Welcome to Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival 2025!
Friday 25 April
Archive Tour
16.30 – 17.30
National Library of Wales
£10.00
Saturday 26 April
Event 1 : Diamond Crime Discussion
09.00 – 10.00
Museum
£10.00
Phil Rowlands (chair), Thorne Moore, Jacqueline Harrett, GB Williams
Everybody knows about the big crime writers and the big publishers, but this panel illustrates the richness and breadth of Crime Cymru. Four writers from very different sections of the genre – police procedural, thriller, cosy and espionage – talk about being a writer in Wales. A panel designed to make the audience think and be very proud of the talent we have.
Workshop 1 : Writing Self Defence
09.30 – 10.30
Library Teaching Room
£8.00
Zoe Sharp
Female detectives have to be tough, and able to look after themselves but fight scenes are the hardest to write. In this workshop the audience is taken through the reality of self-defence such that they can either write or spot a great, creative fight scene. In this innovative approach to illustrating the plotting that goes into an action scene, Zoe Sharp shares her deep knowledge of self-defence with her skills of putting it on a page.
Event 2 : How to use your archive
10.00 – 11.00
Library Archive
£8.00
GJ Williams, Helen Palmer, Richard Ireland
A workshop on how to enhance and ground your creativity through effective research using archives. Experts will guide delegates through the richness of a historical archive and the gems within that will bring your stories to life. This innovative workshop takes the novelists initial ideas and guides the audience through the research process using real documents and other archive materials. The audience gets involved – getting their hands on the archives.
Event 3 : Police Procedural – creating detectives that do it right!
10.00 – 11.00
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Graham Bartlett (chair), James Oswald, Graham Miller, David Penny
Four highly successful writers take the audience through the challenges of writing police procedurals which grip the reader. Police procedurals are easy to get wrong and infuriate the reader. They share the secrets of taking the reality of crime investigation and using creativity to create pace, engaging characters, strange twists and dark turns. They also share the challenge of keeping abreast with scientific advances that are changing the face of crime investigation.
Event 4 : A Foreign Field
10.30 – 11.30
Museum
£10.00
Philip Gwynne Jones (chair), Chris Lloyd, Heidi Amsinck, Morgan Greene
Writers of crime in international settings discuss how they create a sense of place and use different cultures to drive their creativity when creating a mystery. Also, how they research to ensure that their writing is both captivating and realistic but also true to the culture around the crime
Workshop 2 : Children’s Writing
11.00 – 12.00
Library Teaching Room
£5.00
Colin R Parsons
Children are natural innovators and creators – and this workshop is designed to capture that wonderful spark. In this interactive workshop, children 9-11 years will be immersed in the creativity of using imagination to create a crime, the characters and a plot that one day, may be their debut novel.
Event 5 : Historical Crime
11.30 – 12.30
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
GJ Williams (chair), Alis Hawkins, Leslie Scase
Writers of historical crime discuss how they blend imagination and real events to bring the past to life while writing crime mysteries. They will debate how far you can bend the past to enhance your story – or do you bend the story to the past? The writers will also be honest in the frustrations of having a great story-line that history demolishes and you have to start again.
Event 6 : Girl Power and the female detective
12.00 – 13.00
Museum
£10
Ayo Onatade (chair), Elly Griffith, Sarah Ward, Zoe Sharp
Three crime writers with female leads take the audience through how they craft female detectives who are tough but also very human. They discuss the challenge of creating complex characters who navigate a domain historically the preserve of males.
Workshop 3 : Creative Writing (Cymraeg)
12.30 – 13.30
Library Teaching Room
£8
Myfanwy Alexander
An interactive workshop in Cymraeg in which delegates are immersed in the craft of crime writing using their mother tongue and guided on how to instil Welsh culture into a crime novel. This innovative workshop will combine language, culture and skills development to start people on their journey to being the next name in Welsh Crime.
