Join us for Alibis in the Archive 2024!

Held from Friday 7th June to Sunday 9th June 

In-person tickets are £170 and include access to all talks, dinner on Friday and Saturday and lunch on Saturday and Sunday (two courses with tea or filter coffee) plus Alibis in the Archive activities. Click here to purchase.

You can also join us online by watching talks on Zoom! Online talks are £10 each. Click here to choose your talk(s). 

Friday 8th June

Welcomes, introductions, dinner and an Alibis in the Archive activity.

Saturday 

9.15am – 10.15am Adapting Agatha: the Various Incarnations of Witness for the Prosecution (with Victoria Dowd)

Victoria Dowd (Murder Most Cold) is a self-confessed Agatha Christie superfan, particularly when it comes to the many adaptations of the original novels. For several years Victoria’s website has hosted long-form blog posts exploring the Poirot and Marple series as well as the standalone novels, and tackling some of the big questions when it comes to Christie: which is the best adaptation? Where was that particular adaptation filmed? And, most controversially: whose Marple (or Poirot) is the best?

Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

10.20am – 11am Taggart (with Glenn Chandler)

Almost no introduction is required - join crime writing legend Glenn Chandler as he reflects on what remains one of the most popular crime series ever made. Playwright and scriptwriter Glenn is the creator of Taggart, the Glasgow-based detective series. Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

11.30am – 12.10pm Sidney Harry Fox and the Margate Murder (with Glenn Chandler)

Glenn Chandler returns for another talk, this time on his latest book, Sidney Fox’s Crime. Released in 2023, it’s the true story of a young gay man who was hanged for the murder of his mother after one of the most unusual trials in British criminal history. Join Glenn for what’s sure to be a gripping tale of newly-discovered material. Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

12.15pm – 1.15pm Writing (and Reading) Crime Fiction (Martin Edwards with Ayo Onatade)

Award-winning and bestselling crime writer Martin Edwards is interviewed about his writing life by award-winning crime fiction critic, commentator and blogger Ayo Onatade. Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

1.15pm - 2.30pm - Lunch (two courses including a filter coffee or tea) in Food for Thought

2.30pm - 3.30pm Where Do Ideas Come From? (with Elly Griffiths)

Elly Griffiths loves doing research; even a small summary of her many novels reveals Victorian body snatchers, the Second World War, the politics of indigenous artefacts in museums, the environmental impact of coastal erosion, the airfields of Norfolk, the Roman in Britain and much more… Join Elly as she talks about her work, interest and inspiration. Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

4.00pm - 5.00pm The Occult World of Agatha Christie (with Tony Medawar)

For many, supernatural explanations are anathema to the relentless logic of crime fiction; but no less than the Queen of Crime herself explored unearthly mysteries, early in her writing career... author Tony Medawar tells us more. Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

6pm – 7.45pm Dinner (two courses including a filter coffee or tea in Food for Thought. Final orders at 7.15pm)

Sunday

9.15am – 10.15am The Magic of Murder: Golden Age Authors Who Conjured the Impossible (with Tom Mead)

For as long as there’s been crime fiction, there’s been the thrill of the impossible crime. Edgar Allen Poe, John Dickson Carr, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ellery Queen; the list of locked-room greats goes on. In his Alibis talk Tom explores the magic of the impossible crime; whether written by magicians (such as Hake Talbot’s Rim of the Pit) or featuring a magician as the protagonist (Clayton Rawson’s Death From A Top Hat), Tom will show us how the trick is done… 
Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

10.30am – 11.30am From The Black Mask to the Modern Day: the Evolving Black Crime Writer (with Ayo Onatade)

Ayo is a CWA Red Herring award winning freelance crime fiction critic, commentator, moderator and blogger. She has written articles and given papers on crime fiction, contributed to British Crime Writing: An Encyclopaedia (2008) and The American Thriller (Critical Insights) (2014) and co-edited the anthology Bodies in the Bookshop (2014). She currently Chairs the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown, judges the Ngaio Marsh Award and is also an Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Judge. Her research interests include historical fiction especially crime fiction and crime fiction literary criticism, and she will draw on this background in her exploration of Black crime writing. 
Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

12.00pm – 1.00pm The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Research (with Leigh Russell) 

Leigh Russell should give hope to every avid-crime-fiction-reader who comes to Alibis. As Leigh tells it, it was reading rather than writing that was her first love, utterly drawn in by imaginary world. As a teacher, ven when spending every day talking about books, the idea of writing her own never crossed her mind. But one day a fictitious killer arrived in her imagination, and the resulting story was shortlisted for a CWA Dagger Award. Leigh is now the bestselling author of three crime series: Geraldine Steel, Ian Peterson, and Lucy Hall. Her latest series features a ‘Barking Mad’ protagonist – Poppy the real-life rescue puppy! Here, she will discuss research: the scaffolding that supports crime writing (whether it is for grown up or younger readers).

Online tickets £10. Click here to purchase.

1pm to 2pm Lunch (two courses including a filter coffee or tea) in Food for Thought

 

Alibis in the Archive

An annual celebration of all things crime, right here in North Wales! Hosted in collaboration with the Crime Writers Association and featuring some of the best crime writers in the business, Alibis in the Archive is your chance to spend a weekend considering all the best crime writing there is.

Save the date! Alibis will return on Friday 7th to Sunday 9th June 2024.

To register for Alibis updates and ticket news, please email [email protected]

To add yourself to the expression of interest list for accommodation here at the Library throughout Alibis, please email our Reception team on [email protected]

Alibis in the Archive is back – and this time it will be in person! 

