Simon Brett Awarded CWA Diamond Dagger Award

The Crime Writers’ Association is delighted to announce that the 2014 Diamond Dagger will be awarded to Simon Brett.

The Diamond Dagger is voted for by members of the CWA and celebrates an author with an outstanding body of work in crime fiction. Past winners include Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Frederick Forsyth and Elmore Leonard. In 2013 the award went to Lee Child.

June in London hosted by Lucy Worsley, who recently explored the phenomenon of our fascination with murder in the BBC television series ‘A very British Murder’

Chair of the CWA, Alison Joseph said: ‘'I am delighted that the CWA Diamond Dagger for 2014 is to be awarded to Simon Brett.  He is a writer of great wit and integrity, and his success over the years has been very well deserved. The Diamond Dagger is awarded not only for a writer's work but also for their contribution to the genre, and Simon has always been a stalwart supporter of his fellow writers. I am sure I am not alone in feeling that it is entirely appropriate and merited that Simon should be receiving this award.'

Simon Brett is the author of over ninety books, most of them crime novels, including the Charles Paris (the most recent book in the series is (A Decent Interval (2013)), Mrs Pargeter, Fethering (Strangling on the Stage (2013)) and Blotto & Twinks series (Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, 2013)).  His psychological thriller, A Shock to the System, was filmed starring Michael Caine. For radio he wrote No Commitments, Smelling of Roses, Foul Play and After Henry, which was also successful on television. 

A former Chair of both the Crime Writers’ Association and The Society of Authors, he also chaired the Public Lending Right Advisory Committee from 2003 to 2008.  Since 2001 he has been the President of the Detection Club.

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Lucy Santos, CWA Director, can be contacted on 07921252951 or by emailing director@thecwa.co.uk

The Crime Writers’ Association has been running since 1953 and is most famous for the Dagger Awards; the longest-established literary awards in the UK.