Thomas H. Cook and Jill Paton Walsh

I admire a good many crime writers, past and present, and in the last few years I’ve developed a particular enthusiasm for the work of Thomas H. Cook. I’ve read some but by no means all of his novels, and Red Leaves is among my all-time favourites. Breakheart Hill is also brilliant.

So it was a great pleasure finally to meet the man himself at Harrogate. The subtly melancholic tone of his writing had made me wonder what he might be like in person; suffice to say that I found that he is both affable and charming. Because I am a fan as well as a crime writer - and I shall always be a fan, and in awe of great writers - I was especially delighted by Tom Cook's very kind personal inscription on my copy of one of his earlier books, Sacrificial Ground.

I also had the chance of a conversation with Jill Paton Walsh, once short-listed for the Booker Prize, and the author of the Imogen Quy novels. She pointed out to me (what I’d failed to realise) that her heroine’s initials were a jokey hint at the intellectual aspirations of the fictional detective. In the mystery field, Jill is best known for finishing Dorothy L. Sayers’ Thrones, Dominations. She’s written another ‘new’ Lord Peter Wimsey novel, and a third is in the works. Something to look forward to.