Friday June 10th to Sunday June 12th. 

It's official - residential places for Alibis in the Archive 2022 have sold out. You can still join in-person by purchasing a weekend ticket for £160 (available by clicking here). This entitles you to attend every talk, and you also get dinner on Friday and Saturday and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, plus some little extras. 

Friday night will see the return of our popular Crime Writing Quiz - both residents and in-person weekend guests can join in! 

Following the success of last years' online Alibis in the Archive, we are also offering a ticket bundle. For £30 you can listen to all the talks live online (or after the event if you sign up for the Gladstone Bag) across the whole weekend. Individual talk tickets are available for £5. 

NOTICE: if you buy online tickets after 5pm on Friday 10th June or after 5pm on Saturday 11th June, we will send you the Zoom links first thing the following morning. 


Programme:

Friday Night

5pm - The bar is open – come grab a drink and meet your fellow weekenders! 


6pm to 7.30pm - Dinner

7.45pm to 9pm - Alibis quiz

Meet our speakers! On Saturday:

 

 

Lynne Truss (author of the Constable Twitten series) presents The Bodkin Adams Case: Crime in the 1950s (9.15am to 10.15am)

Many people nowadays might not have heard the name Dr John Bodkin Adams, but in 1957 the Irish-born doctor was known across the world – for all the wrong reasons. Rumours had long swirled around the doctor in his adopted home town of Eastbourne, one of England’s loveliest seaside resorts: that far from being a caring doctor, he was poisoning his wealthier female patients. Glued to ‘the murder trial of the century’, readers devoured reports of Bodkin Adams' malign influence on up to 400 women – how he reportedly persuaded them to change their wills in his favour before administering huge doses of morphine. Join Lynne Truss for her discussion on this notorious case, and what it says about the 1950s. 

A full-time writer for the past thirty years, Lynne Truss has held almost every writing position there is. A fiction-writer, journalist, literary editor, columnist, short-story-writer and essayist, Lynne tries not to be hurt by the common misconception ‘that I was only ever interested in punctuation’. In 2018 Lynne created A Shot in the Dark, a hilarious take on the historical murder mystery featuring Constable Twitten. A Brighton-based constable who is new to the force and ambitious, Twitten has just one problem: after a convenient massacre some years previously, Brighton has no criminals, no crime, and no stress. Despatched to the theatre to relax, Twitten finds himself seated next to a vicious theatre critic – who is promptly shot dead part way through opening night…


Join Lynne Truss on Zoom for £5 by clicking here.





Philip Gooden (author of the Nick Revill series) on Spies in 1960 Fiction. 10.30am to 11.30am. 

Currently spending your Sunday nights glued to The Ipcress File? Then you’ll want to join Philip Gooden as he examines the phenomenon of spies in the 1960s, and the classic books they inspired. An hour of espionage, world powers, geopolitical shifts and more…. 

After becoming a fulltime writer in 2001, Philip Gooden became chair of the Crime Writers’ Association in 2007-8.  Now a writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction, his books include the Nick Revill series, a sequence of historical mysteries based in Elizabethan London and set around Shakespeare's Globe theatre. Recently he edited a new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World for Penguin Classics. He lives in Bath where he is currently working on the first in a new series of historical novels. 


Join Philip Gooden on Zoom for £5 by clicking here.





Martin Edwards (author of Mortmain Hall) on the British Library Crime Classics series. 12 noon to 1pm.


Crime writing is a perennial genre which lends itself to constant reinterpretation and reinvigoration. The advent of new crime-fighting (and crime abetting) technology and changing social contexts have driven waves of interest in crime fiction and has spawned a series of expanding sub-genres and cutting-edge writing. At the same time, generations of readers are re-discovering classical crime fiction, and the British Library Crime Classics series has helped highlight seminal novels that may have otherwise drifted out of public view. Martin Edwards has played a key role in contextualising and highlighting these stories and will reveal more about the process of bringing these stories back into circulation.

Martin Edwards isn’t just known for his crime novels, but for his deep and lasting involvement with crime writing in the UK and around the world. The longest-serving Crime Writers Association Chair since its founder John Creasy, Martin is also President of the Detection Club. A historian and collector of the genre, particularly the Golden Age, his books and lectures help introduce new enthusiasts to a world of crime fiction – and recently his online course Crafting Crime helps aspiring writers hone their work. 

Join Martin Edwards on Zoom for £5 by clicking here.

Jean Briggs (author of Summons to Murder) on Charles Dickens and Crime. 2.15pm to 3.15pm. 

Wouldn’t Charles Dickens have made a fantastic detective? As we know, he was never called upon to solve crimes – but what if he had been? Surely his narrative skills, his keen eye, and his deep interest in detection would have served him well? Join Jean Briggs as she puts forward a case for this most literary of potential police sleuths. 

After a career in teaching and drama – including a Hamlet performed in front of the Queen – Jean Briggs retired to a cottage in the country. There, she started to think about what she might do next. Jean is now the author of several Charles Dickens Investigations, historical crime novels which imagine the Victorian novelist as intrepid detective. As well as writing, Jean is Vice Chair of the Crime Writers Association.

Join Jean Briggs on Zoom for £5 by clicking here. 







Margaret Murphy (author of Before He Kills Again) on Forensics. 3.30pm to 4.30pm.


From early fingerprint identification to cutting-edge DNA testing, the science of forensics is a constant source of fascination for readers and watchers of crime stories, influencing both fiction writing and underpinning the true crime boom. Margaret Murphy will take a forensic approach to forensics in this talk, unpicking the significance of the science to modern crime writers.

