ranging from Ian Rankin to John Le Carre.

He has received the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating and Poirot awards, two Macavity awards, the CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Prize, the CWA Short Story Dagger, and the CWA Dagger in the Library.

He has twice been nominated for CWA Gold Daggers and once for the Historical Dagger; he has also been shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize for best crime novel of the year for The Coffin Trail.

http://martinedwardsbooks.com/ 

 

Event 2. Monday 26th April, 8pm -THE PEMBROKESHIRE MURDERS

The Pembrokeshire Murders

Join Andrea Byrne from ITV for the inside track on the story behind the arrest of Wales’ most famous serial killers.

In 2006, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins, decided to reopen two cold murder cases, employing pioneering forensic methods. The team he put together found microscopic DNA and fibres that potentially linked the murders to a string of burglaries and a suspect.

The Pembrokeshire Murders by Steve Wilkins and Jonathan Hill can be purchased through our partner bookshop, Awen Meiron of Bala. https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/awenmeirion

Andrea Byrne

Andrea Byrne is a broadcast journalist and newsreader, currently employed by ITN and ITV Wales. She can be seen during the week on Wales Tonight, as well as ITV News. Like many journalists, Andrea began her career at a local radio station. She has worked at many including ITV Meridian, ITV Thames Valley and County Sound Radio. Andrea is married to Wales rugby legend, Lee Byrne.

Steve Wilkins and jonathan hill

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Wilkins moved to Pembrokeshire from the North West when aged 17 and worked locally in the area before joining Cheshire Police in 1980. He transferred to Dyfed-Powys Police in 1992 and has extensive experience in CID with 30 years of his 33 years service spent as a Detective.

Steve was seconded to the National Criminal Intelligence Service as Head of Region for the North West of England and prior to returning to Wales he was the head of intelligence for the UK. Wilkins returned to Dyfed-Powys Police as a Detective Superintendent to work as Senior Investigation Officer on numerous cases. He has also worked closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office trying to secure justice for the family of Kirsty Jones who was murdered in Thailand in 2000.

Jonathan Hill is a Welsh television presenter, journalist and producer, who currently presents ‘Wales at Six’ on ITV Cymru Wales. He is also the editor of the station’s English language output.

Jonathan studied English at Swansea University before specialising in journalism. He is one of the main presenters of Wales Tonight, and has since been the senior anchor for the station’s main regional news programmes, including HTV News and ITV Wales News. He has also presented and produced documentary programmes for ITV Wales, including the popular series Crime Secrets and Helicops.

 

 

 

Event 3. Tuesday 27th April, 6pm – FROM CRIME WRITER TO PUBLISHER

Join creative writing teacher and author Carol Westron in conversation with the team from Diamond Crime (www.diamondbooks.co.uk) – a new imprint providing a platform for writers and a home for readers of crime fiction  – as we learn what it takes to make those brave steps from Crime Writer to e-publisher.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Griffin Books of Penarth.  https://www.griffinbooksonline.co.uk/

CAROL WESTRON

Carol  started her professional writing career with short stories for Woman’s Weekly, but her editor wasn’t keen on her killing off her characters and now she writes contemporary crime novels and Victorian Murder Mysteries, all set in the south of England. Some years ago, the editor of Mystery People asked Carol to write a few articles about authors such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, ‘a few’ turned into one a month for seven years, and, almost by accident, Carol turned into an expert on the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, which has led to her giving papers at some very exciting conferences. She is also a creative writing teacher, an editor, a reviewer for Mystery People, a member of the SWWJ, and part of the Deadly Dames crime fiction panel.

http://carolwestron.com/ 

PHIL ROWLANDS

After many years as an actor in film and television Phil moved into writing and producing feature films, series and single dramas for TV and radio, documentary and animation.

In 2017 he published his first novel and has just completed his third – all standalone crime thrillers.

Originally from Pembrokeshire, Phil now lives near Cardiff. He is a member of Crime Cymru.

http://philrowlandswriter.com/ 

 

jeff dowson

Jeff’s three act career in arts and entertainment began as a theatre director and playwright.

This morphed into work with regional Arts Associations, story writing and associated bits of journalism, before his migration to television, drama and documentaries.

And 2014 saw the third act open as a crime novelist, with his Jack Shepherd thriller series; to be followed by another series and a new hero, Ed Grover.

 https://www.jeffdowson.co.uk/ 

 

steve timmins

Brought up on an eclectic diet of historical romance and crime novels Stephen had always wanted to write thrillers and mysteries.

Diverted after graduation into the media rat race, it was many years before he started to feel that he had both the experience and the slowly developing ability to write full time.

Six novels later he is proud to have joined Diamond Books with The Fortieth Step, the first of his 21st century update of the Richard Hannay novels.

http://stephentimmins.com/ 

 

 

 

Event 4. Tuesday 27th April, 8pm -it’s personal: when character becomes plot

Join Crime Cymru founder and Co-chair, Alis Hawkins, in conversation with Emma Kavanagh, Mari Hannah and Alison Layland.

 

Our partner bookshp for this event is Chepstow Bookshop https://chepstowbooks.co.uk/

Alis Hawkins

 

Short-listed for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2020, Crime Cymru founder-member, Alis grew up on a dairy farm in Cardiganshire. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd but three years reading English at Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience which sent her off to train as a Speech and Language Therapist.

She has spent the subsequent three decades variously working in a burger restaurant, bringing up two sons, working with homeless people and helping teachers and families to understand their autistic children. Initially fascinated by the medieval period, she began her crime and mystery career at Pan Macmillan with a historical novel set during the fourteenth century then fast-forwarded to West Wales in the nineteenth century to fulfill a long-held desire to write a book based on Wales’s best kept historical secret: the Rebecca Riots. But she fell in love – both with nineteenth century west Wales and her characters – and the result is the Teifi Valley Coroner crime series featuring visually impaired investigator, Harry Probert-Lloyd, and his chippy assistant, John Davies.