Event 7 : Crime in Mind. -Psychological Twists and Turns
13.00 – 14.00
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Louise Mumford (chair), Phil Rowlands, Ronnie Turner
Three celebrated novelists take the audience though the crafting of twists and turns in psychological crime. Moreover, they take the innovative step of sharing with the audience how they manage their own psychology when following the winding path toward the reveal. The audience will learn how they get into the mind of a killer and create the fear in their victims -and the reader too.
Event 8 : Both Sides of the Pond
13.30 – 14.30
Museum
£10.00
Paul Burke (chair), Abir Mukherjee
A discussion with world-famous crime writer Abir Mukherjee on how he uses locations both in the UK and the USA as a backdrop to his new thriller, Hunted, which is based in the underworld of London but has terrible consequences in the glamour of LA. Abir will discuss how he pulls together so many strands including different cultures, international crime, politics, psychological tensions, family dynamics and personal dilemma – into a novel that has been described as nail-biting in its suspense. He will also take the audience through the challenge of changing ‘what you are known for’ in the publishing world.
Workshop 4 : Creating the Psychopath
14.00 – 15.00
Library Teaching Room
£8
Graham Bartlett, GJ Williams
In this first-of-its-kind creativity workshop, delegates are taken through the psychology of a psychopathic killer, examining how to create a truly evil character without cliches. Graham Barlett, a writer and former detective, explains how to create realistic portrayals of detectives who are facing the challenges of an intelligent but disturbing suspect. GJ Williams, a writer and doctor of psychology, takes the audience through the psychology and behaviours of a psychopath. Innovative illustration is achieved by an actor playing the suspect. Expect high drama mixed with skills development.
Event 9 : Committing Crime in Cymraeg (Welsh language event)
14.30 – 15.30
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Nia Roberts (chair), Gwen Parrott, Myfanwy Alexander, Catrin Gerallt
Three popular writers of Welsh crime talk about how they use their culture, and language to create a high-impact crime novel which is imbued with Welsh culture. Also, how Wales creates a unique sense of place and a backdrop which enriches their writing. Discussion led by Nia Roberts, Creative Editor with Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
Event 10 : Legal Thrillers
15.00 – 16.00
Museum
£10.00
Ayo Onatade (chair), LJ Shepherd, Nicola Williams
A discussion with two authors following in the footsteps of John Grisham and using the world of law to create thrilling crime novels. Panellists take the audience through the process of bringing their professional expertise as lawyers and barristers to create legal thrillers that are both realistic and riveting. They also give the audience insight into how they have to twist reality to make law thrilling.
Event 11 : Self Publishing
15.30 – 16.30
Library Teaching Room
£8.00
David Penny (chair), AA Abbott, Ann Bloxwich, Marie Anne Cope
A highly informative panel with four authors who have made a success of self-publishing. They take the audience through the challenge of differentiating from vanity publishing, how to manage the writing but also the production process, and how to turn yourself into a marketing manager for your books. Any audience member with ambition to self-publish will walk away inspired.
Event 12 : The Detectives They Wrote
16.00 – 17.00
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Sarah Ward (chair), Jacqueline Harrett, Sarah Hilary, Meleri Wyn James
Four female crime writers take the audience through their approach to writing, and how they drive creativity into gritty crime drama – while creating engaging characters that the reader likes. They take the innovative step of sharing how their own personality and lives migrate into their characters
Event 13 : Women Writers – a different perspective
16.30 – 17.30
Museum
£10.00
Jacky Collins (chair), Clare Mackintosh, Mari Hannah
Jacky Collins, Dr Noir, talks to two of the country’s leading women writers. They consider what the female perspective delivers to their creativity, to the characters they create, the boundaries they will or will not cross, and the challenges they face.
