Elmore Leonard Remembered

Over at The Rap Sheet, the hardest working editor in Crime Fiction, Jeff Peirce is running a wonderful homage to Elmore Leonard, featuring many names from the genre all paying their respects.

Included in part one of this feature is a contribution by the Shots Editors -

I was fortunate to have met Elmore Leonard a few years ago in London, when the British Crime Writers’ Association presented him with its Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement. My friend and Shots editor Mike Stotter was excited that day. He had been heavily influenced by Leonard’s work, and it had even given him the confidence to pen his own Westerns, all the way from London.

Mike went on to write about that event for Shots, recalling:

I managed to grab five minutes with Dutch and I told him that he was my inspiration in writing Westerns, and he was genuinely pleased. I also had with me a hardback copy of The Fatal Frontier, which contained my very first short story (actually an extract from McKinney’s Revenge, my first full-length Western). I asked Dutch to sign it for me. He took a look at the cover, and said, “This is an odd one.” To which I replied, “It’s the first anthology in which I have a story published alongside you.” He laughed and said, “Well, a Brit Western writer. Well done.”

Read part one of The Rap Sheet’s Homage to Elmore Leonard here

Photos © A Karim 10^th May 2006 The London Savoy, Elmore Leonard receiving the CWA Diamond Dagger Award [for lifetime achievment from Monsieur Arnaud Bamberger of Cartier [Top]; Colin Dexter listening to Elmore Leonard's acceptance speech; Mike Stotter and Elmore Leonard and at bottom, London critics Barry Forshaw, Ali Karim and Mike Stotter congratulating Elmore 'Dutch' Leonard for his outstanding contribution to the Crime Fiction Genre

So let us celebrate the legacy Elmore Leonard left us, and as we imagine him riding into the sunset, remember he is leaving behind some wonderful writing and cinematic works for future generations to discover.