Another Crime, Another Place: the role of location in crime fiction.’ - St Hilda's Mystery and Crime Conference 2017

St Hilda’s College Mystery and Crime Conference 18 / 20 August 2017

‘Another Crime, Another Place: the role of location in crime fiction.’

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is our Conference Guest of Honour and Natasha Cooper will chair the conference

Friday 18th August

6.45pm RECEPTION

7.30pm THE GUEST SPEAKER DINNER

With Mark Billingham - Where jokes go to die …

Saturday 19th August

8.00 - 9.00am BREAKFAST

9.10am Welcome: The Committee

9.20 – 10.50am

Val McDermid - "I now describe my country as if to strangers."

Lin Anderson and Lorna Dawson - Place, People, Particulates and Provenance: How soil trace particulates help track a killer in ‘None but the Dead’

10.50 - 11.20am COFFEE BREAK

11.20 - 12.50pm

Andrew Taylor- The Cinderella of Crime: is setting is the unsung heroine of crime and other fictions?

Manda Scott - Six Senses: Miss Smilla, Snow and the creation of place

12.50 - 1.50pm LUNCH

2.00 - 3.30pm

Belinda Bauer - The Devil’s In The Detail You Can’t See On Google Maps.

Sharon Bolton- The Entirely Unnecessary Research Trip or, as Einstein put it: "Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

3.30 – 4.00pm TEA BREAK

4.10 -- 5.40pm

Abir Mukherjee - Place, time and committing murder to scratch an itch: how writing a crime novel helped me make sense of my heritage.

Miranda Carter - Wheredunnit: Crime fiction’s worlds and how they got me to Thuggee

5.45 – 6.30pm SIGNING SESSION FOR ALL AUTHORS
7.15pm DRINKS
7.45pm THE CRIME AND MYSTERY DINNER

With A Murder Mystery written and hosted by Ann Cleeves and Professor Lorna Dawson

Cast : The Usual Suspects …

Sunday 20th August

8.30 -- 9.30am BREAKFAST

9.30 – 11.00am CONFERENCE LECTURE by our Guest of Honour, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

11.00am – 11.30am COFFEE

11.30am – 1.00pm

Jake Kerridge - Mayhem Parva: The Perfect Place for a Murder

Henry Sutton - On The Edge: East Anglian Noir

1.00pm CLOSING REMARKS

1.15 LUNCH

Conference speakers and contributors, 2017:
Lin Anderson, Tartan Noir novelist and screenwriter, author of the Rhona MacLeod forensic crime thriller series, and a co-founder of the annual Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival.

Lorna Dawson, head of the Soil Forensics Group at the Hutton Institute and honorary professor in Forensic Science at Robert Gordon University, who has worked as tv drama forensics advisor on Vera and Silent Witness, and with crime authors including Ann Cleeves and Lin Anderson.

Belinda Bauer, former journalist and screenwriter, who won the Carl Foreman BAFTA for her screenplay The Locker Room. Her debut novel Blacklands earned her the CWA’s Gold Dagger, and Rubbernecker won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2014.

Mark Billingham, TV writer and stand-up comedian whose series of Tom Thorne novels, starting with Sleepyhead, have been adapted for TV in an acclaimed series starring David Morrissey. Winner twice of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

Sharon Bolton (previously S. J. Bolton) is the critically acclaimed author of some of the most bone-chilling crime books ever written. She has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2014 she won the CWA Dagger in the Library for her whole body of work.

Miranda Carter, As historian, writer and biographer her biography of Anthony Blunt won the God Dagger for Non-Fiction. Now, under the name MJ Carter, she writes the Victorian thrillers, the Blake Avery series.

Natasha Cooper, novelist, first turned to crime with the lighthearted Willow King series, then with the Trish Maguire novels. She chaired the Crime Writers' Association in 1999/2000. She broadcasts, reviews, writes features and short stories and talks to reading groups and literary festivals in the UK and US.

Ann Cleeves is the 2017 winner of The Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing. Best known for the Vera Stanhope books and the Shetland Island /Jimmy Perez novels, both these series have been adapted into award-wining television favourites.

