Two years ago, my partner and I attended the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival at The Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate. Writing friends had recommended it so, for our first one, we thought we’d just go along and see what it was all about. One of the first sights we saw was Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher books, walking right in front of us. And it wasn’t long before we spotted Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham and Val McDermid. It was such a relaxed atmosphere, with famous authors happy to be talked to and photographed.
We made for the beer tent and managed to grab a table. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves making new friends with authors, book bloggers and readers, as well as seeing a few familiar faces we’d met at other festivals. Some of them had been to the author talks, while others raved about murder mystery dinners, panels, book signings and all sorts of other special events they’d attended, and they all seemed to have goody bags, bulging with books.
The event lasts four days and we’d only popped over for the last full afternoon. When we left, we were determined to go back the following year and this time, to fully participate. Life took over and so we missed the 2018 festival, but we weren’t going to miss 2019.
As it turned out, we missed the first event we’d booked to see, thanks to the traffic and a lost wallet, but that’s another story…
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Esther Chilton 
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