2016 - People and Places

Each year brings its ups and downs as well as many unforgettable moments. For me, 2016 has been a wonderful twelve months, but before reflecting on some of the lovely people I've spent time with, and some of the fantastic places I've visited, allow me to pause and remember some old friends who died this year, including fellow crime writers Stuart Pawson and Tim Heald. I've happy memories of both of them; not least driving around Arizona with Stuart and his wife Doreen (she took the above photo of Stuart and me) and spending a bizarre but convivial weekend with Tim at a book festival to which hardly anyone came.

This year I've taken part in events to which quite a lot of people did come, in the company of a fascinating range of people - John Simenon, son of Georges, at the Essex Book Festival, for instance, and Kate Summerscale, Simon Brett and James Runcie at the London Library's 175th anniversary celebration, while Mark Lawson interviewed  Ann Cleeves and me at the British Library. I've given talks at libraries in Cheshire and Nottinghamshire, as well as hosting a murder mystery evening in North Wales and giving an after-lunch talk to the Margery Allingham Society. The CWA's conference at Norwich was not only convivial; it gave me the chance to fulfil an ambition of taking a boat trip on the Norfolk Broads. Each event had its own character; each was pleasurable. And having met John, it was especially amusing to share a seat with a statue of his father when on the Simenon trail in Liege a few months later.

Further afield, I've met up with old friends at Malice Domestic in Bethesda and at the New Orleans Bouchercon. And I've made a number of lovely new friends, including Shelly Dickson Carr, grand-daughter of the king of the locked room mystery, and Cathy Ace, born in Wales but resident in Canada, another writer of distinction. One of the most surreal moments of the year was joining up with Ali Karim and Mike Stotter on a flight from Atlanta and then taking a stretch limo from the airport to the Bouchercon hotel. Amazingly, it was cheaper than the regular transport. Only in New Orleans, I guess...

Through my involvement with the British Library, I've attended some terrific exhibitions and. I can strongly recommend the current exhibition on maps. A murder mystery weekend organised by Joy Swift in Stratford-on-Avon was great fun - Joy's events are also a must if you love interactive mysteries. As for seeing Burt Bacharach and Joss  Stone on stage at the Royal Festival Hall in the summer, it was a special treat. So were a birthday trip on a steam train in Llangollen, and a climb up to the limestone pavement at the top of Malham Cove on a sunny day which ended with a Yorkshire supper at Betty's Tea Room in Ilkley, where I gave a talk about Gil North's Sergeant Cluff.

Quite apart from conventions, I've done a lot of travelling, to places as varied as Antigua, Avignon, and Antwerp, Seville and St Thomas, Cordoba and Costa Rica, Brussels and Barbados, Stockholm and St Maarten, Panama and Puerto Rico. I've eaten in one of the late Stieg Larsson's favourite dining spots, been a guest of Janet Hutchings at Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine brunch in Bethesda, drinks party in New York, and dinner in New Orleands, as well as sharing a dinner table with Lee Child, Val McDermid and Andrew Taylor in Oxford. Nobody's lucky all the time, but I've certainly had a huge amount of good fortune this past year. Believe me, I'm grateful for it. .

Maigret Sets a Trap - ITV review

Maigret Sets a Trap, starring Rowan Atkinson as the legendary French cop, aired on ITV this evening. Many eyebrows were raised by the casting of Atkinson as Georges Simenon's Chief Inspector Maigret, but John Simenon expressed his delight with the performance when we discussed Golden Age fiction on stage at the Essex Book Festival a fortnight ago, and having seen the show, I can see why. Atkinson, I felt, did a pretty good job. There's more to him as an actor than Blackadder and Mr Bean.

I never saw the famous Maigret series starring Rupert Davies, for which I was too young, but I did enjoy one of John's anecdotes about it - apparently his father taught Rupert Davies how to use a pipe. Wisely, the pipe was retained for the new show: Maigret without his pipe would be rather like Morse without opera or Marple without her knitting - somehow incomplete. Maigret doesn't drive, and Atkinson - a car obsessive - wanted to change that, but wisely, the temptation was again resisted.