Margaret Murphy has published 11 internationally acclaimed psychological crime novels under her own name, and 5 forensic thrillers as Ashley Dyer and AD Garrett. She is a past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), founder of Murder Squad, and a former RLF Writing Fellow. A Short Story Dagger, HRF Keating, and CWA Red Herring award winner, she has also been shortlisted for the ‘First Blood’ critics award and CWA Dagger in the Library.

Her most recent novel, Before he Kills again, sees Detective Cassie Rowan goes undercover in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a repeat predator through the teeming backstreets of Liverpool.

Join Margaret Murphy on Zoom for £5 by clicking here. 

Sunday 12th June

 

Priscilla Masters (author of Blood on the Rocks) on Medicine and Crime (9.15am to 10.15am)

After careers as a nurse and an antiques dealer, Priscilla Masters started writing in response to a curious aunt asking what she was going to do with her life. Multiple best-selling novels later, Priscilla is a celebrated author known for her thrilling medical mysteries. Whether following the well-known characters Joanna Piercy and Martha Gunn, or using standalone locations in South Wales, Birmingham and Stoke on Trent, Priscilla’s novels are consistently praised as ‘more than a match for Rendell and Christie’.

Priscilla will look at the role of medics in golden age crime fiction, both as protagonists and authors. She asks whether doctors have an unfair advantage in detection and unpicks the moments where their skills come in useful, with particular reference to Dr Sheppard's role in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and other characters created by Agatha Christie. She will also discuss some of her own literary detective work in regards to Josephine Bell, the pseudonymous author of The Port of London Murders. 


Join Priscilla Masters on Zoom for £5 by clicking here. 

 

Nicola Upson (author of The Dead of Winter) on Tey and Allingham: Women at War (10.30am to 11.30am)

Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey are two of our greatest crime writers, universally admired for their sparkling originality, rich characterisation and beautifully written novels. Nicola will discuss her love for both writers through the prism of two lesser known books: Kif, Tey’s unflinching account of a boy’s return from the first world war; and The Oaken Heart, Allingham’s astonishing biography of a small Essex village in the early days of the second.

Nicola Upson is the author of four previous Josephine Tey mysteries, including An Expert in Murder, and two works of nonfiction. She has worked in theatre and as a freelance journalist. A recipient of an Escalator Award from the Arts Council England, she splits her time between Cambridge and Cornwall. 


Join Nicola Upson on Zoom for £5 by clicking here.

Dea Parkin (editor and creator of Fiction Feedback editorial consultancy) on Publishing: Myth & Mastery. Noon to 1pm. 

What’s the truth about getting published? How difficult is it really, and how can you improve your chances of writing a book that gets you a publishing deal? Is self-publishing a viable option? How can you and your book get taken seriously? What are the best strategies for you, and how can you achieve them? 

Dea Parkin is Secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association where favourite duties include facilitating the Debut Dagger and Margery Allingham Short Mystery competitions and promoting authors’ work as editor of the Crime Readers’ Association Newsletter. She established editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback in 2008 and, with a stable of editors, provides critiques, developmental and copy-editing to writers, especially crime writers. Many customers have subsequently published their books, independently or through publishers. 

Dea hosts talks for writing groups and advises writers on how to achieve their publishing goals as well as on the writing craft. Together with CWA Diamond Dagger winner Martin Edwards, she provides an online writing course called Crafting Crime. However, she most enjoys the interaction of meeting writers at all stages of their careers and spends far more time doing that than any writing of her own. She has published a volume of non-award-winning poetry called Any Other Business and has written and directed several one-act plays. She has achieved some success in minor writing competitions with short stories and has a very short one published in the CWA’s anthology, Music of the Night. In spare moments – not how she advises others to write – she drafts novels. 

 

Join Dea Parkin on Zoom for £5 by clicking here. 

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Day tickets include dinner on Friday and Saturday night and lunches on Saturday and Sunday (two courses plus hot drink) and access to all talks. Click here to purchase tickets. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.
Breakfast is not included, but you can book in for breakfast. Just call 01244 532 350 to arrange.


Accommodation has sold out, but we are building a mailing list for in the event of cancellations. Email [email protected] to add your name. 


It would be criminal to miss it!

Alibis in the Archive takes place in National Crime Reading Month. Find out more by clicking here.
 

Alibis in the Archive is back. Organised by award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards, this event features acclaimed authors who will pull back the curtain on the art of penning compelling crime narratives.  

To book onto individual events, or to buy a weekend pass, click here. All individual talks are £3, and the weekend pass is £15. 

Saturday October 9th

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves… the Crime Scene with Lynne Truss and Simon Brett

11am

Where would any successful detective novel be without its central feature? The crime scene is perhaps the greatest unsung character in crime. In their conversation, Lynne Truss and Simon Brett discuss the many and varied spots where some of the world's greatest mysteries have begun.

Lynne Truss turned to crime after a varied and successful career in print and on radio, but is best known for her bestselling book on punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which sold three million copies worldwide. The fourth of her Constable Twitten series, Psycho by the Sea, was published in June by Raven Books. This month a collection of 26 Radio 4 stories, Life at Absolute Zero, is released by BBC Worldwide.

Simon Brett is President Emeritus of the Detection Club, winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger award, and author of over 100 books, including the Charles Paris series. His novel A Shock to the System was filmed with Michael Caine in the lead. 

Howdunit with Martin Edwards and David Brawn

1.30pm

Asking whodunit is all very well, but what about the how?