As a side-effect of setting her series in Ceredigion, instead of making research trips to sunny climes like more foresighted writers, she drives up the M4 to see her family. Alis lives with her partner on the Welsh/English border, speaks Welsh, collects rucksacks and can’t resist an interesting fact.

Fun fact: In 1977, Alis was the winner of the under 16s stock-judging competition at the Cardiganshire Federation of Young Farmers Rally. She loves cows…

https://alishawkins.co.uk/ 

 

emma kavanagh

 Emma Kavanagh was born in Wales in 1978 and currently lives in South Wales with her husband and two young sons. She trained as a psychologist and, after leaving university, started her own business as a psychology consultant, specialising in human performance in extreme situations. For seven years she provided training and consultation for police forces and NATO and military personnel throughout the UK and Europe. For more information, tweet Emma @EmmaLK

https://emmakavanagh.com/home/ 

 

Mari hannah

Multi-award winning Mari Hannah is the author of the Kate Daniels series of police procedurals, the Ryan and O’Neil crime series and the Stone and Oliver series. She lives in a small Northumberland village with her partner, a former murder detective.

Her career as a Probation Officer was cut short following an assault on duty. It was then that the idea that she might one day become a writer began to form in her head. She first pitched her idea for a crime series to the BBC, winning a place on their North East Voices Drama Development Scheme. When it ended, she adapted the screenplay of The Murder Wall into a book she had started years before but somehow never finished.

In 2010, she won the Northern Writers’ Award for Settled Blood before she had found an agent, let alone a publisher. Three years later, she won the Polari First Book Prize for her debut, The Murder Wall. Fast forward a few years and her body of work won her the CWA Dagger in the Library 2017.

In 2019 Mari was honoured to follow Lee Child as Programming Chair for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the biggest of its type in the world. Also in 2019, she was awarded DIVA Wordsmith of the Year. In 2020 Without A Trace was awarded Capital Crime’s Crime Book of the Year.

Her Kate Daniels series is in development for TV with Sprout Pictures, a production company owned by Gina Carter and Stephen Fry.

https://www.marihannah.com/

alison layland

Crime Cymru member and festival website translator, Alison Layland is a writer and translator, and has told herself stories for as long as she can remember, though she first started writing them down for others to share when she moved to Wales in 1997 and a Welsh language course led the way to creative writing classes. She won the short story competition at the National Eisteddfod in 2002.

Alison studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge University, and after a brief spell as a taxi driver worked for several years as a Chartered Surveyor before returning to her first love – languages. Translating German, French and Welsh, her published translations include a number of award-winning and best-selling novels.

She is the author of two novels, Someone Else’s Conflict, featured as a Debut of the Month on the LoveReading website, and eco-themed psychological thriller Riverflow, chosen as Waterstones’ Wales Book of the Month in August 2019; both are published by Honno Press.

More about Alison at: https://www.alayland.uk/ 

 

Event 5. Wednesday 28th April at 6pm – adapting the works and characters of Jane Austen for crime fiction.

 

A wonderful opportunity for both readers and writers. Crime Cymru Associate member, Amy Williams, talks to debut author Annette Purdey Pugh and best-selling historical fiction author Lindsay Ashford about ‘A murder at Rosings’, published by Honno in June this year.

 Our partner bookshop for this event is Gwisgo Bookworm, Aberaeron https://www.gwisgobookworm.co.uk/

 

Amy Williams

Amy describes herself as Welsh and closer to thirty than she’d like to admit.

A devourer of books, both fiction and non-fiction. Reviewer and all-round book pusher. Literary event chair and Crime Cymru Associate. Most importantly, a tattooed rocker!

https://tomeswithtea.com 

Annette Purdy Pugh

Annette Purdey Pugh grew up in Flintshire and graduated in English from Lancaster University. In a varied career, she has worked as a medical librarian, an optical assistant, and a milkwoman, bottling and delivering milk for almost twenty years to customers in Ceredigion. A writer from childhood, she has won awards for her short stories and poetry at the National Eisteddfod of Wales but was inspired to take up her pen more regularly following an Open University course in Creative Writing. A Murder at Rosings is her first novel, and has its roots in a lifelong love of Jane Austen. She lives on the family farm in West Wales with her husband and three hundred sheep.

 

Lindsay Jane Ashford

Raised in Wolverhampton, UK, Lindsay Jayne Ashford became the first woman to graduate from Queens’ College, Cambridge in its 550 year history. She gained a degree in Criminology and was employed as a reporter for the BBC before becoming a freelance journalist, writing for a number of national magazines and newspapers.

 Lindsay began her career as a novelist with a contemporary crime series featuring forensic psychologist Megan Rhys. She moved into the historical genre with ‘The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen’, and her most recent books, ‘The Color of Secrets’, ‘The Woman on the Orient Express’, ‘Whisper of the Moon Moth’, ‘The Snow Gypsy’ and ‘The House at Mermaid’s Cove’ blend real events with fiction and are set in the first half of the twentieth century.

 She has four children and divides her time between a house overlooking the sea on the west coast of Wales and a small farmhouse in Spain’s Sierra de Los Filabres. When she is not writing she enjoys kayaking, body-boarding and walking her dogs,

 

 

Event 6. Wednesday 28th April, 8pm –

Debuts, daggers and diplomats.

 

Join Crime Cymru author Philip Gwynne Jones as he chats with bestselling, multi-award winner, Abir Mukherjee, debut author Louise Mumford and CWA New Blood Dagger winner Trevor Wood.

 

Our partner bookshop for this event is Chepstow Books https://chepstowbooks.co.uk/

 

 

Philip Gwynne Jones

Crime Cymru member Philip Gwynne Jones was born in Swansea, and spent twenty years in the IT industry before realising he was congenitally unsuited to it. He now works as a writer, teacher and translator, and lives in Venice with his wife Caroline and a modestly friendly cat called Mimi.