Event 14 : Arresting Fun
18.00 – 19.00
Museum
£10.00
Abir Mukherjee (chair), Vaseem Khan, Ben Aaronovitch
Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee are the double act of the Red Hot Chilli Writers and can always bring a smile and a laugh to their podcast. Ben Aaronovitch similarly uses a lot of humour to highlight some of the darkness in his Rivers of London series. If you like offbeat writing, humour and conversation, come along for a good laugh.
An Evening with Mark Billingham
20.00 – late
Museum
£15.00
Philip Gwynne Jones (chair), Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham is one of Britain’s most renowned and prolific crime writer, and has a world-wide following. In this conversation with Philip Gwynne Jones, he shares his secrets of making every book a best-seller, life as a globally renown writer and how he manages to deliver time and time again with all the other demands upon him as a famous and high successful story-teller.
Sunday 27 April
Event 15 : Getting Cosy – evil murder, kindly sleuths
09.30 – 10.30
Museum
£10.00
Rod Green (chair), Hannah Hendy, Mary Grand
Three cosy crime writers take the audience through the challenge of combining a dark crime with the lightness of amateur sleuths. They share the scope of creativity open to them in creating lovable characters, backstories and humour within the context of murder.
Event 16 : Crime for kids – you are never too young to love a mystery
10.00 – 11.00
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Sarah Todd Taylor (chair), Fleur Hitchcock, Rhian Tracey
Panel of children’s authors talking about their books and their love of writing crime for children and the challenges in engaging and exciting young people in what is a tough subject. It is hoped that younger readers will attend this panel with their parents.
Event 17 : Over the Seas and Far Away
11.00 – 12.00
Museum
£10.00
Chris Lloyd (chair), Vaseem Khan
Two writers who place their crimes in other countries and times, discuss the delights and challenges of creating great stories within another culture. They take the audience through their creative process for accessing a different culture and depicting different lands in a way that is realistic, never pastiche, and which adds richness to the plot and character
Event 18 : The Publishing Trade in Wales (Cymraeg)
11.30 – 12.30
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Anthony Evans (chair), Nia Roberts, Meleri Wyn James
There’s more to publishing than writing the book. Anthony Evans, Welsh language books editor at nation.cymru, leads the discussion with Nia Roberts, Creative Editor for Gwasg Carreg Gwalch and Meleri Wyn James, crime author and Creative Editor with Y Lolfa.
Event 19 : The Weird and The Wonderful – Crime on the Edge
12.30 – 13.30
Museum
£10.00
Jacky Collins (chair), Ben Aaronovitch, James Oswald, GB Williams
The world of crime writing has many facets. This event takes the audience out of the world of standard police procedurals and murder mystery into the world of strangeness crime where dark deeds meet the supernatural, the strange or the alter-world. This is an area of the crime genre where innovation and imagination reach the pinnacle, and the three writers will share with the audience where they get the ideas and how they convert wild imaginings to a pacy plot.
Event 20 : True Crime – when they really did it
13.00 – 14.00
Library Mezzanine
£8.00
Sarah Ward (chair), Matt Johnson, Sarah Bax Horton
We are all fascinated by killers. In this event, writers of true crime take the audience through the deep research mission required to delve into real crime and how they use their own experiences in the legal world to map out the psychology and actions of victims, killers, the detectives on cases and other players in the crime. They will share the challenge of taking real events and deeds and crafting these into a compelling narrative that has the reader gripped until the killer and crime is revealed.
Event 21 : When Hawkins met Dafydd – the doyennes of welsh crime
14.00 – 15.00
Museum
£10.00
In a rare opportunity we have two of Wales’ most acclaimed and respected female crime writers on the stage to close our festival. In this event, Alis Hawkins is in conversation with Fflur Dafydd as they share their experience of getting to the top of their genre, the challenges of staying there and how they keep raising the profile of Crime in Cymru. This event will innovate by moving away from the interview and, instead, being a frank and honest discussion, even debate, about being a great Welsh writer.
Pre-recorded events
Dates/Times TBC
