Peter James Opens Doors

Recently, we’ve been enthused by creator of the Roy Grace crime-thrillers recently diversion into Techno-Thriller Territory with his standalone “Perfect People” –

With clipped chapters, the pace ratchets up when the couple discover at the scan that they are expecting twins, a boy and a girl – but once the children arrive, then Klaesson’s problems really begin, because these two babies are not what their parents expected. With unearthly intelligence, the Klaesson children are ‘more than human’, and soon the dangers that John and Naomi had been dodging are far closer to home. A surreal journey of ethics, science, and religion – and as far away from the dark alleyways of Roy Grace’s Brighton as one could get, but a blindingly hot read set at the edges of our reality and indicative that Peter James can carve a thriller as tortuous as the DNA Double-Helix – In a word, remarkable.

Read the Full Review Here

We were impressed to hear that Peter James will be the inaugural author for Dubai’s new ground-breaking year-long literature program, The Open Door Series. This is a very prestigious honour that proves how hard James, the current Crime Writers Association Chair is opening-doors for his fellow genre writers. Peter James has been a staunch advocate in opposing the snobbery that genre writers sometimes face from “the literati”.

He will be the first international author to embrace the series of events at the Dar Al Adaab, Dubai’s new home of literature, recently opened by the organisers of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. This marks the beginning of a new direction for the festival and the literary life of the city.

As well as the full five day Festival which takes place in Dubai 6-10 March 2012, literature lovers will now be able to look forward to sessions, master-classes and work-shops on a broad range of topics. The events will play an integral part in supporting the festival’s core mission of education and its aim to touch at least 20,000 young people this year.

Festival organisers have already attracted world class authors, writers, poets and journalists including David Nicholls, Michael Portillo, Darren Shan, Jacqueline Wilson and Terry Wogan for the 2012 programme which was previewed last week. The author list and programme is expected to develop every week.

Director of Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Isobel Abulhoul said:
“We are thrilled and grateful to have this lovely historic house to call home and to start our programme of inclusive, open door year round events with the wonderful Peter James, who was one of our founding Festival authors,” she added.

Dar Al Adaab (House of Literature)’ is a traditional ‘bakheel’ (wind tower) house and is one of the first permanent structures to be built in Dubai in the late 19th century. It is located in the Bastakiya heritage area of Dubai, the oldest part of the city.

Built around a traditional courtyard and retaining many of its original features, the house has been refurbished to provide offices for festival staff, reading rooms, workshop rooms, speaking platforms and two bedrooms for visiting authors and authors-in-residence. It has been given to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), partners of the LitFest.

Author updates and all other information regarding the 2012 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is available here and more information about Peter James’ work can be found here

Photo © 2011 Ali Karim “Peter James with his US publisher Hector De-Jean of Minotaur Books” at Bouchercon St Louis.