His first novel, The Venetian Game, was Waterstones Thriller of the Month and a Times Top 5 bestseller.  The Venetian Legacy, the fifth in the series about Honorary Consul and occasional crimefighter Nathan Sutherland, will be released in April 2021.

https://philipgwynnejones.com

louise mumford

Louise Mumford was born and lives in South Wales. From a young age she loved books and dancing, but hated having to go to sleep, convinced that she might miss out on something interesting happening in the world whilst she dozed – much to her mother’s frustration! Insomnia has been a part of her life ever since.

Louise studied English Literature at university and graduated with first class honours. In the summer of 2019 Louise experienced a once-in-a-lifetime moment: she was discovered as a new writer by her publisher at the Primadonna Festival. Louise spends her time trying to get down on paper all the marvellous and frightening things that happen in her head. Her debut thriller, SLEEPLESS, was published by HQ on 11th Dec 2020.

https://www.louisemumfordauthor.com/ 

Abir Mukherjee

Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the award-winning Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in Raj-era India. He is a two-time winner of the CWA Historical Dagger and has won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing. His books have also been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the HWA Gold Crown. His novels, A Rising Man and Smoke and Ashes were both selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Smoke and Ashes was also chosen as one of The Times’ Best Crime and Thriller novels since 1945. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in Surrey with his wife and two sons.

https://abirmukherjee.com/ 

trevor wood

Trevor Wood has lived in Newcastle for twenty-five years and considers himself an adopted Geordie. He’s a successful playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for sixteen years.

Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA. The Man on the Street, his first novel, was published by Quercus to widespread critical acclaim and won the 2020 CWA New Blood Dagger. His second novel, One Way Street is out now.

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Crime Cymru Digwyddiad 7. Myfanwy Alexander mewn sgwrs â Gareth W Williams a Gwen Parrott

Crime Cymru Event 7. Myfanwy Alexander in conversation with Gareth W Williams and Gwen Parrott. This is a welsh language event.

Thursday 29th April at 7pm.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Penrallt Gallery Booksop, Machynlleth https://www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk/contact

myfanwy alexander

Magwyd yr awdur a’r darlledwr Myfanwy Alexander ym mryniau Sir Drefaldwyn: mae tirwedd, diwylliant a phobl yr ardal unigryw hon yn ysbrydoliaeth gyson.

 

Yn 2015, cyhoeddodd Myfanwy y gyntaf o’i nofelau trosedd, ‘A Oes Heddwas’, gan gyflwyno ei ditectif Arolygydd Daf Dafis, sy’n dychwelyd yn ‘Pwnc Llosg,’ ‘Y Plygain Olaf,’ a ‘Mynd Fel Bom.’ Y ddwy gyntaf yw ar gael yn Saesneg: ‘Bloody Eisteddfod’ a ‘Burning Issue.’ Mae Daf Dafis yn angerddol am gadw’r heddwch yn ei filltir sgwâr ond mae ei fywyd bob amser yn gymhleth.

Ym mis Awst 2020, addasodd Myfanwy ‘Bloody Eisteddfod’ ar gyfer drama a gafodd glod beirniadol ar Radio 4 a Radio Cymru: ‘… roedd y tywyllwch yn flasus’ – Daily Telegraph.

 Writer and broadcaster Myfanwy Alexander grew up in the hills of Montgomeryshire: the landscape, culture and people of this unique area are a constant inspiration. 

In 2015, Myfanwy published the first of her crime novels, ‘A Oes Heddwas’, introducing her detective Inspector Daf Dafis, who returns in ‘Pwnc Llosg,’ ‘Y Plygain Olaf,’ and ‘Mynd Fel Bom.’ The first two are available in English: ‘Bloody Eisteddfod’ and ‘Burning Issue.’ Daf Dafis is passionate about keeping the peace in his square mile but his life is always complicated.

In August 2020, Myfanwy adapted ‘Bloody Eisteddfod’ for a critically acclaimed drama on Radio 4 and Radio Cymru: ‘… the darkness was delicious’ – Daily Telegraph.

Gareth w williams

Daw Gareth W. Williams o’r Rhyl yn wreiddiol, ond mae’n byw yn Nelson, Caerffili, ers blynyddoedd bellach. Ei ddiddordebau ydy pysgota, canu’r gitâr, ac ysgrifennu pan ddaw’r cyfle a’r syniad. Mae wedi gweithio ym maes addysg ar hyd ei oes.

Gareth W. Williams is originally from Rhyl, but has been living in Nelson, Caerphilly, for many years. His hobbies are fishing, playing guitar, and writing when the opportunity comes and the idea. He has worked in education all his life.

 https://www.gomer.co.uk/garethwwilliams.html

gwen parrott

Ganwyd a magwyd Gwen yn Sir Benfro, ym Mwlchygroes ac Abergwaun, lle’r oedd ei thad yn bennaeth y ddwy ysgol gynradd yn eu tro. Ers blynyddoedd maith bellach, bu’n byw ym Mryste, y briod i feddyg teulu ac yn fam i ddau o feibion. Er gwaethaf byw’r ochr anghywir i Bont Hafren, bu’n gweithio’n gyson trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg, fel rheolwraig cyfieithu, cyfieithydd llawrydd ac awdur. Mae ei gyrfa fel cyfieithydd yn golygu taw hi sy’n cyfieithu ei nofelau ei hun.

Mae ei phrofiad awdurol yn cynnwys sgriptio ar gyfer y theatr (Theatr Felinfach), y radio (llunio a sgriptio dwy gyfres ar y cyd o ‘Ponty’, Radio Cymru) a theledu, ac erbyn hyn mae hi wedi cyhoeddi nifer o nofelau yn Gymraeg a Saesneg. Nofelau trosedd yw ei phrif ddiddordeb, ac yn wir, hyd yn oed wrth lunio sgriptiau radio roedd yn ei chael yn anodd i beidio â chynnwys corff a dirgelwch yn rhywle!

