Ghost Walk

I’ve returned from a hugely enjoyable weekend at the Crime Writers’ Association annual conference in Lincoln. This was organised by Roger Forsdyke, a very experienced police officer and long-standing member of the CWA, with help from his wife Penny and various colleagues in the CWA. Roger did a great job, and there were numerous highlights.

The first came on Friday evening, with a ghost walk around the city’s historic castle and cathedral area, only a stone’s throw from the hotel where we were staying. Here are some photographs from the evening – the weather was much sunnier than one normally associates with a ghost walk, but appearances deceive, as it was rather cold. But in the low evening sun, Lincoln looked lovely. Not a city I know too well, but it's very appealing.

In the photo featuring the cannon, incidentally, you may recognise a number of very talented writers – Robert Richardson, Keith Miles, Judith Cutler, Rebecca Tope, Peter Lovesey and Kate Ellis.

End of an era

I was very sorry to read that Murder One, the legendary crime bookshop in Charing Cross Road, has fallen victim to the credit crunch, and is to close at the end of this month. I well remember my delight when the shop first opened, in Denmark Street. Over the years, naturally, I bought quite a number of books there. After a while, at the 1990 Bouchercon, I got to know the owner, Maxim Jakubowski, who is a man of many parts. Not least, he is a prolific and notable crime anthologist; I am in his debt, for if he hadn't included 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' in his Best British Mysteries, it would never have won the CWA Short Story Award. I'm sure he will continue to feature prominently in the crime fiction world.

Roughly a decade ago, central London boasted no fewer than three specialist crime fiction bookshops, all of which have now gone (although Goldsborough Books has arrived, and continues to fly the flag in Cecil Court.) The Mysterious Bookshop, an offshoot of the American shop of the same name, did not last too long, although I one did a very enjoyable book launch event there with Andrew Taylor, at a time when we were both published by Hodder. There was also a very nice shop called Crime in Store, not far from The Strand, where on another occasion I did a launch with Judith Cutler and Julia Wallis Martin. I'd worry that hosting event involving me would spell doom for any shop, but I never had a launch at Murder One (though come to think of it, as the photo confirms, they did feature Waterloo Sunset in the window display a while back...)

Small businesses up and down the country are suffering through no fault of their own. Bookshop businesses are, by their nature, highly vulnerable to economic stresses and strains, and their disappearance from the scene is bad news for customers, and especially for the people who work in them. I’d hoped that Murder One would continue to survive, and I’m sad that it hasn’t. But it’s worth paying tribute to Maxim for his vision in setting it up,and for keeping it going for almost 21 years. Quite an achievement, quite a bookshop.