Multi-award winner Martin Edwards, author of Gallows Court and Mortmain Hall, will distil some of the crime-writing wisdom to be found in Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, also edited by Martin, which won this year’s HRF Keating Award for best critical/biographical book in the crime field and was nominated for five other awards in Britain and the US.

Martin will be joined by editor, publisher and crime aficionado David Brawn of HarperCollins, and their conversation will encompass not only tips for would-be crime writers but also insights into the ups and downs of the crime writing life.

Murder on Stage with Rupert Holmes and Joseph Goodrich

3.30pm

We can't promise that we'll burst into song...but we might! Our final event of the day contributes a truly new perspective to Alibis, with our two speakers bringing their personal perspective of crime writing for stage and screen. Joseph and Rupert will give a personal perspective of crime writing for stage and screen – with and without music!

Rupert Holmes is not only a highly successful singer-songwriter whose hit singles include ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song’) and ‘Him’ but also a multi-award-winning crime writer who has achieved success with novels, plays, and musicals. He created the hit US TV dramedy series Remember WENN, writing all 56 episodes as well as the theme song, won two Tony awards for the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and saw his crime novel Where The Truth Lies filmed with Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon in the lead roles. His mystery play Accomplice won him his second Edgar, while Curtains, a musical co-written with Kander and Ebb, won the New York Drama Desk Award for Best Book and was enjoying a major British tour with Jason Manford in the lead prior to the pandemic interrupting its run in 2020.

Joseph Goodrich is a multi-talented American writer and actor who won an Edgar for his stage play Panic. His work has been produced across the United States and in Canada, Australia, and China. He is the author of the first officially sanctioned stage adaptations of novels by Ellery Queen and Rex Stout. His fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and two Mystery Writers of America anthologies. His books include Blood Relations, a study of Ellery Queen, and Unusual Suspects, a compilation of essays about the genre. An alumnus of New Dramatists, an active member of MWA, and a former Calderwood Fellow at MacDowell, he lives in New York City.

Sunday October 10th

There’s no police like Holmes, featuring Bonnie MacBird in conversation with David Brawn

11am

We’re kicking off Alibis on Sunday with a one of the genre’s most famous figures, Sherlock Holmes.

After a long Hollywood career as a screenwriter, story exec and producer, Bonnie MacBird now writes The Sherlock Holmes Adventures for HarperCollins – last year’s The Three Locks was the fourth in the series, all of which have been published to critical acclaim. As Bonnie is going to discuss to David Brawn she thinks that Sherlock Holmes is just what readers need in these troubled times.

Bonnie MacBird has worked in almost every writing medium. First finding success as a feature film development executive at Universal, Bonnie also wrote the original screenplay for Tron and won three Emmy Awards for writing and producing documentaries. She is a playwright, actor and director and teaches a screenwriting course at UCLA Extension. Bonnie’s first novel Art in the Blood was written in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle – published in 2015 to critical acclaim, it was soon followed by Unquiet Spirits (2017) and The Devil’s Due (2019). Her next book will be The Three Locks (2020).

David Brawn has been at HarperCollins for 30 years, more than 20 of which as Publisher of Agatha Christie and other literary estates, including Ngaio Marsh, Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and also J.R.R. Tolkien. As well as managing Agatha Christie’s existing backlist, David has overseen the publication of unseen stories, play novelisations, continuity novels and biographies, as well as expansion into new formats including audiobooks and ebooks. He has compiled, edited and introduced a variety of books, including Agatha Christie’s Little Grey Cells: The Quotable Poirot, and in 2015 was responsible for relaunching Collins’ famous Crime Club, bringing many classic detective writers back into print, including books by Freeman Wills Crofts, Philip MacDonald, Anthony Berkeley, Edgar Wallace, J.Jefferson Farjeon and Francis Durbridge.

The timeless appeal of crime fiction, a conversation featuring Antonia Hodgson, Len Tyler, Michael Jecks and Ruth Dudley Edwards

1.30pm

Taken together our four speakers have authored over one hundred books that cover every element of crime: mystery, satire, comedy, fiction, non-fiction…their books have won multiple awards and helped to define contemporary crime fiction.

Michael Jecks is the author of nearly fifty crime and mystery novels and collaborated on eight other titles. Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, he has been a full-time author for nearly thirty years and lives on Dartmoor.

Ruth Dudley Edwards is an historian and journalist. The targets of her satirical crime novels include the civil service, gentlemen’s clubs, Cambridge University, the House of Lords and literary prizes. She won the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award for Murdering Americans in 2008 and in 2010 the CWA Non Fiction Gold Dagger for Aftermath: the Omagh bombings and the families’ pursuit of justice.

L C Tyler is a former chair of the Crime Writers Association who is the author of both contemporary and historical crime fiction. He has twice won the Last Laugh Award for the best comic crime novel of the year and a CWA Dagger for his short story ’The Trials of Margaret’, as well as being shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger and for the Edgar Allan Poe awards in the US.

Antonia Hodgson is the author of the bestselling Thomas Hawkins historical crime series. She has been shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year, and her debut, The Devil in the Marshalsea, won the CWA Historical Dagger.  

Traditional detective fiction today – the view from America. A panel featuring Verena Rose, Shawn Reilly-Simmons, Tonya Spratt-Williams and Art Taylor

3.30pm

Our final event of the weekend is also an Alibis first! Gladstone’s is used to international writers but this is the first time we’ve had a live event from overseas. I’m very pleased to introduce the board members of Malice Domestic, one of the USA’s biggest crime conventions. Founded in 1989 to celebrate the traditional mystery story, Malice Domestic regularly welcomes hundreds of fans and authors alike. It even has its own awards, the Agathas, awarded across six categories.