I did see the series in which Michael Gambon played Maigret,and I quite liked it, but felt that it lacked excitement. Some aspects of the Maigret stories are low-key (and when I first read them as a teenager, I was slightly underwhelmed, although with hindsight I feel that this was perhaps due to the nature of the translations) but a crime story that doesn't grip and, in some way, excite doesn't have much of a future. The Maigret books are short and snappy, and I worried that a two-hour version might drag.

Stewart Harcourt's script set out to solve that problem with sparse dialogue, and a concentration on mood rather than plot twists. Watching Maigret Sets a Trap was a very different experience from watching Morse, Lewis or Endeavour, but a capable supporting cast, including Fiona Shaw, Aidan McCardle, and Lucy Cohu - very good as Madame Maigret - helped to make it enjoyable viewing. (And did I spot John Simenon making a cameo appearance at the end of the story? I think so.)

Coincidentally, I embarked on a Simenon reading binge a little while ago, and the republication of his work by Penguin, with excellent fresh translations, has re-ignited my enthusiasm for this remarkable author. So has hearing John speak about his father, with insight and affection. I'm hoping to review a number of Simenon books in the coming months - not just Maigrets, but also some of his non-series work. In the meantime, I look forward to the next TV adaptation.

The Essex Book Festival

I've just returned from the Essex Book Festival. A long way to go - I set off from snowy Lymm on Friday morning and finished up admiring a rather magical sunset over the water at Southend-on-Sea. But it was a good trip, and I was glad to play a small part in a huge county-wide event that is a credit to those in charge: Seona Ford, Camilla Shestopal, Ros Green, and their various colleagues.

I had the great pleasure of meeting John Simenon, son of the legendary Georges, at a dinner on Friday evening. John has co-produced the imminent new version of Maigret, and was full of admiration for the performance of Rowan Atkinson. Definitely one to look out for. The following morning, I made the short journey to Westcliff to admire the truly fantastic book collection of John Cooper, who co-wrote two of my favourite books about the genre with Barry Pike. One or two items - inscribed books by Georgette Heyer and Henry Wade - stand out in my memory; the former is among the most interesting Golden Age items I've ever seen.

Then it was back to Southend, in time for lunch and then a session moderated by journalist Jake Kerridge in which John Simenon and I enjoyed talking about Golden Age fiction from our different perspectives. An hour and a half sped by. After that, I moderated a panel about international crime fiction. Prior to the Festival, I'd worried about whether I'd be able to do a satisfactory job, given that,the focus of the panellists' books are very different from mine. But one of the great things about crime fiction, I believe, is that the connections between crime novelists, however diverse their writing, are highly positive,and so it proved.

So special thanks to the four people who made up a really excellent panel - see Lucy Dauman's phot above - from which I learned a lot. Leye Adenie is a first time novelist from Nigeria, the grandson of a Nigerian king and -  I discovered over a glass or two of his favourite red wine that evening - also an IT expert and creator of patented inventions. We had a fascinating discussion. Robert Karjel is Swedish, and was until recently a Lieutenant Colonel in the Swedish air force. He's written four novels over the past fifteen years or so, and the success of My Name Is N, a thriller with a memorable protagonist, Ernst Grip, has enabled him to concentrate on writing full-time. Robert and I had a chip supper together on the seafront late on Saturday evening in weather conditions that can best be described as "bracing". Zgymunt Miloszeweski is a Polish writer whose books about another interesting central character, called Szacki, have made a big hit. And last but certainly not least was Anya Lipska, a Brit married to Pole whose books about an East End Polish fixer who teams up with a female cop have already won a substantial and enthusiastic following.  It was a real pleasure to get to know this quartet of writers, and to be part of a terrific Festival.