I mentioned in last Monday's post about David Stuart Davies that he received the Red Herring award at the CWA Daggers Dinner in 2018. That was a truly memorable night for me, as I was not only host for the evening, but I received the CWA Dagger in the Library. And something else that made the occasion special and one that I won't forget was that I had the delightful company of the highly successful TV writer Jude Tindall, the guest speaker, who attended along with her sister, and shared a table with my wife Helena and me.
Whereas I knew David for so many years, that was the only time I ever met Jude, but she did make a great impression on me as a vivacious personality. So it was a tremendous shock to read her obituary in the newspaper the other day - she has died at the young age of 60.
Jude achieved fame and fortune as a result of writing light television mysteries - Father Brown, Shakespeare and Hathaway and the Sister Boniface Mysteries were her most famous shows. I found it interesting to talk to her about television and the differences between writing for the screen and writing novels. I asked her if she fancied writing a novel, but it didn't seem to be on her agenda. She was doing very well as she was.
Jude was great fun. She told me she was nervous about her speech - something I only took seriously when she confessed that she'd never made an after-dinner speech before. There certainly was a kind of stream of consciousness feel about things when she did take the stage and start talking, but the audience loved her. Gary Stratmann's photo below captures the magical moment when I was announced as the Dagger in the Library winner. Jude is in the foreground, her sister just behind.
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