Mae’n ysgrifennu dwy gyfres o nofelau trosedd: cyfres hanesyddol wedi’i gosod ym 1947, gyda’r athrawes gynradd Della Arthur fel prif gymeriad, a chyfres gyfoes, wedi’i lleoli yn nhref ffuglennol Maeseifion yn Sir Benfro. Mae creu dwy gyfres gwbl wahanol yn ei chaniatáu i gael hoe o un trwy fynd i’r afael â’r llall, ac osgoi diflasu arnynt. Gan ei bod yn darllen nofelau trosedd yn ddibaid, mae’n amau bod syrffedi ar gymeriadau yn un o’r prif beryglon i nofelwyr cyfresi.

Ei nofel ddiweddaraf o ran ei chyhoeddi yw Dead White, sef cyfieithiaid o Gwyn eu Byd (Gomer).

 Gwen was born and raised in Pembrokeshire, in Bwlchygroes and Fishguard, where her father was headteacher of both primary schools in turn. For many years now she’s lived in Bristol, married to a GP and the mother of two sons. Although she lives on the wrong side of the Severn Bridge (!), she has been able to work consistently in both Welsh and English, as a translation manager, a freelance translator and an author. Her career as a translator has enabled her to translate her own novels.

Her writing experience includes scripting for theatre (Theatr Felinfach), radio (joint-storylining and scripting two series of ‘Ponty’, Radio Cymru) and television, and by now she has published a number of novels in English and Welsh. Her main interest is crime novels, and to be truthful, even when writing radio scripts she found it difficult not to include a corpse and a mystery somewhere!

She writes two series of crime novels: a historical series set around 1947, with a primary school teacher, Della Arthur, as the protagonist, and a contemporary series, set in the fictional town of Maeseifion in Pembrokeshire. Creating two completely different series allows her to take a rest from one by tackling the other, thus avoiding getting stale. As she reads crime novels incessantly, she suspects that tiring of one’s characters is one of the great pitfalls for series writers.

Her latest published novel is Dead White, which is a translation of Gwyn eu Byd (Gomer).

 https://www.gomer.co.uk/authors/gwenparrott.html

Event 8. Friday 30th April, 6pm – Meet the Crime Cymru authors.

A very special opportunity to meet and listen to some of Wales’ up and coming talent.

A noir-at-the-bar type event. Charge your glasses, pull up a chair and listen-in while authors (perhaps not familiar to you) tell you about their writing and read a little extract for you.

Each author will be limited to just a one-minute pitch and a two to three minute read. No pressure.

You will meet Louise Mullins, Kath Stansfield, Mark Lowes, Leslie Scase, Liz Ripley Hayes, G B Williams, Louise Mumford, Cathy Ace and Philip Gwynne Jones.

This will be an intimate ZOOM event where you can join in and ask questions of our authors. We look forward to having you join us.

 

 

Event 9. Friday 30th April at 8pm.

Keeping Faith – THE MAKING OF AN INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON

With Series 3 of this immensely popular series now on TV, Crime Cymru festival organiser Nellie Williams is joined by writer Matthew Hall and actor Alex Harries.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Cover to Cover, Mumbles https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/cover-to-cover

 

matthew hall

Matthew Hall lives on the border of England and Wales where he spent much of his childhood and most of his adult life. 

Matthew was educated at Hereford Cathedral School and Worcester College, Oxford from where he graduated in law. After several years in practice as a barrister in London he began his writing career with episodes of the hit ITV show, Kavanagh QC, starring John Thaw. His first original series, Wing and a Prayer, was nominated for a BAFTA in the best series category. In a screenwriting career spanning more than 20 years he has written over 60 hours of prime-time UK drama winning several awards including a BAFTA Cymru in 2018 for Keeping Faith. 

His debut novel, The Coroner, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger in 2009 as was his fourth novel, The Flight, in 2012. 

His two main passions outside writing are the conservation of the countryside and amateur boxing. He has two young adult sons and is married to journalist and former lawyer, Patricia Carswell.

https://www.matthewhallbooks.com/ 

Alex Harries

Alex, who plays Faith’s loyal friend Arthur, in Keeping Faith has also appeared in Hinterland and Torchwood.

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Event 10. Saturday 1st May, 1pm – Why look back?

Historical Crime Fiction

Crime Cymru Founder member Kath Stansfield is joined by two of the Historical Crime Fiction Genre’s greatest exponents, S G MacLean and Elly Griffiths.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Browsers, Porthmadog https://browsersbook.shop/ 

 

katherine stansfield

A founder member of Crime Cymru, Katherine Stansfield is a multi-genre novelist and poet. She grew up on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall and now lives in Cardiff. She is the author of four novels and several collections of poetry. Her latest novel is The Mermaid’s Call, which is set in Cornwall and is available now with Allison & Busby. It has been described as an atmospheric, enthralling crime mystery.

Katherine’s poetry is published by Seren. Her new collection is We Could Be Anywhere by Now which was awarded a Writer’s Bursary from Literature Wales.

Alongside her independent writing projects, Katherine co-writes with her partner David Towsey under the partnership name DK Fields. Head of Zeus publish DK Fields’ political fantasy trilogy The Tales of Fenest. She teaches for the Open University and the School of Continuing and Professional Education at Cardiff University. She works as a mentor for Literature Wales, a Writing Fellow at the University of South Wales, and has been a Royal Literary Fund fellow.

 

s g maclean

British readers are fascinated by the Tudors and the brief protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. This was a time beset by spies, royalists, assassins and traitors. Shona MacLean’s background is in historical research – she  has a PhD in C17th Scottish educational history – which, when combined with an exceptional talent for writing historical crime fiction has resulted in a series of books that have been longlisted for the Desmond Elliott award and the CWA Dagger in the Library, shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award, and won the CWA Historical Dagger twice.

