Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award

 

Harvill Secker and Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival are back in 2021, collaborating to host an award that will seek the most exciting new crime fiction by writers of colour. The prize will be judged by winner of the inaugural competition and author of debut novel The Waiter, Ajay Chowdhury, journalist and public speaker Paula Akpan, Creative Producer at Words of Colour, Heather Marks and Harvill Secker Editorial Director Jade Chandler. 

Ajay Chowdhury is the winner of the inaugural Harvill Secker and Bloody Scotland Crime Writing competition. He is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director who lived the first third of his life in India and then moved to London. The Waiter is his debut crime thriller. 

Paula Akpan is a journalist, historian and public speaker. A sociology graduate from the University of Nottingham, her work mainly focuses on blackness, queerness, and social politics and she regularly writes for a variety of publications including Vogue, Teen Vogue, The Independent, Stylist, VICE, i-D, Bustle, Time Out London and more. She’s also contributed essays to collections including Slay In Your Lane’s anthology Loud Black Girls (4th Estate Books) and the UK Black Women’s movement for the forthcoming Queer Bible Anthology (HQ). Paula is currently studying Black British History as a fully-funded Masters student at Goldsmiths and is the director of charitable incorporated company The Black Queer Travel Guide. 

Heather Marks is Creative Producer at Words of Colour - a creative development agency for writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs of colour, that collaborates with organisations and institutions on systemic transformation programmes that facilitate inclusion and action. She's also part of the small but mighty No Bindings - an independent press and publishing innovation studio that designs and delivers hybrid print-audio productions and workshops, with a view to democratizing the story industry. Heather is also a freelance editor and journalist who has been featured in The Stage, The Bookseller, and Bristol 24/7. She writes historical fiction for young adults and has a first-look deal with Chicken House. 

Entrants to the competition will be asked to submit the first 5,000 words of their crime novel, along with a full plot outline. Entries will open on 2 June 2021 and will run until the 4 August 2021, with the winner announced in September 2021. 

The winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award will have their book published, under the Harvill Secker imprint, in a publishing deal with an advance of £5,000. The prize package alongside the winner’s publishing contract will include being programmed for a panel appearance at the Bloody Scotland festival, and a guest pass for the weekend’s events. The Arvon Foundation is also supporting the competition as a sponsor – they are offering the winner the invaluable chance to attend any one of their creative writing courses. The Reading Agency are also working to support the award in 2021 and will be promoting the competition to libraries across the UK. 

Jade Chandler said: ‘Writers of colour remain underrepresented in crime and thriller writing, so I am proud that we are able to partner with Bloody Scotland once again to run this important writing competition. This genre is varied and offers exciting opportunities for page- turning, creative storytelling; I can’t wait to read this year’s entries. It has been a pleasure to work with Ajay Chowdhury on his debut crime novel, The Waiter, since he won the inaugural prize in 2018, and I’m delighted that he is joining us on the judging panel this time round!’ 

Bob McDevitt said: ‘Last year's virtual festival allowed us to invite writers of colour from every corner of the globe to create a truly diverse programme. We look forward to continuing that with this initiative helping us to discover home grown writers of colour leading to more diverse festivals overall.’ 

Ajay Chowdhury said: ‘Having enjoyed the utter thrill of my book, The Waiter, winning in 2018, and getting published, I’m so very happy to be part of the process of making this happen for someone else. Diverse voices make crime fiction richer and I’m excited about helping another writer share their unique viewpoint.’ 

Paula Akpan said: ‘I'm so excited to be joining the panel as a judge, especially as this genre is both one of my favourites to read but also a hard one to get right. Can't wait to get stuck in and see what all these budding writers and authors have whipped up!’ 

Heather Marks said: ‘I am so pleased to be joining the judging panel for the Harvill Secker- Bloody Scotland crime writing prize. Given the recommendations of last year's Rethinking Diversity in Publishing report, this is a great opportunity for a crime writer of colour to be published and supported with their craft. Bring on the suspense!’

More information about the competition and how to enter can be found here.

Of Broadchurch, Murder and More...

Little, Brown has bought world rights to a novel inspired by ITV crime series "Broadchurch".

