Death in the Dales Book Festival

There’s felony in the fells and murder on the moors, and crime in – well, you’ve got the idea. On the Coal Road, I was going to say – ideal place for a murder. Never walk it alone.

You’ll find out whodunwhat to whom if you can join us for what promises to be a wonderful weekend of crime in Sedbergh, described by author Matt Twinley as “A haven for book lovers and authors, hidden in England’s Lake District”. The dales, in fact, but still a haven. Just the one murder – in 1477. You’ll be quite safe. We’ve warned you about the Coal Road.

Featuring:

• Matthew Booth
• Jean Briggs
• Frances Brody
• Martin Edwards
• Kate Ellis
• Malcolm Hollingdrake
• Antony Johnston
• Jason Monaghan
• Harry Navinski
• Fiona Veitch Smith
• Deborah Swift
• Marsali Taylor

Matthew Booth

Matthew Booth, the author of the Everett Carr mysteries, novels inspired by the famous Golden Age of detective fiction. The latest in the series, A Killing Amongst the Dead, is out now and the next, The Serpent’s Fang, is due in 2025. Matthew has appeared at numerous events, discussing topics such as Sherlock Holmes, crime and supernatural fiction, film noir, and Jack the Ripper. A member of the Crime Writers Association, he is the current Editor of its monthly magazine, Red Herrings, and he is the co-host of the film noir podcast, Mean Streets.

Jean Briggs

Jean Briggs taught English for many years in schools in Cheshire, Hong Kong, and Lancashire. She now lives in a cottage by a river in Cumbria with a view of the Howgill Fells and a lot of sheep, though it is the streets of Victorian London that are mostly in her mind when she is writing about Charles Dickens as a detective. The first case for Dickens was The Murder of Patience Brooke, published in 2014. There are eleven novels in the series so far, published by Sapere Books. Number eleven, The Waxwork Man, came out in September 2023. Her latest book, The Legacy of Foulstone Manor, set in WW1 was published in February 2024 and there will be another WW1 story later in the year.

She was Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association (2018-2022), is a member of Historical Writers’ Association, the Dickens Fellowship, The Society of Authors, and a trustee of Sedbergh Book Town.

Frances Brody

Leeds born Frances Brody left school at sixteen. Age nineteen, she went to work in America.  On returning home, she slid back into education and began writing for radio and theatre.

She has published eighteen novels. For Sisters on Bread Street (aka Somewhere Behind the Morning) she gained the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin award. Thirteen murder mysteries feature Kate Shackleton, war widow turned detective. A Murder Inside and Six Motives for Murder centre on Nell Lewis, governor of an open prison for women.

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has published 23 novels, including the Lake District Mysteries and the Rachel Savernake series, most recently Sepulchre Street and Hemlock Bay. He has won the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing, and his other awards include the CWA Dagger in the Library, voted by UK librarians, and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. His lifetime achievement awards include the Golden Derringer for his short mystery fiction and he has been President of the Detection Club since 2015.

Kate Ellis

Kate Ellis was born and brought up in Liverpool and studied drama in Manchester. She worked in a variety of jobs, none of which she particularly enjoyed, before discovering that writing crime fiction was what she’d wanted to do all along!

Described by The Times as ‘a beguiling author who interweaves past and present’ she has written twenty eight novels featuring archaeology graduate, DI Wesley Peterson and five crime novels with a supernatural twist featuring DI Joe Plantagenet. She has also written a trilogy set in the aftermath of the First World War featuring Scotland Yard detective DI Albert Lincoln. Her latest Wesley Peterson novel, Coffin Island, was published in August 2024.

Kate has been twice shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Dagger and she was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2019.

Malcolm Hollingdrake

Malcolm Hollingdrake has written a number of successful short stories and has seventeen books now available. Presently he is concentrating on a series of crime novels set in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Born in Bradford and spending three years in Ripon, Malcolm has never lost his love for his home county, a passion that is reflected in the settings for all thirteen Bennett novels.
Malcolm has enjoyed many hobbies including collecting works by Northern artists; the art auctions offer a degree of excitement when both buying and certainly when selling. It’s a hobby he has bestowed on DCI Cyril Bennett, the main character in his latest novel Trapped Secrets.