MacLean is the niece of Alistair MacLean (The Guns of Navarone, The Satan Bug, HMS Ulysses, Where Eagles Dare). Her latest book, The Bear Pit (2019) is described as a richly coloured thriller reflecting a deep understanding of the past.

https://twitter.com/sgmacleanauthor?lang=en

elly griffiths

Elly Griffiths was born in London in 1963. Her family moved to Brighton when she was five. She wrote her first book when she was 11, a murder mystery set in Rottingdean, near the village where she still lives. Elly read English at King’s College, London and, after graduating, worked in a library, for a magazine, and then as a publicity assistant at HarperCollins where she eventually became Editorial Director for children’s books. All this completely put her off writing and it wasn’t until she was on maternity leave in 1998 that she wrote what would become her first published novel.

Several years later, Elly was on holiday in Norfolk, walking across Titchwell Marsh, when her husband mentioned that prehistoric man had thought that marshland was sacred because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, they saw it as a kind of bridge to the afterlife. Neither land nor sea, neither life nor death. As he said these words the entire plot of The Crossing Places appeared, full formed, in her head and, walking towards me out of the mist, she saw Dr Ruth Galloway, her lead character.

Elly Griffiths is said to have perfected the formula that combines an intriguing mystery with emotional conflict. Her 13th novel in the Ruth Galloway series, The Night Hawks, was published on 4th February.

Welcome | Elly Griffiths 

 

Event 11. Saturday 1st May 4pm.

 

The plot’s the thing!

Join Crime Cymru  member Mark Ellis in conversation with Vaseem Khan, Sam Blake and R G Adams.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Penrallt Gallery Bookshop, Machynlleth https://www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk/contact 

 

Mark Ellis

Mark is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur.

He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London. His books treat the reader to a vivid portrait of London during the war skilfully blended with gripping plots, political intrigue and a charismatic protagonist.

Mark grew up under the shadow of his parents’ experience of the Second World War. His father served in the wartime navy and died a young man. His mother told him stories of watching the heavy bombardment of Swansea from the safe vantage point of a hill in Llanelli, and of attending tea dances in wartime London under the bombs and doodlebugs.

In consequence Mark has always been fascinated by WW2 and in particular the Home Front and the fact that while the nation was engaged in a heroic endeavour, crime flourished. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife and the Blitz provided scope for widespread looting.

This was an intriguing, harsh and cruel world. This is the world of DCI Frank Merlin.

DCI Frank Merlin appears in four novels: ‘Princes Gate’, ‘Stalin’s Gold’, ‘Merlin at War’ and ‘A Death In Mayfair’. The fifth in the Frank Merlin series will be published by Headline Accent and Audible in 2021

Mark Ellis is a member of the Crime Writers Association. ‘Merlin At War’ was longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018.

More about Mark at www.markellisauthor.com.

vaseem khan

Vaseem Khan is the author of two crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series, and the Malabar House historical crime novels. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller, now translated into 15 languages, and introduced Inspector Chopra of the Mumbai police and his sidekick, a one-year-old baby elephant. The second in the series won a Shamus Award in America. In 2018, he was awarded the Eastern Eye ACTA (Arts, Culture and Theatre Award) for Literature. Vaseem was born in London, but spent a decade in India as a management consultant. Since 2006 he has worked at University College London’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science. The first book in his new series is Midnight at Malabar House, set in Bombay 1950 and introducing Persis Wadia, India’s first female police detective.

Website: http://vaseemkhan.com

r g adams

RG Adams is a former social worker. She was born in London but has lived in south Wales for most of her adult life, after falling in love with the area while an undergraduate. She lives near the coast with her husband and children.Allegation is RG Adams’ first novel and is set in the fictional Welsh seaside town of Sandbeach. It is the first in a series featuring independent and intrepid social worker Kit Goddard. In Allegation, Kit is charged with handling a case of historical sexual abuse that threatens an influential Sandbeach family.

Unsure whether her interference is a heroic intervention or a hurtful intrusion, Kit knows but one thing: it will have an impact.

Both Allegation and book 2 in the Kit Goddard series have been optioned for TV. 

sam blake

Sam Blake is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland for more years than she lived in the UK. Married to a retired member of An Garda Siochana she has two children, three cats and sole responsibility for a small ant farm while her eldest is in university

Sam is the No 1 bestselling author of the Cat Connolly Garda police trilogy (Bonnier), and standalones Keep Your Eyes on Me and The Dark Room (Corvus Books). Her first novel Little Bones was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year.

Sam Blake is also a character from the imagination of Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, the founder of the award winning writing resources website Writing.ieThe Inkwell Group publishing consultancy and is the founder of Murder One, Ireland’s International Crime Writing Festival.  Vanessa is a board member of the Society of Authors, the UK based trade union that campaigns and lobbies at government level on issues that affect authors. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). She is the convenor of the Irish Chapter of the Crime Writers Association.

She has to hide to get any writing done, but it’s her passion. She has been writing fiction since her husband set sail across the Atlantic for eight weeks and she had an idea for a book.

https://www.samblakebooks.com/ 

Event 12. saturday 1st may 7pm.

PASSING ON THE REACHER BATON – Crime Cymru co-chair, matt johnson, in conversation with lee and andrew child.

 

One of the highlights of this year’s digital festival.

The Sentinel, the latest Jack Reacher thriller, and the first to be written by Lee and Andrew Child, is published in paperback by Penguin on 18th March this year.

The Sentinel was the second bestselling crime/thriller title of 2020.

It was No. 1 on the Sunday Times hardback bestseller for 2 weeks and  remained in the top 10 throughout 2020.

Total world-wide sales of Lee Child’s book are in excess of 100 million  copies.

The Jack Reacher books will soon be a major Amazon Prime TV series.

