Returning to the Scenes of the Crimes

 

The weather in England has been consistently - and uncharacteristically, it must be said - lovely for a while now. This may be as good as summer gets this year for all I know, so I've been getting out and about in between spells on the PC, working away at Rachel Savernake's latest adventure and preparing my May newsletter, which is due out soon - please do subscribe if you're interested in more info about crime writing and reading: https://substack.com/@martinedwardsbooks/

I've had a couple of trips which have brought back welcome memories of writing my Harry Devlin novels. (Incidentally, I hope to be able to announce some news about the Harry Devlin books, when I get the go-ahead from my agent.) First, as the above photo shows, I made a trip to Another Place on Formby Beach, the amazing Antony Gormley art installation which had a significant presence in the eighth Harry Devlin novel, Waterloo Sunset, which I think is one of the best. I remember going there to do a publicity photo, with me in profile besides one of the statues' heads. I also recall being alarmed by news that Sefton Council were minded to remove the statues shortly before the book was due to be published. Thankfully, sense prevailed and seventeen years later, the statues are as fascinating and thought-provoking as ever.

On Saturday, I made a pilgrimage back to Knutsford, the town of my birth, for the Royal May Day celebrations. When I was growing up a few miles away in Lostock Gralam, a trip to the big funfair was a great treat, but these days I'm more interested in the parade, which is as good as any I've seen in England. 

It's still led by Jack in the Green, who gets a mention in Suspicious Minds, the second novel I published, way back in 1992. In that book, Harry goes to Knutsford to interview a woman who is based in the town and thinks about the parade. Suspicious Minds is an early example of my novel writing, but when I reread it a few years ago (not something I often do) I felt it held up pretty well despite the passage of time. And it was fun to be reminded of this early effort on a sunny day in a lovely part of the world.