Verena Rose is the Chair of Malice Domestic and the Anthony Award winning co-editor of Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible.  She is co-owner, chief financial officer and acquisitions editor for Level Best Books and as its representative, Verena is a member of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and the Crime Readers Association (CRA).

Art Taylor is the author of The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense and the winner of the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, Edgar, and Macavity Awards for his fiction. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University.

Shawn Reilly Simmons is the author of seven novels in the Red Carpet Catering Mystery series, and of over twenty published short stories. Shawn has won the Agatha Award for her short fiction and the Anthony Award for editing; she works as an editor at Level Best Books and serves on the Board of Malice Domestic.  

Tonya Spratt-Williams is an avid reader and devoted mystery fan. She is a former member of the Malice Domestic Board of Directors. 

To book onto individual events, or to buy a weekend pass, click here. All individual talks are £3, and the weekend pass is £15. 

As part of a new access initiative here at the Library, all our non-residential events will have one free place available. Details coming soon.

Please note that tickets for this event are e-tickets. Book online and have your ticket emailed directly to you – there is no need to print out an e-ticket for a digital event, but please retain your ticket as proof of purchase. 

You now have the option to save your tickets in your Gladstone Bag! For more information see here.

A print and collect service is available to those without access to email facilities for a small charge to cover our admin costs. Call 01244 532350 or email [email protected] for more information. Printed tickets will be available to collect from Reception before the event.

Important Notice: Alibis in the Archive 2020 postponed to 2021

We are sorry to say that with the greatest regret, we have decided to postpone this year’s Alibis in the Archive. However, you can find details of Alibis 2021 here. Join us online!

During this time of unprecedented uncertainty, we need your support now more than ever. We are a not-for-profit, charitable organization and you can support us at this time.

• Become a Friend of the Library and donate regularly 
• Make a one off donation via this link 

Back by popular demand, Alibis in the Archive (in association with the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club) returns for a third year to bring some of the UK’s best-loved crime writers to Hawarden. Over a weekend of talk sessions and panels, this event centres around The Crime Writers’ Association Archive which incorporates the archives and documentation of The Detection Club, the oldest and most august society of crime writers in the world, and for which Gladstone’s Library is the proud home. 

The Crime Writers’ Association was founded by John Creasey in 1953 to promote and support the crime writing genre. It runs the prestigious Dagger Awards.

The Detection Club was founded in 1930 by a group of leading detective novelists including Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie and Freeman Wills Crofts. It is the oldest and most august society of crime writers in the world. A social and dining organisation, it currently holds three meetings each year where members are elected by secret ballot and there is an ‘initiation ceremony’.

Non-residential tickets are priced at £125. 

Online booking for this event is now closed. To book please call 01244 532350.

Click here to view the full timetable (please note timings may change).

This year's programme features:

Martin Edwards: Julian Symonds and Michael Gilbert: A Personal Perspective

Julian Symonds and Michael Gilbert were two of Britain’s leading male crime writers and commentators of the post-war era. Martin will discuss their work, their influence on the genre – and on his own writing.

Martin Edwards is the author of 18 novels, including the Lake District Mysteries and the Harry Devlin series. The Coffin Trail was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize for Crime Novel of the Year, while All the Lonely People was nominated for the John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first crime novel. He has edited 37 crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics. His non-fiction books include the award-winning The Golden Age of Murder and The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. He has been Chair of the CWA since January 2017, and has received the Red Herring award for services to the CWA. In 2015, he was elected eighth President of the Detection Club. He is also archivist for both the CWA and the Detection Club. In 2017, he received the Poirot award for his contribution to the genre.

David Whittle: Music and Mystery: Edmund Crispin and others

Edmund Crispin is perhaps unique amongst crime writers in that he was also, under his real name of Bruce Montgomery, a professional composer. David will talk about Montgomery’s life, give a few examples of his musical style, and examine how he makes use of music and his experience of the music industry in some of his novels. David will also widen the debate and talk about how a few other crime writers have used musical settings and references in their work.

David Whittle, having been Head Chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, studied Music at the University of Nottingham where he later completed a PhD on Bruce Montgomery (‘Edmund Crispin’). He has contributed to publications such as The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing, Irish Musical Studies and the Literary Review. Until July 2018 he was for 32 years Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School. He recently completed a five-year project to play the complete organ works of JS Bach, and is now setting about a similar assault on Buxtehude’s music. He also has a keen interest in traditional music.

Alison Joseph: Agatha Christie vs Mary Westmacott

Everyone thinks they know Agatha Christie. This may be because she is the most successful crime writer in the history of the world. But it is also because she writes such pared-down, pure examples of the genre. 

In researching her for her own 'Agatha Christie' mysteries, Alison was struck by how she uses Poirot, Marple and co as her 'voice', so that the detective becomes someone behind whom she can hide, maintaining a kind of authorial privacy. 

But it all gets a lot more interesting when one turns to Christie's Mary Westmacott novels, six non-crime novels, although still with her characteristic page-turning drive. Something about the pseudonym seems to liberate her to be more herself, less hidden, exploring failed marriages and flawed motherhood. With a detective at the heart of the story, there can be a unique dialogue between reader and writer, and in all her work Agatha Christie instinctively responds to this.  