Sphere Fiction commissioning editor Jade Chandler bought the book from Cathy King at Independent Talent, representing "Broadchurch" screenwriter Chris Chibnall, who will co-write the novel with thriller author Erin Kelly.

As well as including previously unseen material, the novel—to be published next August—will "elaborate on the existing plot, delving deeper into the lives and back stories of the existing characters".

Chibnall paid tribute to Kelly's writing, describing it as "beautiful, emotive and suffused with tension", while Kelly commented: "Like everyone else I know, I was gripped and moved by 'Broadchurch'. I’m utterly thrilled to be writing the novel, not least because it gave me an excuse to watch the whole series again, multiple times. It’s testament to the writing, the performances and the photography that I was spellbound even when I knew the outcome. I can’t wait to delve even deeper into the hearts and thoughts of the characters and to bring the town to life on the page."

US rights in the novel have been sold to Minotaur at St Martin's Press.

"Broadchurch", set in a small Dorset town and starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman as a mismatched detective duo, had viewing figures of nine million and has been recommissioned for a second series. The drama has just won four TV Daggers at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards and has been sold to 100 territories worldwide, including the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands and China.

Audiobook publisher and retailer AudioGO has confirmed that it has filed for administration.

Sad news for the BBC Audiobook company it has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on Friday (25th October), with firm BDO expected to be appointed to the role this week.

The company suspended its business operations earlier this month, following "recently discovered significant financial challenges". Hopes that the company would find a buyer or investor before administration have now receded.

Based in Bath, AudioGO has a workforce of around 100 employees and employs a stable of freelance producers, editors and actors. The company has confirmed that "significant redundancies" are expected later this week.

AudioGO were responsible for producing crime and thrillers for authors such as Agatha Christie, David Baldacci, Dick Francis, Lindsey Davis, M.C.Beaton and John le Carré – to name but a few.

Novelist Solves Decades-Old Crime?

The 1931 murder of Julia Wallace has been one of Britain’s most notorious crimes--at least until now, if the findings of novelist P.D. James are correct. Though, given James’ experience in thinking about death and murder through 20 novels, one would think she’d be in the know.

According to The Guardian, James isn’t the first novelist to be fascinated by the case “which Raymond Chandler described as the ‘the nonpareil of all murder mysteries’. Dorothy L. Sayers wrote that it ‘provides for the detective novelist an unrivalled field for speculation’.”

Writing in the Sunday Times magazine, James claimed that the murder of Julia Wallace in Liverpool, which “compares only to the Ripper murders in 1888 in the amount of writing, both fiction and non-fiction, which it has created”, was misunderstood from the beginning by the police, the judge and jury.

Her 1982 novel, The Skull Beneath the Skin, the fictional murder of Lady Ralston, is thought to parallel the Wallace case, and she refers to it directly in the detective chief-inspector Dalgliesh novel, The Murder Room (2003).

The Guardian goes on to detail the available clues that convinced James her positing was correct. The case is “essentially tragic and has psychological subtleties to which it would take a Balzac to do justice,” James wrote. She builds a picture of Wallace as a man worn down by failure and disappointment who eventually cracked: “Perhaps when he struck the first tremendous blow that killed her, and the 10 afterwards delivered with such force, it was years of striving and constant disappointment that he was obliterating.”

Julia Wallis

Back in 2002, Patricia Cornwell put forth a similarly forceful theory with regards to the true identity of Jack the Ripper, a theory she outlined closely in her non-fiction book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed.

Blow the Bloody Doors off!

London's Barbican Hall is to host an evening of music by Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, John Barry and Roy Budd from Michael Caine's most iconic films on 6 February 2014 @ 19:30
The four films singled out for concert performances here are classics with music composed by an exceptional quartet of musicians - Alfie (Sonny Rollins), The Ipcress File (John Barry), The Italian Job (Quincy Jones) and Get Carter (Roy Budd).
These composers represent the best of British and American music of the time. Musical director Terry Edwards (whose recent Barbican performances include Beck: Song Reader Live and Big Star’s Third) has assembled a crack team of versatile musicians from places as far-flung as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Polar Bear and Madness.

The evening places the music centre stage, intercut with excerpts from the films. Click here to book.