Jake Kerridge, journalist and critic who writes on arts and books for several publications and ‘takes an unhealthy interest in violence and murder as the Telegraph's crime fiction critic.’

Val McDermid celebrated, best-selling and multi-award-wining Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels featuring her most famous creation The Wire in Blood, and the Kate Brannigan and the Lyndsay Gordon series. Val is an Alumna and Honorary Fellow of St. Hilda's College.

Abir Mukerjee, who was working as an accountant when won the Telegraph-Harvill Secker Crime Writing Competition with his debut novel, A Rising Man. Set in India in 1919, it is hoped to be the first of a series featuring Capt Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee.

Manda Scott, Edgar-nominated author of the best-selling Boudica series and the Sebastos Pantera Roman novels, who began her career with a series of crime novels set in Scotland.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is the internationally bestselling Icelandic crime author of the award-winning Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series and several stand-alone thrillers. She made her crime fiction debut in 2005 with Last Rituals, which has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Henry Sutton, Award-winning crime novelist and academic whose novels include My Criminal World and Get Me Out of Here. He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and co-director of the MA in Prose Fiction UEA Creative Writing Course.

Andrew Taylor winner of the Cartier Diamond Dagger and the triple winner of the Historical Dagger. His books include The American Boy, the Roth Trilogy (filmed for TV as Fallen Angel); The Anatomy of Ghosts, shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year; and, most recently, The Ashes of London.

And announcing Conference Guest, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, the Queen of Nordic Noir. Author of the bestselling Thora Gudmundsdottir crime series and several stand-alone thrillers including ‘I Remember You’ (Icelandic Crime Fiction Award.)

The Conference Dinner will be held in aid of The P D James Fund which supports to the work of the English School and students at St Hilda’s College kindly endowed by Honorary Fellow PD James.


The Mystery and Crime Weekend

Launched in 1994, this conference, which offers authors an opportunity to explore a theme, has become a most significant entry in the calendar of crime fiction conferences and is a wonderful way to spend a weekend with like-minded devotees of crime fiction. The theme this year is’ Another Crime, Another Place: the role of location in crime fiction’ and the remit to the speakers is to examine the many areas crime fiction covers: the police detective, historical, ‘hard- boiled’, clerical, classical fairy tales, domestic, the golden age gems, the light-hearted, etc. We offer challenging talks, excellent meals, on-site accommodation, Oxford itself and amazing camaraderie.

The Conference Programme

The Weekend begins with a Reception and the Conference Dinner on Friday evening. The conference (Saturday & Sunday) is divided into morning and afternoon sessions with breaks for tea/coffee. The Conference Lecture, on Saturday morning, will be given by the Guest of Honour, this year Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. Lunch is offered both days and there is a second Dinner on Saturday evening. Plenty of opportunity is given for discussion, questions and just relaxing with the speakers and other participants.

About St Hilda’s

St Hilda’s College, Oxford University is on the banks of the River Cherwell overlooking the meadows and spires of Oxford. Its lovely gardens sweep down to the river, which is famous for punting and picnics. The centre of Oxford is a few minutes walk away, but the College itself lies in a pleasantly secluded area away from the noise and bustle of the city. B&B is offered and can be extended before or after the conference. Access by train is good and there are excellent coach services to Oxford from Central London and from Heathrow & Gatwick airports. And it is one of the few places in Oxford with parking.

Bookstore

A bookstore, kindly provided by Blackwell’s, will be open continuously throughout the weekend and will aim to have as many of the speakers’ books as possible and of the other crime-writers attending the conference.

Accommodation

Accommodation at St Hilda’s is mainly in single rooms but we do have a few twin rooms and where a twin room is not available couples are put in adjoining rooms. Unfortunately the college cannot guarantee en-suite accommodation but all rooms have washbasins and all buildings have bathrooms with showers which are private, individual units that have recently been modernised. Tea & coffee making facilities are provided in every room.

Queries

For further information including booking extra B&B dates or with any special requirements not mentioned on this site please call Triona Adams at St Hilda's College Development Office 01865 276 828 or email triona.adams@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk


Booking information can be found here and here.