Sunday, September 2, 2012

Neil Cross and the Ngaio Marsh Award


What a terrific day at the The Press Christchurch Writers Festival yesterday, capped by the announcement of the winner of the 2012 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. Terrific sold-out event, great to see so many people there to celebrate books, ideas, writing, and particularly New Zealand crime writing.

Lots of cool pics - some of which I'll share later. For now, I just thought I'd share one of my favourites - camera-shy Ngaio Marsh Award winner Neil Cross (LUTHER: THE CALLING) with the award.

Cross gave a tremendous acceptance speech - having the audience in stitches for several minutes, with tales of crazy escapades - including a time he thought he was going to come to a Deliverance-style end in rural New Zealand on the way to a writing event, before finishing on a very heartfelt, eyes-glistening note, talking about how much he'd moved around throughout his life, but how since he came to New Zealand ten years ago, he'd really felt he finally had a 'home', and so this Award "means a lot" to him.

2 comments:

  1. Neil's speech was gorgeous. Everyone there could see how much this award meant for him. It was a great evening. Thanks so much Craig, for all the work you do for the Ngaio Marsh Award! We all appreciate your enthusiasm and dedication for New Zealand crime fiction

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  2. It was an awesome weekend - am so, so happy for Neil! Love those curtains he's standing in front of...
    Good job, Craig - as always. Without you there'd never be any award.

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