Agatha and Good Company

 

Saturday was a perfect day in many ways. Wonderful weather - especially for northwest England in April - and a very enjoyable mystery-linked event. This was in the church at Cheadle, where Kate Ellis (who lives in Cheadle) and I were in conversation about Agatha Christie, an event moderated very well indeed by Lucy Dusgate. This was a slickly organised affair with well over 200 people present, and it was great to see a number of old friends including Dea Parkin, Matthew Booth, Jean Briggs, Cilla Masters, and Dolores Gordon-Smith.

I also enjoyed chatting with Andy Sykes, whom I hadn't met before. Andy is a local writer and I included a story of his in a recent CWA anthology. He was happy about that, and from an editor's perspective it is really gratifying to have happy contributors and to give a chance to writers who are relatively new to publication in the crime field. I've always been very keen to try to achieve a pleasing mix between established names and fresh voices. Some of the former group may be good friends of mine (Kate is a good example and she's had stories in several of my anthologies) but I'm not a believer in cronyism. For the sake of the reader, the focus has to be on quality and variety.

After the event, a number of us went on a very enjoyable walk to nearby Abney Park and Hall, the former home of Agatha's sister Madge, who was married to a local businessman, James Watt. It was fascinating to walk along paths that Agatha once walked - she made no secret of the fact that she loved Abney. And then we repaired to the James Watt pub (yes! that's its name) in Cheadle, and had a half of Sherlock Holmes ale.

Later, there was a lovely barbecue with Kate and her husband Roger and other friends. It was all very enjoyable, and to top it all, Kate kindly presented me with a copy of her new Joe Plantaganet book, Killing in the Shadows. She really is good at titles, and I'm sure the content will be equally pleasing.