Wednesday, 31 July 2024

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - The Reverend Richard Coles

 Name:- Reverend Richard Coles

Job:- Author/Retired cleric/Broadcaster

Website:- Reverend Richard Coles | Official Website

Facebook: ReverendRichardColes

X: @RevRichardColes

Introduction

Reverend Richard Coles up until 2022 was a Church of England priest. Prior to this he was the instrumentalist half of the pop band The Communards. His first book in the Canon Clement series Murder Before Evensong was published in 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards Crime & Thriller Book of the Year. His most recent book is Murder at the Monastery.   He is also the co-host of the podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives.

Current book (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance

Favourite book:

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Josef Haydn and Nana Mouskouri. I think they’d get on and they had/have impeccable manners.

How do you relax?

Watching niche stuff on YouTube

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Life in all its loveliness and awfulness and quite a lot in between.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Write every day. Doesn’t matter if it comes easily or stickily. Just write.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

The Smiths (The Smiths)

Last Leaf (The Danish String Quartet)

The Ring of the Nibelungen (Wagner)

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

I would have loved to have played in the Burt Bacharach Orchestra. The maestro.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?

Chaka Khan, NY 1987. Best I’ve ever heard, I think.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Gossip and drinking with other writers.

Murder at the Monastery by The Reverend Richard Coles (Orion Publishing)

Daniel Clement has suffered a secret humiliation and to recover, takes respite at the monastery where he was a novice. But the monastery doesn't allow Daniel a break, for there are tensions building there too, as the secret past of novice master Father Paul is emerging. Tension mounts and a murder ensues. Meanwhile back at Champton, Daniel is the subject of village gossip, his mother Audrey is up to something again, there's trouble at the dress shop, up at the big house, and the puppies are running riot. Can Daniel be reconciled with detective Neil and solve the mystery?

A Christmas Novella Murder Under The Mistletoe will be published in October.

Murder Under The Mistletoe by The Reverend Richard Coles (Orion Publishing) October 2024

It is Christmas Day and at Champton Rectory, Canon Daniel Clement and his mother Audrey are joined by the residents and guests of the big house to drink, eat and be merry. At the festive feast, peace and goodwill prevail. Until two meet under the mistletoe. One of them falls down dead. And Daniel suspects murder has returned to Champton... Can Daniel and Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo solve the crime and catch the Christmas killer?





Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. #HCFW24

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