Bodies from the Library 2023

Over the past four weekends I've enjoyed the company of fellow crime fans in a variety of splendid settings - in Oxford (more of which before long), at Gladstone's Library, on Shetland, and most recently at the British Library, where the latest Bodies from the Library event was held. As always, the team of John, Mike, Mark, Susan, and Liz did a great job.

An enjoyable precursor to the event had been a lunch on Friday with the Library's Publications team, and I'm glad to say that the Crime Classics series is continuing to go well. Sales are still very good and we have a number of exciting titles under consideration, as well as several ideas for anthologies. More about these at a future date. On Friday evening, there was a pleasant meal with John Curran, Moira Redmond, and others whom I haven't seen for quite a while.

The first event on Saturday was a discussion by Simon Brett and Len Tyler about some of the more flawed examples of Golden Age fiction (Gladys Mitchell took quite a hammering...) and then Chrissie Poulson and I discussed 'singletons' and the reasons why some published crime writers never return to the genre. Tony Medawar gave a characteristically well-researched talk about S.S. Van Dine, while Kate Jackson discussed her (very enjoyable) new book with Jake Kerridge.

After lunch there was a good episode from the Alfred Hitchcock TV series based on a Dorothy L. Sayers short story,  a discussion about Clifford Witting, a talk by Tom Mead about two hard-to-find locked room mystery novels, a discussion by Jim Noy about 'fair play' and a jolly presentation by Dolores Gordon Smith about Captain Hastings' hidden depths. A panel of us answered questions at the end and then there was a wine reception organised by Maggie Topkiss of Felony and Mayhem, honouring two pillars of the crime community, including Tom Schantz, who died recently.

It was great to see some people I've not met for ages - such as Tina Hodgkinson (from whose Twitter feed the above photo comes) and fellow writers Kate Stacey and Christina Koning - as well as having the chance to meet Maggie for the first time. I was also very glad to meet Lauren Schwartzman, who told me she was a member of the Corpus Christi team which famously won University Challenge in 2009 only to be disqualified on a regrettable technicality. There were plenty of other pleasant conversations, often all too brief, but it's so good to be meeting people again after the long gap caused by the pandemic. A great day.