Alison Joseph is a crime writer and award-winning radio dramatist. After a career in television documentaries, she began writing full time with the first of the Sister Agnes series of crime novels. She is also the author of a series featuring (a fictional) Agatha Christie as a detective. She is currently working on a standalone thriller about genetics. Alison was Chair of the British Crime Writers’ Association from 2013-2015.

Peter Robinson: Inspector Banks

Join one of the world’s best-known crime writers as he reflects on a life in writing. A novelist and short-story writer, Peter Robinson is the creator of Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, a character featured in over 20 novels, many of which have been critically rewarded as well as being popular best-sellers. Peter is more usually found in Toronto, so we are delighted to welcome him to Alibis.

Peter Robinson was born in Yorkshire. After getting his BA Honours Degree in English Literature at the University of Leeds, he came to Canada and took his MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, with Joyce Carol Oates as his tutor, then a PhD in English at York University. He has taught at a number of Toronto community colleges and universities and served as Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor, 1992-93. His first novel, Gallows View (1987), introduced Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. The Banks novels have gone on to become a force in crime fiction, winning multiple awards and nominated for many more.

Frances Fyfield: P.D. James - An Inspiration

Frances Fyfield gives a personal memoir of P.D. James.

Frances Fyfield spent the first 20 years of her professional life as a criminal lawyer, work which informs many of her crime novels with a second hand knowledge of murder. The other inspiration for her more recent novels is her own collection of British twentieth-century art, and the obsessions of collectors. She has been a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, as the presenter of ‘Tales from the Stave.’ She lives in London and in Deal, overlooking the sea. 

Aline Templeton: The DNA of Tartan Noir

Why is it that so many great Scottish crime writers over the years have been drawn to the darkest side of the genre? A forensic look at the genetic origins of Tartan Noir.

After growing up in the Scottish fishing village of Anstruther, Aline read English at Cambridge University. While her family grew, she plied her trade as a freelance writer. She wrote for newspapers and magazines, as well as appearing on radio and TV. Her novels have all been crime fiction, and have been published in the USA, Germany and several other European countries. Her first was published in 1996, and she went on to develop the popular DI Marjory Fleming series. Her latest novel is Carrion Comfort, published in December, and it is the second in a new series featuring DCI Kelso Strang. She has been Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and is currently a director of the Crime Writers Association.  She lives in Edinburgh in a house with a view of the Castle and a balcony built by an astronomer, the better to observe the stars.

Michael Ridpath: Crime and Place

From the beginning, setting has been an intrinsic part of most crime novels. The Hound of the Baskervilles, for example, would have been a very different story - and probably a different dog - if it was set in St Mary Mead. But as the detective novel developed, settings became both more diverse and more specific. Michael Ridpath looks at how crime novelists have made use of setting over the years.  

Michael Ridpath was born in Devon and brought up in a village at the foot of the Yorkshire Dales. Before becoming a writer, Michael worked in the City of London as a bond trader. He has written eight financial thrillers, two spy novels and a series of crime novels featuring the American-Icelandic detective Magnus Jonson. His latest thriller, Amnesia, is set in the Highlands of Scotland. He is a former Vice Chair of the Crime Writers Association and a member of the Detection Club.

Janet Laurence: How the Female of the Species Developed the Crime Novel

The 30s, the Golden Age of crime writing, saw the emergence of a number of leading female crime writers who can be held responsible for the development of the crime novel. Janet will look at the importance of the female of the species.

Janet Laurence is the author of three crime series of crime novels: One set in the food world featuring cook Darina Lisle; an eighteenth-century one around the Italian painter, Canaletto, during his time in London, both originally published by Macmillan and now available from Amazon. The third is her latest, set at the start of the 20th Century and featuring Ursula Grandison, an American girl in her late twenties visiting England and murder, aided by ex-Metropolitan detective, Thomas Jackman. She is also the author of Writing Crime Fiction, Making Crime Pay; and several cookery books. Under the pen name of Julia Lisle she has published several women’s contemporary fiction. 

An ex-Chair of the UK Crime Writers’ Association, and member of the Detection Club, she has just served a term as a member of the Management Committee of the Society of Authors. She was Writer in Residence and Visiting Fellow at the University of Tasmania’s Jane Franklin college three times. She runs crime writing workshops, is currently Chairman of the CWA International Dagger judging panel, and is an editor for the online Jericho Writers. For over two years she was the weekly cookery columnist for The Daily Telegraph, has written cookery books and contributed to recipe collections. She lives in Somerset and enjoys village life.

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Please note that tickets for this event are e-tickets. Book online and have your tickets emailed directly to you – then save the environment by bringing along your e-ticket on your phone or tablet and have it scanned as you enter the event. If you would prefer to print your ticket, black and white is fine.

A print and collect service is available to those without access to email facilities for a small charge to cover our admin costs. Call 01244 532350 or email [email protected] for more information. Printed tickets will be available to collect from Reception before the event.

Please note one full-event PDF will be emailed to you for this event. No dining tickets are required.

Back by popular demand, Alibis in the Archive (in association with the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club) returns for a second year to bring some of the UK’s best-loved crime writers to Hawarden.

Over a weekend of talk sessions and murder mystery evenings, the weekend centres around The Crime Writers’ Association Archive which incorporates the archives and documentation of The Detection Club, the oldest and most august society of crime writers in the world, and for which Gladstone’s Library is the proud home.

To view the draft timetable please click here.

Featuring:

Professor James Grieve: The March of the Medical Policeman

Professor James Grieve draws on his lifetime expertise in Forensic Pathology. The March of the Medical Policeman will involve musings on murder and mythology through the millennium and review some old cases.