Lee and Andrew join the festival from their homes in the United States. This may prove to be a fascinating opportunity to learn about the transition process that will soon see Andrew Child take on the Jack Reacher mantle.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Griffin Books in Penarth. Griffin Books are offering event attendees a 20% discount on titles by Lee Child, Andrew Child and Matt Johnson. A discount code for use on their website will be sent out the day before the event.   

https://www.griffinbooksonline.co.uk/

 

Andrew and lee child

LEE CHILD is one of the world’s leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in the USA. It is said one  of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world  every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on  bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies. Lee is the recipient of many awards, most recently Author of the Year  at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen’s  Birthday Honours. 

ANDREW CHILD is the author of nine thrillers written under the name Andrew Grant. He is the younger brother of Lee Child. Born in Birmingham, he lives in Wyoming with his wife, the novelist Tasha Alexander. 

Find out more about Lee Child and Andrew Child and the Jack Reacher books  here – https://www.jackreacher.com/ 

matt johnson

In 2018, after just two years as a published author, Matt Johnson was voted at #22 in the WH Smith list of all-time best crime writers.

Matt Johnson served as a UK soldier and Metropolitan Police officer for nearly twenty-five years. Blown off his feet at the London Baltic Exchange bombing in 1992, one of the first police officers on the scene of the 1982 Regent’s Park bombing, Matt was also at the Libyan People’s Bureau shooting in 1984 where he escorted his mortally wounded friend and colleague, Yvonne Fletcher, to hospital.

Hidden wounds took their toll. In 1999, Matt was discharged from the police with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Whilst undergoing treatment, he was encouraged by his counsellor to write about his career and his experience of murders, shootings and terrorism.

One evening, Matt sat at his computer and started to weave these notes into a work of fiction that he described as having a tremendously cathartic effect on his own condition. He has used his detailed knowledge and memory to create what has been described by many readers as a fast paced, exciting and authentic tale giving a unique insight into the workings of our Security Services, our Military and our Police Service.

A keen biker, Matt rides a ’99 Harley Davidson Fatboy and is patron to the UK based ‘Forces On-line’ charity. He is represented by James Wills at Watson Little Ltd and by Andromeda Talent.

Matt’s first novel was the 2016 John Creasey CWA Dagger listed spy/crime thriller ‘Wicked Game’. The book was listed by Amazon UK as the highest-rated rising-star novel of 2016. Following on from the success of this novel, two further books in the series – Deadly Game and End Game – were released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Matt is working on a 4th novel.

More about Matt at www.mattjohnsonauthor.com or through Twitter @Matt_Johnson_UK.

 

Event 13. sunday 2nd may, 1pm.

series, standalone and beyond…

Legendary interviewer Jacky ‘Dr Noir’ Collins is joined by Peter James (WH Smith reader choice as the best-ever crime writer of all time), Ragnar Jonasson (The Times pick as one the best ever crime writers) and Chris Lloyd (A rising star amongst talented Welsh crime writers)

Our partner bookshop for this event is Great Oak Bookshop, Llanidloes https://greatoakbooks.co.uk/ 

 

peter james

Peter James is a UK No. 1 bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. With a total of 17 Sunday Times No. 1s under his belt, he has achieved global book sales of over 20 million copies to date, and has been translated into 37 languages.

Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career – which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over 40 awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter’s novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.

Peter novels are now published in 37 languages. Four of his stories have been adapted into highly successful stage plays: the novella The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough and The House On Cold Hill, which had its worldwide stage debut in January 2019.

The first episode of Grace, starring John Simm as tenacious Brighton Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, will be screened on ITV on Sun 14 March 2021, 8pm-10pm.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9fyvzjaL-kitImyvqgTIfw

ragnar jonasson

“Is this the best crime writer in the world today?” THE TIMES

Ragnar Jonasson is the award winning author of the international bestselling Dark Iceland series, the Hulda Trilogy and standalone crime fiction. He has been a no. 1 bestseller in Germany, a no. 1 crime fiction bestseller in France and a no. 1 Kindle bestseller in the UK and Australia. In 2020 he became the first Icelandic author ever to have three books in the top ten of the German Spiegel bestseller.

Ragnar has also enjoyed awards across the international crime scene. He won the Mörda Dead Good Reader Award for Nightblind, and The Mist won the Amazon Publishing & Capital Crime Mystery of the Year award in 2020. Snowblind was selected by The Independent as one of the best crime novels of 2015. His books have also won praise from publications such as The Times of London, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Times Literary Supplement.

He has also been shortlisted for Novel of the Year in Sweden, The Barry Award in the US and the Petrona Award. The film rights for The Darkness have also been acquired by Hollywood production company Stampede, led by former President of Warner Bros, Greg Silverman. They have struck a deal with CBS Studios to adapt the novel into an eight-part series.

Ragnar is the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir. From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic. Ragnar has appeared on festival panels worldwide, and lives in Reykjavik. He has a law degree and works as an investment banker in Reykjavik, in addition to teaching law at Reykjavik University.

http://www.ragnarjonasson.com/ 

chris lloyd

Straight after graduating in Spanish and French, Chris Lloyd hopped on a bus from Cardiff to Catalonia and stayed there for over twenty years. He has also lived in Grenoble – researching the French Resistance movement – as well as in the Basque Country and Madrid, where he taught English and worked in educational publishing and as a travel writer. He now lives in South Wales and is a translator and novelist.

The result of his lifelong interest in World War 2 and resistance and collaboration in Occupied France, The Unwanted Dead (Orion) is his first novel set in Paris, featuring Detective Eddie Giral. Chris is also the author of the Elisenda Domènech crime series (Canelo), featuring a police officer with the newly-devolved Catalan police force.

When he’s not writing or trying to keep up with his reading pile, Chris loves travelling, languages, red wine, Wales and Barça at football, Wales at rugby, cryptic crosswords, art, rock music and losing himself in European cities.

Chris is especially proud to be a member of the Welsh crime writing collective Crime Cymru, the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors.

https://chrislloydauthor.com/ 

 

Event 14. sunday 2nd may 4pm.

cRIME SCENERY – CAN SETTING EVER BE A ‘SILENT CHARACTER’?

