Crime writers talk about why they love Harrogate

Hat tip to Rhian Davies of the great It's a crime (or a mystery) blog, for sharing this video from the Yorkshire Post website about the recent Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. Interestingly, from a Kiwi perspective, both New Zealand crime writers who were at the festival, Paul Cleave and Neil Cross, are featured in the video, along with US author Laura Lippman and Scottish author Denise Mina (the winner of the Crime Novel of the Year Award on the festival's first night).

As someone who is not an author, but is part of the crime fiction world as a reviewer, interviewer, awards judge, and chair of panels at literary festivals, I certainly echo Neil, Laura, and Denise's comments about the terrific sense of camaraderie within the crime writing community, how in general crime writers are very good people (one of the reasons I've been happy to specialise in crime fiction in terms of interviewing authors for magazines and newspapers), and how Harrogate seems to have a very nice atmosphere of hanging out and catching up with old friends.

Even though it was my first time at the festival (hopefully it won't be a one-off, even though it's a long way away for me, geographically), I really enjoyed catching up with authors I'd met in New Zealand before, such as John Connolly, Gregg Hurwitz, Denise Mina, Val McDermid, Stuart MacBride, Peter James, and others, as well as meeting in person authors I'd interviewed by phone (Mark Billingham, Harlan Coben, etc), and meeting lots of other cool people - authors, publicists, readers, bloggers, and more. It really is a wonderful festival. Huge kudos to the organisers for all the work they do each year.