Professor Grieve was brought up in Motherwell and graduated in Medicine from Aberdeen University in 1977. After initial training in Pathology in Aberdeen, he subsequently spent some time in the Royal Army Medical Corps spending two years in Washington DC and about four years in London, before returning to Aberdeen in 1989 as the Senior Lecturer in Forensic Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, retiring from the post in 2014. As Emeritus Professor in Forensic Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, he continues to assist, part-time, in the provision of the Forensic Pathology Service to the North of Scotland. In that role, under instruction from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, he performs post-mortem investigations, to include sudden unexpected natural events, suicides, homicides and accidents, as well as deaths possibly resulting from medical mishap. He has regularly given evidence in the criminal courts and at Fatal Accident Inquiries, and continues to occasionally lecture to Medical and Law students as well as postgraduate groups and the Police. 

Andrew Taylor: Underneath the Glitter - The Dark Origins of Golden Age Crime Fiction

This event will look at some real-life murder cases and discuss how they helped to create the climate which enabled British crime fiction to flourish between the Wars. In particular, Andrew will deal with two cases that were distantly connected to his own family (the Moat Farm Murder of 1899 and the 1921 murder of Irene Wilkins) and discuss the impact on some of his own novels.

Andrew Taylor has won the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, the Historical Dagger (three times) and other awards. His first novel, Caroline Minuscule, won the John Creasey award (now known as the New Blood Dagger). Other books include the international bestseller, The American Boy, about Edgar Allan Poe and boyhood in England; Bleeding Heart Square, a murder mystery with real life antecedents; the Roth Trilogy (filmed for TV as Fallen Angel) which moved backwards in time and experimented in the forms of crime fiction; the Dougal Series; and the Lydmouth Series, set in the 1950s on the borders of England and Wales. His most recent books are the Times number one bestseller The Ashes of London and its sequel The Fire Court, which are set in Restoration England, together with a number of ghost stories. He  also reviews in the Spectator and The Times.

Martin Edwards: 1) Collecting Crime Fiction

Crime fiction has fascinated collectors for many years. First editions of the Sherlock Holmes books, among many others, sell for vast sums, and memorabilia connected with the genre also attracts collectors all around the world. But collecting needn’t cost a fortune  - there is, for instance, a very active trade in “green Penguin” detective stories, and even societies dedicating to collecting that series and the work of various other authors. Martin Edwards will discuss with Andrew Taylor the appeal of collecting crime fiction – which often involves plenty of amateur detective work. Delegates will be able to examine a range of rare and usual books from Martin’s own collection, including several books with suitably mysterious inscriptions

Martin Edwards is the author of 18 novels, including the Lake District Mysteries and the Harry Devlin series. The Coffin Trail was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize for Crime Novel of the Year, while All the Lonely People was nominated for the John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first crime novel. He has edited 37 crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics. His non-fiction books include the award-winning The Golden Age of Murder and The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. He has been Chair of the CWA since January 2017, and has received the Red Herring award for services to the CWA. In 2015, he was elected eighth President of the Detection Club. He is also archivist for both the CWA and the Detection Club. In 2017, he received the Poirot award for his contribution to the genre.

Martin Edwards: 2) The British Crime Writing Archives

The British Crime Writing Archives, inaugurated at Gladstone’s Library last year, continues to grow and attract interest from crime researches worldwide. Martin Edwards, archivist of the CWA and the Detection Club, will tell the story of the archives’ development, and plans for the future, in conversation with colleagues from the CWA and Detection Club.

Sarah Ward: Hidden in Plain Sight - Derbyshire Crime Fiction

Derbyshire has a fascinating history as a location in crime novels. From J Sheridan Le Fanu to Val McDermid, writers have drawn inspiration from the county. Sarah Ward, whose own books are set in the Peak District, explores how the diverse landscape of Derbyshire has produced memorable crime fiction.

Sarah Ward is the author of three DC Childs novels, In Bitter Chill, A Deadly Thaw and A Patient Fury, set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. Her fourth book in the series, The Shrouded Path, is out in September. On her blog Crimepieces she reviews the best of current crime fiction published around the world. She is a judge for the Petrona Award for Scandinavian translated crime novels. Sarah was a 2015 Amazon Rising Star and A Patient Fury was The Observer's Thriller of the Month in 2017.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Making Fun of Death and Political Correctness

Ruth Dudley Edwards explains how she recovers from writing seriously about politics, revolution and terrorism by writing satirical crime novels. Inspired in her childhood by the Golden Age greats – particularly the hilarious Edmund Crispin and Michael Innes - and by comic geniuses like P.G. Wodehouse, the targets of her 12 crime novels include academia (in Cambridge and Indiana), the civil service, the House of Lords, the Church of England, literary prizes, conceptual art and - always - political correctness. A firm believer in learning to laugh at everything and a dedicated opponent of fashionable opinions, she will talk about how she chooses her subjects, why she so loves the crime-writing world and its inhabitants, and why she’s never met a fan of her crime novels that she did not like.   

Brought up and educated in Dublin until she left at 21, historian, journalist and broadcaster Ruth Dudley Edwards has lived in London for decades, describes herself as British-Irish and has been a full-time writer since she left the civil service in 1979. Her non-fiction includes biographies of the Irish revolutionaries Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist 1843-1993, True Brits: inside the Foreign Office, Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the glory days of Fleet Street and The Faithful Tribe: an intimate portrait of the loyal institutions. Winner of the James Tate Black Prize in 1987 for a biography of the publisher Victor Gollancz, Ruth was short-listed in 2017 for the Orwell Prize for The Seven: the Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic. She won the Crime Writers’ Association Non-Fiction Gold Dagger for Aftermath: the Omagh Bombings and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice (2010), the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award for Murdering Americans (2008) and the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award for Killing the Emperors (2013). As a writer and speaker, she believes in saying what she thinks without worrying about offending anyone.

