So last weekend—April 21st-23rd—I was delighted to find myself at the western edge of Wales, in Aberystwyth for the Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival. The Festival was split between two venues in the town—both a stone’s skip from the seafront. One was the rather splendid Public Library, on Queen’s Square. The other was just along Portland Street at the Ceredigion Museum.

The museum is located in an old Edwardian theatre, with a grand staircase and intact auditorium. Because it’s actually two buildings now knocked into one, getting from one floor to another was not as straightforward as you might think. Indeed, unravelling a piece of thread as you went might have been wise until you got the hang of the layout.

(And, of course, as every good crime writer knows, the clew of thread—as given to Theseus by Ariadne to help guide him out of the labyrinth on Knossos after slaying the minotaur—gave rise to the modern word clue.)

But I digress.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to take part in the Festival, and appeared on a panel with fellow Murder Is Everywhere blogmate, Caro Ramsay. We were ably chaired by Sarah Ward, on the topic of Trade Secrets and Twisted Identities, in which Caro admitted she wrote her first crime story at about the age of four or five, which began with the words, ‘Emily was the first to die…’

Is it any wonder I really like this woman?

The Festival was packed with interesting events, from the Dragon Parade along the promenade (dragon-based paraphernalia optional) to the murder mystery play that was performed during the interval in the Gala Quiz on Friday evening. There were several panels or workshops delivered solely in the Welsh language, and others that were bilingual.

The local branch of Waterstones, run by the delightful Chloe Tilson, was in charge of the book room, where they were happy to take the indie authors’ books on consignment, and made a point of getting all the stock copies they’d brought with them signed by attendees. Such a nice touch.

 

Meanwhile, authors not yet published had an opportunity to pitch to agents, and there were online events in the run-up to the weekend. Even the local bars got into the spirit of things (pun intended.)

Altogether, it was fun, friendly, and very well organised. Who could ask for more than that?

Well, maybe a touch more sunshine…

CRIME CYMRU
Chair of the Festival was the energetic and seemingly ever-cheerful Alis Hawkins, who was one of the founder members of CRIME CYMRU.

Back in 2016, she wanted to bring the crime writers of Wales together in a mutually supportive group. After discussions with fellow scribes Rosie Claverton and Matt Johnson, CRIME CYMRU was launched the following year.

Its remit was ‘to support crime writers with a real and present relationship with Wales; to contribute to the development of new Welsh crime-writing talent; and to promote Wales, contemporary Welsh culture and Welsh crime-writing in particular, to the wider world.’

Not all of the forty-plus published authors with full membership set their work in Wales. Some were born or live and work there, or have ties to Welsh universities or other cultural institutions. Those who can’t claim such close ties may be permitted to become Associate members.

I have my application in. Whether they accept a Great Uncle from Colwyn Bay as any kind of link remains to be seen…

The weekend was fascinating, but mine didn’t end with the very interesting Self Publishing Journey panel on Sunday morning. (Featuring David Penny and Graham H Miller, kept in line by GB (Gail) Williams.)

Portmeirion
I’d planned my route back to Derbyshire as a roundabout one. As I was so far west, it made sense to me to detour up the coast to Portmeirion on Sunday, before heading home again.

Clearly, great minds think alike here, as Caro was also to be found in that locale, along with fellow author Douglas Skelton. She had come prepared with props, all the better to illustrate her Blog Number 6 on the cult TV show of 1967/68—The Prisoner.

I was not so well-prepared. In fact, I had no idea that there was a convention catering to devotees of that show, who were everywhere, in brilliant costumes. The attendees were re-enacting the game of Human Chess from the episode ‘Checkmate’ when I arrived.

One could only assume it was of their own free will…

The Architect
Portmeirion was the brainchild of architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, a major figure in the development of Welsh architecture during the early twentieth century.

In 1925, he purchased the estate of Aber lâ, meaning ice estuary, as the site of his proposed ideal village, having been inspired by Portofino in Italy. Geographically, the estate at the mouth of the River Dwyryd had everything he was after. Steep cliffs overlooking a wide sandy estuary, old buildings surviving from the estate’s previous incarnation as a late 18^th-century foundry and boatyard, woods, and streams.

Williams-Ellis changed the name to Portmeirion. Port– from its location on the coast, just below the outstretched arm of Wales, and –meirion from the county of Meirionydd in which it lay.

His first task was to convert the house on the shore to a hotel, which opened for the Easter weekend in April 1926. The construction of the village was done in two stages. The most distinctive buildings, mostly influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, were erected between 1925 and 1939. During this time, Williams-Ellis also bought the adjacent Victorian crenellated mansion, Castell Deudraeth, from the estate of his uncle.

Work was paused during the war years, then phase two began from 1954 to 1976, filling in the remaining structures in a more Palladian style. Williams-Ellis was noted for salvaging parts of other buildings for his project, and referred to Portmeirion as, “a home for fallen buildings.”