 

Join legendary interviewer and Newcastle Noir organiser, Dr Jacky Collins as she chats to CWA Dagger shortlisted welsh author Alis Hawkins and international best-selling author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir from Iceland.

Our partner bookhop for this event is Browsers, Porthmadog https://browsersbook.shop/

dr jacky collins

Dr Jacky Collins aka Dr Noir, formerly Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University in Literature, Film & TV and Spanish Language & Culture, is currently based at Stirling University. In 2014 Jacky established the International Crime Fiction Festival that is Newcastle Noir. More recently, she has been venturing into local radio, co-hosting a fortnightly crime fiction programme on SpiceFM, hosting on-line literary events with the Honey & Stag events team, and is part of the Corylus Books team, a new indie publisher of crime fiction in translation: from Romania, Iceland and beyond.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is an award-winning, best-selling crime novelist from Iceland. She began her career writing humorous novels for children but made her crime fiction debut in 2005 with Last Rituals, the first instalment in the Thóra Guðmundsdóttir series. Her novels have been translated to 35 languages and in the UK she is published by Hodder. Her work stands “comparison with the finest contemporary crime writing anywhere in the world” according to the Times Literary Supplement.

In addition to several stand-alone thrillers Yrsa has embarked on a new series featuring policeman Huldar and child psychologist Freyja. The first book in this series is The Legacy, published by Hodder UK in 2017, followed by the second installment The Reckoning in 2018. The Legacy received the Icelandic Crime book of the year award when it came out and went on to win the Danish prize for best translated crime fiction the following year. In 2015 Yrsa received the UK Petrona Award for best Scandinavian crime novel for Silence of the Sea.

Yrsa is also a civil engineer and still works as such on geothermal and hydro power plant projects in her native Iceland.

Follow Yrsa on Twitter: @YrsaSig

alis hawkins

CWA Historical Dagger short-listed author, Alis Hawkins grew up on a dairy farm in Cardiganshire. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd but three years spent reading English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience which saw Alis train as a Speech and Language Therapist. She has spent the subsequent three decades variously bringing up two sons, working with children and young people on the autism spectrum and writing fiction, non-fiction and plays. She writes the kind of books she likes to read: character-driven historical crime and mystery fiction with what might be called literary production values.

As a historical writer, Alis takes her research very seriously which sometimes has unexpected consequences. Research into the techniques of medieval charcoal burning led to a fascination with the craft and she and her partner have now taken on oversight of a team that keeps the earth burn charcoal-producing technique alive in the Forest of Dean.

Series: The Teifi Valley Coroner historical crime series, featuring Harry Probert Lloyd and John Davies, published by Canelo. #1 – None So Blind (2018),#2 – In Two Minds (2019), #3 – Those Who Know (2020)

Alis’s most recent book is The Black and The White, a historical psychological mystery set during the time of the Black Death published by Sapere Books.

More about Alis at www.AlisHawkins.co.uk, on Facebook – Alis Hawkins Author – and on Twitter: @Alis_Hawkins

 

Event 15. sunday 2nd may 7pm.

thriller killer women.

 

Crime Cymru associate member, Amy Willams talks to Clare Mackintosh and B E (Bev) Jones, two authors from Wales who are are the very top of their game.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Book-ish, Crickhowell https://www.book-ish.co.uk/online_shop/ 

 

clare mackintosh

With more than two million copies of her books sold worldwide, number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of I Let You Go, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2016.

Both Clare’s second and third novels, I See You and Let Me Lie, were number one Sunday Times bestsellers. All three of her books were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club. Clare’s latest novel, After the End, was published in June 2019 and spent seven weeks in the Sunday Times hardback bestseller chart.

Clare’s latest thriller, Hostage, will be published in June 2021.

Together, Clare’s books have been published in more than forty countries. Clare is patron of the Silver Star Society, a charity based at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, which supports parents experiencing high-risk or difficult pregnancies. She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

https://uk.claremackintosh.com/ 

 

b e (bev) jones

Beverley Jones is a former journalist and police press officer, now a novelist and general book obsessive.

Bev was born in a small village in the South Wales valleys, north of Cardiff. She started her journalism career with Trinity Mirror newspapers, writing stories for The Rhondda Leader and The Western Mail, before becoming a broadcast journalist with BBC Wales Today TV news, based in Cardiff.

She has worked on all aspects of crime reporting (as well as community news and features) producing stories and content for newspapers and live TV.

Most recently Bev worked as a press officer for South Wales Police, dealing with the media and participating in criminal investigations, security operations and emergency planning.

Perhaps unsurprisingly she channels these experiences of ‘true crime,’ and her insight into the murkier side of human nature, into her dark, psychological thrillers set in and around South Wales.

Her novels Where She Went, Halfway and Wilderness, are published by Little Brown under the name BE Jones.

Chat with Bev on Goodreads.co.uk under B E Jones or Beverley Jones and on Twitter; @bevjoneswriting

Bev is represented by The Ampersand Agency.

 

Event 16. monday 3rd may 1pm.

‘horrible histories’ – gothic crime fiction.

Crime Cymru member, Thorne Moore, is joined by Sarah Ward and E S Thomson, two very popular crime fiction authors to discss – amongst other things – stretching the imagination within the crime genre.

Our partner bookshop for this event is Great Oaks Books, Llanidloes. https://greatoakbooks.co.uk/ 

 

thorne moore

Published by Honno, Thorne Moore grew up in Luton, where her father was a Labour councillor and her mother once got the sack for calling her boss a male chauvinist pig. As a result, Thorne developed strong views about the way the world works.

 Her headmaster advised her to study law but the only career she wanted was as a writer, so she studied history instead, at Aberystwyth, and nine years later, after a spell working in a library, she returned to Wales, to beautiful and inspiring Pembrokeshire, to run a restaurant with her sister. She lives in a Victorian farmhouse built on the site of a mediaeval manor.