Michael Jecks: Medieval Murder, Mayhem and Magic! - Writing Historical Crime

Michael Jecks, the author of 40 historical novels, will talk about life as a modern crime writer who chooses to write about the past. What are the challenges of researching, plotting and writing medieval murder stories, but also what are the benefits of setting crimes in the past? He will talk about picking the period, finding the characters, choosing the novel’s theme, and trying to avoid the pitfalls, such as how far a horse can travel, where did the roads lead, and where to go for inspiration. Michael’s talk will be based on anecdotes from his own experiences as a professional writer for 25 years, struggling with publishers to bring out books that resonate with the modern world and which people want to read!

Originally working in the computer industry, Michael Jecks has become one of the nation’s most prolific authors, with 41 novels, two short story collections, and seven collaborative works published. He is the author of the best-selling Templar series, which follows the exploits of a fourteenth century Keeper of the King’s Peace; the Bloody Mary Tudor series featuring an incompetent assassin; and his Vintener trilogy, which follows a vintaine of archers on the Crécy, Calais and Poitiers campaigns. A keen supporter of new writing, Michael has been Organiser of the CWA’s Debut Dagger competition and has judged many competitions and awards. For two years he was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, helping Exeter University students to develop their writing, and more recently gave workshops on writing at the Swanwick summer school. The founder of Medieval Murderers, Michael is a past Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, and is Honorary Secretary of the Detection Club. He was International Guest of Honour for the Crime Writers of Canada in 2014. That same year he was honoured to be Grand Master of the first parade at the New Orleans Mardi Gras. Michael can often be found walking his dogs on Dartmoor, which inspires so many of his stories.

Simon Brett: A Crime in Rhyme

A one-man show in which Simon Brett skewers all the clichés of the Golden Age Whodunit. A terrible crime has been committed at Cranfield Towers, during a weekend house party, whose guests all seem to have guilty secrets in their pasts. The local constabulary are summoned to solve the mystery, but fortunately there is also on hand a polymathic amateur sleuth, along with his chauffeur sidekick. The investigation is full of twists and turns, but eventually the perpetrator is unmasked and, in the comforting, reassuring manner of Golden Age Whodunits, sent to the gallows.

A former radio and television producer, Simon Brett has published over 100 books, many of them crime novels. These include the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter, Fethering and Blotto & Twinks series, as well as the standalones A Shock to the System (which was made into a feature film starring Michael Caine), Dead Romantic and Singled Out. Charles Paris currently features in a Radio 4 series starring Bill Nighy as the actor detective. Simon’s writing for radio and television includes After Henry and No Commitments. For the theatre he has written the frequently-performed stage thrillers Murder in Play and Silhouette. Simon has received the CWA Diamond Dagger and was awarded an O.B.E. ‘for services to literature.’

Jessica Mann: Deadlier than the Male

Jessica Mann is the author of 22 crime novels. The first seven, which appeared in the 1970s, are technically “stand-alone” stories. They were followed by six books featuring the archaeologist Tamara Hoyland, who almost by accident gets involved in the world of criminality and treachery.  Later novels feature several recurring characters, including the psychiatrist, Dr Fidelis Berlin, and take place in the same half-real half-imaginary world. In her most recent book, The Stroke of Death, Tamara Hoyland, now middle-aged, reappears. Non-fiction books include a study of women crime writers, Deadlier Than the Male; Out Of Harm’s way, the story of children evacuated overseas during WW2 and a polemic called The Fifties Mystique. Jessica is also a journalist and a book reviewer, at present contributing a monthly  crime fiction column to the Literary Review. In her married name, Jessica Thomas, she has been a member or chairwoman of a variety of committees and boards and public bodies. She and her late  husband, the archaeologist Professor Charles Thomas, lived in Cornwall for more than 40 years. Jessica has now moved back to London.

Peter Lovesey: From Past to Present

Peter Lovesey, CWA Diamond Dagger winner and 2018 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, shares highlights of his outstanding career, starting as an award-winning writer of historical mysteries, and now as an acclaimed author of cutting-edge contemporary crime fiction.

Peter Lovesey was born in Middlesex and studied at Hampton Grammar School and Reading University, where he met his wife Jax. He won a competition with his first crime fiction novel, Wobble to Death, and has never looked back, with his numerous books winning and being shortlisted for nearly all the prizes in the international crime writing world. He was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and has been presented with Lifetime Achievement awards both in the UK and the US.

Gladstone's Library is proud to be working with the CWA and the Detection Club on the development of the British Crime Writing Archive, the first of its kind in the UK.

Please note residential places have now sold out. Non-residential places cost £110 which includes the event plus all food from 6pm Friday until 9.30am Sunday. Full payment is required at the time of booking.

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We are also looking to cast a small troop of willing male and female volunteers for Friday night’s murder mystery event written by Ann Cleeves and presented by Martin Edwards. The script will be sent to you in advance so you can familiarise yourself with it, but you will not need to learn it – we’re more than happy for everybody to read from the scripts on the night! If you are interested in taking part in the murder mystery event, please contact Louisa Yates at [email protected] or 01244 532350.