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Murder they wrote and blue murder they may scream if two best selling crime writers don't get to the sweet section this afternoon!
For even authors who specialise in doling out great dollops of blood, lashings of gore and psychological thrills and spills to others tend to have sweet natures.
Peter Robinson and Sophie Hannah are no exception. Murder's a living for two of the best exponents of the contemporary crime genre at a Lytham Hall literary lunch today.
"Sometimes they sandwich us between the main course and the sweet," admits Peter Robinson, creator of the DCI Banks mysteries which are soon to be serialised on TV.
Peter added: "I'm easy so long as they stay awake and I get to the sweet myself." It's two courses so both are settling for mints and coffee. That's life.
This is murder served cold by Peter and
fellow Hodder and Stoughton star Sophie, one of Britain's best selling poets, children's book and short story writers.
The 40 charge is almost criminally good value, for it includes signed hardback copy of Peter's new book, The Price of Love, and
Sophie's latest paperback thriller, The Other Half Lives, glass of bubbly, two course lunch, talk, and question and answers too.
All four of Sophie's novels have been snapped up for ITV1 too.
Today's big name author event is down to Elaine Silverwood, one half of the award
winning duo who own, and run, Silverdell's bookshop at Kirkham.
She's currently wooing Lord Bragg of
Wigton, Melvyn Bragg, for a literary dinner. Other big names scooped for shop, Lowther Pavilion, Carr Hill School and County Hall events include Jack Dee, Gordon Smith, et Al (Murray). Another, top secret, VIP will require hush hush security for his field of expertise.
Peter and Sophie are a trifle miffed to be missing out on the usual themed icecream created, by Elaine, to honour authors invited to celebrity signing sessions.
Being sharp as a knife, it's not been missed. Peter craved a sticky toffee pudding-caramel concoction. Sophie? Toffee too, but spiced up.No raspberry sauce, too much of a cliche for crime writers. "Some like it hot," she adds.
This wry witted woman's poetry book,
Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 TS Eliot Poetry Prize, the one all poets want to win, according to former Laureate
Andrew Motion, but her thrillers are almost gothic in their scale, precision of plot, pace, creepiness, twists and turns. Which genre does she prefer? "It depends on my mood. And
poetry and novels have a lot in common, the importance of structure. In a poem every word has be in the right position in relation to the other. In a crime novel if you want to have a big revelation you lay the groundwork early.
"I do about 40-50 words of plan, so by the time I sit down I know I can tell the story, and not write myself into a corner.
"I'll start at about 11am and end around 6.30pm, to 7pm, when my family appear at the door of my study and announce they are
hungry.
"My husband has long since despaired of me being a proper wife and mother.
"People assume novelists make more money than poets but you'll find most writers need to have day jobs too.
"Once you make it, you then have to work to keep it. Crime fiction is a more commercial genre."
Sophie lives in West Yorkshire. Fellow writer Peter, born in Leeds, also lives in white rose county, splitting time between Richmond and Canada. He's won umpteen awards, too, but the plaudit that matters most is the honourary
Doctor of Letters picked up from his alma mater, Leeds University, this year.
Peter's got two new books out, within a day of each other, All the Colours of Darkness, and The Price of Love, a collection of short stories which includes a novella which explains how Peter's best known creation Inspector Alan Banks got his scar.
"It's a bit of a treat for regular fans and
newcomers alike," he adds. "It's not a novel but it's about as long as any Maigret novels were!"
It bridges some gaps for those who read his novels with forensic precision. It's also meant a round of personal appearances. Peter recently shared a platform with Ruth Rendell and Ian Rankin.
In a parallel world he'd have liked to be a rock star. "An ageing one, more Keith Richard than Mick Jagger.
"One's who faded disgracefully...."
He says success through writing was on slow burn. He began in the '80s, racking up awards, but it took his 10th Inspector Banks mystery, In A Dry Season, to really establish him. All the Colours of Darkness is his 19th in the series.
"For a long time I was barely alive, until that made the breakthrough," he concludes. "Crime fiction is a cut throat market and you have to keep moving, keep working hard.
"I have about three books on the go at any given time, the one just out, proofing the one I've finished, and writing the one after that. And then I have the little book of notes for the next...!
"The biggest buzz is seeing your work
published in other countries. Japan took some beating. TV would be nice but doesn't
necessarily sell more books.
"Having a great actor in the role helps as it did for Colin Dexter's Morse. Me? I'd quite like Neil Pearson as Banks."
* For details on coming literary events from Silverdell call 01772 683444 or visit www.silverdellbooks.co.uk. All The Colours of Darkness (16.99) and The Price of Love (17.99) by Peter Robinson, and The Other Half Lives (6.99) by Sophie Hannah, are published by Hodder and Stoughton.
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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