Thorne did finally get her law degree, through the Open University, but these days, she writes, as she had always intended, and when she’s not writing, she makes miniature furniture and looks after the accounts of Crime Cymru.

 

Home

 

sarah ward

Sarah Ward is Membership Secretary of the Crime Writers Asssociation and an associate board member of Derby Book Festival. She is also a judge for the Petrona Award for Scandinavian crime novels in translation.

Published by Faber, she is the author of four crime novels,  all set in the Derbyshire Peak District. Her Gothic thriller, The Quickeningpublished using her middle name, Rhiannon Ward, is out now.

In addition to writing, Sarah also teaches crime fiction workshops, provides manuscript critiques and editing services, chairs book events and gives talks to reading groups.

https://crimepieces.com/ 

 

e s thomson

Originally from Lancashire, Elaine Thompson moved to Edinburgh aged eighteen, to study at the university and, having gained her PhD in the Social History of Medicine, never left. Mother to two teenage sons, she now works as a lecturer by day and a writer by night.

Her work has been longlisted for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger, and shortlisted for the Saltire Prize, the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award and the William McIlvanney Crime Book of the Year Award. She tries to fit as much medical history into her books as possible.

http://www.esthomson.co.uk/ 

 

Event 17. monday 3rd may 4pm.

putting on an international crime fiction festival – what could possibly go wrong?

In 2017, Alis Hawkins and Matt Johnson – along with another Welsh crime writer, Rosie Claverton – founded Crime Cymru to try and give Welsh crime writing a bit more visibility. They didn’t imagine that four years and a global pandemic later they would be planning Wales’s first international crime fiction festival!

Celebrated interviewer, Jacky ‘Dr Noir’ Collins talks to Alis  and Matt to discover just what’s involved.

 

Festival co-chair, alis hawkins

Crime Cymru founder-member, Alis  grew up on a dairy farm in Cardiganshire. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd but three years reading English at Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience which sent her off to train as a Speech and Language Therapist.

She has spent the subsequent three decades variously working in a burger restaurant, bringing up two sons, working with homeless people and helping teachers and families to understand their autistic children. Initially fascinated by the medieval period, she began her crime and mystery career at Pan Macmillan with a historical novel set during the fourteenth century then fast-forwarded to West Wales in the nineteenth century to fulfill a long-held desire to write a book based on Wales’s best kept historical secret: the Rebecca Riots. But she fell in love – both with nineteenth century west Wales and her characters – and the result is the Teifi Valley Coroner crime series featuring visually impaired investigator, Harry Probert-Lloyd, and his chippy assistant, John Davies.

As a side-effect of setting her series in Ceredigion, instead of making research trips to sunny climes like more foresighted writers, she drives up the M4 to see her family. Alis lives with her partner on the Welsh/English border, speaks Welsh, collects rucksacks and can’t resist an interesting fact.

Fun fact: In 1977, Alis was the winner of the under 16s stock-judging competition at the Cardiganshire Federation of Young Farmers Rally. She loves cows…

 

Festival co-chair, matt johnson

In 2018, after just two years as a published author, Matt Johnson was voted at #22 in the WH Smith list of all-time best crime writers.

Matt Johnson served as a UK soldier and Metropolitan Police officer for nearly twenty-five years. Blown off his feet at the London Baltic Exchange bombing in 1992, one of the first police officers on the scene of the 1982 Regent’s Park bombing, Matt was also at the Libyan People’s Bureau shooting in 1984 where he escorted his mortally wounded friend and colleague, Yvonne Fletcher, to hospital.

A keen biker, Matt rides a ’99 Harley Davidson Fatboy and is patron to the UK based ‘Forces On-line’ charity. 

Matt’s first novel was the 2016 John Creasey CWA Dagger listed ‘Wicked Game’, also listed by Amazon UK as the highest-rated rising-star novel of 2016. Following on from the success of this novel, two further books in the series – Deadly Game and End Game – were released in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

More about Matt at www.mattjohnsonauthor.com or through Twitter @Matt_Johnson_UK. 

 

 

 

Event 18. Monday 3rd May 7pm.

Our final event for 2021.

Crime writing – how much fact, how much fiction?

Crime Cymru co-founder Alis Hawkins in conversation with  M W  Craven author of the bestselling Washington Poe & Tilly Bradshaw series and Imran Mahmood whose first novel ‘You Don’t Know Me’ took the crime fiction world  by storm last year and whose next, ‘I Know What I Saw’ is published in June.

This promises to be an entertaining and informative end to Gwyl Crime Cymru Digital Festival. Charge your glasses, relax and be prepared to be entertained by two of the most engaging crime writers in the UK.

The partner bookshop for this event is Gwisgo Bookworm, Aberaeron https://www.gwisgobookworm.co.uk    /   https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GwisgoBookworm

 

m w craven

M W (Mike) Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle. He joined the army at sixteen, leaving a decade later to complete a social work degree and spent seventeen years as a probation officer in Cumbria, rising to the rank of assistant chief officer. The first in the Washington Poe series, The Puppet Show, won the 2019 CWA Gold Dagger, has sold in numerous foreign territories and has been optioned for TV by Studio Lambert. He is also the author of the Avison Fluke novels, Born in a Burial Ground (shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger) and Body Breaker. The Curator was a 2020 Woman & Home Book Choice Award winner.

https://www.mwcraven.com/

imran mahmood

Imran Mahmood is a criminal defence barrister with over 25 years’ experience in the Crown Court and Court of Appeal. He specializes in Legal Aid cases involving violent crimes as well as fraud and sexual offences. He was born in Liverpool and now lives in London with his wife and daughter.

His début novel, You Don’t Know Me (Michael Joseph), was chosen by Simon Mayo as a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice, was long-listed for the Theakstons crime novel of the year and for the CWA Gold Dagger, 2018. It was also shortlisted for The Glass Bell Award, 2018 and is currently being adapted for TV in three parts.