The Harrogate Festival

Well, after three fantastic days and nights, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival came to a close earlier today. It's been a phenomenal three days - filled with terrific sessions, mingling with authors in the foyer, bar, and outside, interviews with authors familiar and new, lunches and dinners, and more. There really is a special vibe here - inside and outside of the sessions. I've come away from the festival with so many terrific memories - it was three days filled with highlights. And I probably won't fully grasp what a special experience it was - especially coming from half the world away - until I get more chance to fully reflect, down the track. I've met some truly terrific people - authors, agents, publicists, readers, and others who love books and crime writing - and there really was such a wonderful 'vibe'.

The organisers did a great job, from the line-up of events, to creating an atmosphere where authors, readers, and reviewers etc can all mingle together freely over the course of the weekend. Before I came, I thought the sessions would be the most important part of the festival - but as many others had and have told me, it's all the other bits in between that make Harrogate special, and elevate it above many other good books conventions and festivals. The sessions are wonderful, but it's everything else that adds to the really special recipe to create a wonderful concoction.

There's a lot I can and will say about Harrogate, in the coming days and weeks etc, but for now I thought I'd give you all a bit of a tiny taste of the past three days, via this photo:

The Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate - venue for the festival, and historically famous as the place Agatha Christie resurfaced after an unexplained absence. If you look closely, the group behind the yellow car includes authors Harlan Coben, Simon Kernick, Stuart MacBride, and more - that sums up Harrogate - authors and readers all mingling together over the course of three days.