I've taken part in every Bodies from the Library since the event began ten years ago. Each time it's been highly enjoyable but I must say that this year the organisers - take a bow John, Mark, Susan, and Liz - excelled themselves. Attendance equalled the previous best ever figure and the mood from start to finish was extremely convivial. The crime writing and reading community is one I've always loved and this particular branch of it is delightful.
The previous evening I'd enjoyed a lovely dinner at St Pancras with two of my friends and fellow speakers, Christine Poulson and Moira Redmond, and the pleasurable mood continued throughout Saturday. Space doesn't permit me to mention all the people I enjoyed chatting to, but the programme offered plenty of variety and some very knowledgeable speakers.
The morning kicked off with a conversation between me and Gary Wrigglesworth, who is in charge of marketing the British Library's Crime Classics, and we were followed by Victoria Dowd who talked about Gothic elements of Golden Age fiction. John Curran celebrated Bodies' tenth birthday by highlighting vintage mysteries with 'ten' or 'X' in the title, and Tony Medawar somehow managed to give a comprehensive account of Ngaio Marsh's long career in the space of thirty minutes and Jake Kerridge and Moira had a fascinating conversation about reference works dealing with Golden Age fiction. Ronaldo Fagarazzi took us through some clips from that great TV series Detective, while Len Tyler discussed the murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey. Ronaldo, Kate Jackson, and Moira talked about blogging and then a group of us answered questions from the audience before a wine reception sponsored by HarperCollins
In addition, Christine and I had a conversation about Fiona Sinclair. This was special for me because the audience included a large group of Fiona's family members and family friends, who had arranged a reunion connected to the event (and republication of Scandalize My Name). It was poignant to meet some of them, including Fiona's daughter, and to appreciate how much the republication of Fiona's first novel has mean to them.
I enjoyed myself from start to finish. A truly memorable day.
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