Christine Poulson

The Crime Writers’ Association has announced that Christine Poulson is to succeed Rebecca Tope as its membership secretary – so, if you are a published crime writer, in the UK (or overseas – there are many members from different parts of the world), and you would like to join this very friendly and worthwhile organisation Chrissie is the person to contact.

I got to know Chrissie quite a few years ago as a fellow member of the Northern Chapter of the CWA. Born in Yorkshire and now living in Derbyshire, she is an academic who wears her considerable learning lightly. She has, among other things, published a book on Arthurian legend in British Art.

She and I shared a platform last August, giving successive papers at the very convivial St Hilda’s College Crime Fiction week-end, and her contribution was really fascinating. It was intriguing that we’d picked some similar examples from the genre to make our points on the theme of the conference.

In addition to her other accomplishments, Christine Poulson is also a talented author, and she deserves to be better known. I had the pleasure of including her enjoyable story ‘The Lammergeier Vulture’ in a CWA anthology, Crime on the Move, that I edited a while back. When it comes to novels, she has enjoyed success with a series featuring a Cambridge academic, Cassandra James. I have on my over-loaded bookshelves two of the books in the series, and I’m looking forward very much to reading them. There is a link to Chrissie’s blog on the blogroll, and I can recommend it. Her posts are always thoughtful and full of interest.