Mushens Entertainment attends the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2024
Last week, the Mushens Entertainment team descended upon Harrogate for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2024. Unlike last year where we ran to panels in the rain, Harrogate was hit by a heatwave and a true Summer feeling prevailed. We absolutely loved catching up with ME authors and attending their panels and pop-up events.
The weekend kicked off with a bang with the panel The Past is a Foreign Country, which explored historical crime and was chaired by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. The panel included our very own Anna Mazzola alongside Chris Brookmyre, Marisa Haetzman, and David Bishop. We enjoyed the panellists being asked what advice they’d give a time traveller visiting the historical period that they write about! We then headed to Kate Gray’s pop-up event to celebrate her novel THE SUMMER PARTY, which published in July. Kate signed books amongst a brightly coloured table full of beach accessories and her fans competed to win the book by attempting to throw a rubber ring successfully around a flamingo hat!
We then went on the hunt for our authors’ books in the on-site bookshop and we found many familiar titles on display. After thoroughly photographing them, we next located the gorgeous novelty deckchairs created to advertise our author, Sue Hincenberg’s THE RETIREMENT PLAN, which publishes next year. After posing with the chairs, we ended Friday with a late-night panel Confessions of a Crime Writer, where crime writers confessed their past sins and then were either absolved via cheers from the audience, or condemned via boos. This wild panel was chaired by Luca Veste and featured our author, Richard Osman, alongside Elly Griffiths, Mark Billingham, and Gytha Lodge.
On Saturday, we again started the day with a panel Psycho Thrillers, which was also chaired by Luca Veste. This panel delved into dark, psychological thriller writing and it featured our own Abby Dean, alongside AA Choudhuri, C.M. Ewan, and T.M. Logan. The team particularly enjoyed hearing the three lawyers on the panel exploring why they moved into a writing career. We then went to our second pop-up event where our author, Carys Green, signed copies of her novel, ALWAYS ON MY MIND. Attendees played a game where they had to pick the right card to win a proof and so many were lucky that the proofs flew off the table at rapid speed!
The ME gang next headed to our final pop-up event of the festival, a surprise signing for Richard Osman’s WE SOLVE MURDERS, which was originally advertised as a signing with Rosie D’Antonio (the ‘Jackie Collins of crime writing’ character from Richard’s new series). As only fifty attendees could receive a proof and have it signed by Richard before the novel’s September publication date, there was a stampede to join the queue! Richard chatted with his fans and posed for photos, while the Viking team assisted adorned in bright red WE SOLVE MURDERS t-shirts. We then visited the WE SOLVE MURDERS VIP Departure Lounge. The room was incredibly transformed into a red and blue airport waiting lounge, complete with photo booth, models of Trouble (the protagonist Steve’s black cat), luggage, sweets, and even the opportunity to pick up the first chapter of the novel with some goodies.
We then joined the Mushens Entertainment authors who attended the festival for drinks and it was lovely to see everybody - and crucially, to get a group photo! Before long, it was time for the team’s final panel, which was Special Guest: Richard Osman in conversation with Ruth Ware. The discussion between Richard and Ruth was an absolute delight and it led to much laughter from the audience, so it was the perfect way for the team to finish our Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for 2024.
Thanks, Harrogate, we very much look forward to seeing you again next year!
