Newcastle Noir 2016

Newcastle Noir 2016 arrived at the weekend with Ann Cleeves at the helm on Friday, an Icelandic invasion on Saturday, hardcore Hardisty as Paul Hardisty is now known and on Sunday, Val ‘Not very good at happy endings McDermid’ amongst so many other writers and fine fine crime panels it’s going to be hard to write any kind of summary that pays a good even homage to the weekends’s events

There were just such a raucous range of guests and probing panels that as one of the official tweeters of the whole affair, I have now developed ‘tweetitis’ in my right forefinger. Or something. Totally worth it.

Why was it so great? This crime festival is relatively young, in fact very young but is already attracting some great names. Names who loiter and mingle in the rooms with the readers and writers to be. Names who laugh and joke and who sometimes even do the can can when no one is looking 😉 You know who you are. People who love to write and talk about their stories and chat with the people who love to read them.

Talking of which, I did have my fan girl moment. Well a few if I’m honest. This one – Amanda Jennings. In her Wake and In her Presence… it was no mistake that I was on my knees as I crouched beside her at the signing tablel to get a pic. I may even thought about trying to grab on to her leg as she left. But I didn’t. And that wasn’t because Karen, her publisher was holding me back.

Amanda the wonder girl on the right with Paul Hardisty observing proceedings by lurking in the background

There were panels on everything from Icelandic an dNordic Noir to novels set in Mexico with the interview in Spanish with excellent interpretation by Stella from Northumbria University’s alumni. That brought back both admiration and fear at the memory of having to be on stage and just hoping that Mexican’s didn’t tell jokes that you wouldn’t understand.This was another of the highlights for me – MexicanNoir right here at the centre of the toon.

There were yet more fan girl moments later that day – the lovely Frances Brody who writes the Kate Shackleton stories set in Yorkshire. How I love this woman and her wit. If you haven’t read any of these – oh you must! – she is such a fascinating writer and one I’m so overly happy to have met. Newcastle Noir was just getting better and better by the second!

From the cosy crime of Brody to hardcore Hardisty with tales of mortar and mud from Yemen in his last book to the warring factions in Cyprus in the second. This man is also ludicrously tall – so he can see over everything and notice things before anyone else does. I may have bowed in his presence. I can’t remember, it was a blur.

Also a blur was meeting the lovely Crime Thriller Girl Steph Broadribb and getting my paws on the taster of her new crime novel out soon. This girl has been one of the most prominent and funny bloggers ever out there so to meet her was a joy. Congratulating her on her new book felt like bloggers reunited – meeting up and celebrating one of our own.

And as for Val? Well the legend herself was a legend to meet. She doesn’t do happy endings in her books, loves standalones as a way of keeping series fresh and doesn’t apologise for putting Carol and Tony through the ringer. She’ll never kill them off though apparently. Val says and does what she thinks and even admits that trolls have been too afraid to attack on line. They know she gives as good as she gets. When you see what she does to her fictional characters…

A lovely lady though – she had so many photo requests on the Lit and Phil staircase that if one of us appears in a future novel having had an accident on stairs or a stairlift, I will not be surprised.

Oh just some of the  highlights and too many to mention in one post. But the main one was that Newcastle Noir is bigger and better than ever. It’s young but already making such a splash and it’s all thanks to the team of volunteers at the Lit and Phil, the writers who came and made it such a draw, the readers, bloggers and fans who came to join in and of course Jacky Collins from Northumbria university who is a force to be reckoned with.

The weekend ended with a very tough in places but fun quiz  – which author of the Golden Age enjoyed surfing for example? On which Island are the Johan Theorin novels set?

The answers are – Agatha Christie and Oland. A fun quiz but there was one question everyone knew the answer to. How brilliant was Newcastle Noir?

Noir and naughtily good.

Susan Booktrailer