CrimeFest organiser Adrian Muller; Special Guest Maxim Jakubowski; 2009 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger winner Andrew Taylor; Featured Guest Author Simon Brett; Toastmistress Meg Gardiner; Featured Guest Author Håkan Nesser; and CrimeFest organiser Myles Allfrey. Adrian and Myles picked a terrific line-up for this year’s event. Gyles Brandreth’s interview with Simon Brett was hilarious and Swedish author, Håkan Nesser has a very dry wit.

Peter Guttridge (right) interviewing International Guest of Honour, Michael Connelly, one of the main events at CrimeFest. Michael Connelly audiobooks also featured large in the book bags, which means I shall be able to listen to his latest works on long car journeys. I was delighted to be able to ask him a question, concerning his early brush with real crime, and its ongoing effects.

Interviewing Toastmistress, Meg Gardiner was an easy job. Meg is an animated speaker and has plenty of interesting anecdotes to recount. Anyone who once took her children to the Cobra Petting Zoo, or went (in costume) to a Star Trek exhibition, has no trouble keeping an audience entertained!

Sometimes, you just press the shutter at the right time! This is the line-up for the Criminal MasterMind quiz. From left to right, the guilty parties are Simon Brett, David Stuart Davies, Martin Edwards, and Meg Gardiner. The fact that they look like people who have spent too long in the doctor’s waiting room is entirely coincidental and should be put down to pre-event nerves. Martin Edwards eventually emerged triumphant.

The usual suspects at the Constable & Robinson crime writers’ party before the Gala Dinner. From left to right, Mike Stotter from Shots; Karen Meek and Maxine Clarke from Eurocrime; Ali Karim from Shots.

Håkan Nesser from Sweden meets San Francisco author Cara Black at the Constable & Robinson bash.

[left]
David Headley, of both DHH Literary Agency and Goldsboro Books, looking very dapper at the Gala Dinner.

[right]
Award-winning author Paul Johnson displaying what can only be described as a naughty little twinkle in his eye . . .

Donna Moore and her Other Half, Ewan, at the Gala Dinner. We took Donna and Ewan out for Japanese food, and watching Ewan's introduction to wasabi (Japanese horseradish) and unagi (eel) was an education. Donna was also partly responsible for programming for CrimeFest.

Marjorie Eccles (left) and my fellow LadyKiller,
Priscilla Masters, looking very glam as usual,
at the Gala Dinner.

Adrian and Anne Magson. Adrian was one of my fellow panellists on the Born to Kill panel, which somehow became preoccupied with the subject of torture, even though it features very little in either of our books.

The Irish contingent. Brian McGilloway (left), looking a lot less formal − and a lot less like the Head of English at St Columb's College in 'Derry − than he does on his official author photograph, together wiith award-winning playwright, screenwriter and author, Declan Hughes.

The best-dressed couple at CrimeFest had to be actress and author Linda Regan and her husband, Brian Murphy, looking very Bogart and with a distinctly raffish charm.