Antony Johnston

Antony Johnston is one of the most versatile writers of the modern era.
He is best known for Atomic Blonde, the Charlize Theron spy movie based on his graphic novel; the Dog Sitter Detective cosy mystery series, which won the Barker Book Award for fiction; and the Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers, which are in development for TV.
His upcoming ‘Whodunit Gamebook’ Can You Solve the Murder? was acquired in a five-way bidding war between publishers.

Antony’s productivity guide The Organised Writer has helped authors all over the world take control of their calendar and workload.

He is also a screenwriter, has worked for Marvel Comics, writes big-budget videogames, and hosts the podcast Writing and Breathing. A former vice chair of the CWA, he lives and works in England.

Jason Monaghan

Jason Monaghan is a thriller writer and Roman archaeologist. The eccentric side of Archaeology provided the background to his first five archaeology-detective novels featuring offbeat lecturer Jeffrey Flint. His new series of thrillers is set in the dangerous 1930s in a Britain under the shadow of fascism,

Harry Navinski

Harry Navinski‘s first home was in Colchester (Britain’s oldest recorded town). At the tender age of 15, straight from school, he left home to join the Royal Air Force. Harry spent the first half of his RAF career as an aircraft technician and the latter half as an engineering officer.

Harry’s first taste of writing came when asked to write short pieces for the RAF Wyton station magazine.

After his time in the RAF, Harry spent six years on voluntary service in West Bengal on anti-human trafficking work. It was whilst in India that he made his first attempt at writing fiction.

On his return to the UK, Harry attended a creative writing course and was inspired to write his first novel – ‘The Glass’. His travels around the world have provided Harry with a huge source of knowledge and experiences for new books – yet to come – and he looks forward to sharing these.

Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith writes Golden Age mysteries and historical fiction and has been shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger. She was born in Corbridge, Northumberland, then spent her teenage years and 20s in South Africa in the 1980s and 90s. She returned to the UK in 2002. As a journalist she worked on the arts and crime beats of a Cape Town newspaper, and then lectured in journalism in the UK for ten years. Since leaving journalism she has worked as a university lecturer and a communications manager, does freelance editing and mentors new novelists.

Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift says “As you read this I’ll probably be writing from my tall stone house which was once a school and built in 1902. This is a house that is ‘new’ in English terms, as many of our local villages date back to the 1630’s or even earlier.
I write historical fiction, a genre I love. I loved the Victorian classics such as Jane Eyre, Little Women, Lorna Doone and Wuthering Heights. As I child I loved to read and when I had read my own library books, I used to borrow my mother’s library copies of Anya Seton and Daphne du Maurier. I have loved reading historical novels ever since; though I’m a bookaholic and I read widely – contemporary and classic fiction as well as historicals.“

Marsali Taylor

Marsali Taylor grew up in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh and started writing stories as soon as she could hold a pencil!

She read English at Dundee University, followed by teacher training at Craiglockhart College, Edinburgh. Her first teaching post, for English, French and Drama, was at Aith Junior High School, Shetland, where she remained for her whole teaching career. Her  first published writing was plays she had written for her pupils to perform. Some of these are published by DramaWorks.

Her Shetland Sailing Mysteries are puzzle‑style crime novels starring indomitable solo‑sailor Cass Lynch and Inverness DI Gavin Macrae. The books don’t have to be read in order – each mystery is self‑sufficient, and there are no spoilers in subsequent books.  However there’s a slow-growing love story over the books, and a number of series characters. The books were partly written as a response to the FAQ from people on the mainland: ‘But what do you find to do up there?’ Each book is set in a particular part of Shetland, at a particular time of year, and showcases not only the gorgeous scenery but also local events at that time.

Sponsors

Sedbergh Booktown Literary Trust, is supported by Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, Sedbergh Community Fund and Westmorland & Lonsdale Council

The festival events take place in the People’s Hall and Sedbergh School’s Queens Hall.

The People’s Hall has a small free car park but if full there is nearby street parking, and a short walk away are the pay and display car parks in Joss Lane near the Sedbergh Information Centre and on Loftus Hill to the south of the town.