The last cottage to be built was The Tollgate, which was finished when Williams-Ellis was 93, in 1977. He died the following year, and the village was subsequently taken over by a charitable trust. It has always been a tourist destination. As well as the hotel, there are 13 cottages available to let on a self-catering basis.

Famous Visitors
Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying in the Upper Fountain suite. HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw also visited, as did the Beatles. In fact, George Harrison spent his fiftieth birthday in Portmeirion.

Actors Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman stayed there, as did Frank Lloyd Wright. Numerous films, documentaries, and music videos have been filmed there—in addition to The Prisoner, of course.

Fun Facts
In no particular order:

Portmeirion Pottery was begun in 1961 by the daughter of Williams-Ellis, Susan, and her husband.

Williams-Ellis purchased and converted an old Porthmadog trading ketch which he moored alongside the quay—the Amis Reunis, which means Friends Reunited. It was used as a houseboat until it broke loose and became stranded on a shoal. After attempts to salvage the vessel failed, any parts that could be rescued were brought ashore and a stone boat was built into part of the quay instead.

The outdoor giant chess board was part of the set dressing for The Prisoner. A permanent one was added only in 2016.

In accordance with his wishes, twenty years after Williams-Ellis died and was cremated, some of his ashes were placed in a rocket and fired over the estuary at Portmeirion during a New Year’s Eve firework display.

What a way to go!

This week’s Word of the Week is hiraeth, a Welsh word that means longing for home. It’s similar to the English words homesickness or nostalgia and, like them, can be applied not just to home but also to an earlier time or a person. Hiraeth contains an extra dimension that what is missed may no longer exist and is therefore forever out of reach.

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/04/adventures-in-wales.html

The post Adventure in Wales appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

The Crime
PC Sharon Beshenivsky was still a probationary constable with West Yorkshire Police when she was shot dead by armed robbers on the afternoon of November 18 2005. A former childminder, she had completed her police training only in February of that year.

PC Beshenivsky, along with her more experienced colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, had been just about to finish their shift when they responded to an attack alarm activated at a travel agency on Morley Street in Bradford.

There, they encountered a gang of three men—armed with a knife, a 9mm handgun, and a Mac 10 submachine gun. One of the robbers immediately shot both officers in the chest. PC Beshenivsky’s wound was fatal. PC Milburn, although severely injured, managed to press the panic button on her radio and remained conscious to give responding officers a description of the gunman.

PC Beshenivsky, who was 38 at the time of her death, left behind a husband, two stepchildren and three children. That day was her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday.

The Gang
The robbers had arrived at the scene in a convoy of three cars, and fled the same way. Unfortunately for them, Bradford City Centre had recently installed automatic number plate recognition technology, which played a major part in identifying the vehicles involved, and their owners.

A week later, police named Somali brothers, Yusaf Jama – only nineteen at the time – and Mustaf Jama as prime suspects, along with Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah. Shah and Yusaf Jama were arrested within days. Mustaf Jama managed to flee the country on fake documents. It was rumoured at the time that he might have made his escape disguised in a burka. (Something he later denied.)

The gang was based in London, but had been lured up to Yorkshire by possibly false information that the travel agency had as much as £100,000 in cash on the premises. In the event, it was reported that they actually got away with little over £5000.

The Trial
In December 2006, Shah – identified by PC Milburn as the actual shooter – was convicted of murder, robbery, and firearms offences. He was sentenced to Life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. Despite not actually pulling the trigger, Yusaf Jama was also convicted of the same offences, and received the same sentence.

Both men later had additional time added to their sentences for other crimes which came to light – firearms offences and conspiracy to rape. They were also involved in an incident in prison in which another prisoner was stabbed.

Cleared of murder, but found guilty of a range of crimes, including manslaughter, robbery, and firearms offences, were three men who served as getaway drivers and lookouts. For these crimes, they received sentences anywhere from eight years to Life.

The Fugitives
Mustaf Jama fled to Somalia, where his father was allegedly a local warlord. This might be considered ironic, as Mustaf Jama had avoided being deported to the African country only six months earlier, after finishing a sentence for driving offences, robbery, and affray.

Somalia had no diplomatic ties to the UK. Nevertheless, when Mustaf Jama was given ‘most wanted’ status, a deal was struck between the Somali government and the British Foreign Office and Home Office. Mustaf Jama’s vehicle was ambushed in the desert by local militiamen. He was snatched, flown to Dubai via private plane, and then on to the UK. The day after his arrival, he was taken into custody at a police station in Leeds, and charged with the murder of PC Beshenivsky.

It took a further two years to bring him to trial, in July 2009. He was found guilty and sentenced, like his co-conspirators, to Life with a minimum term of 35 years.

By this time, the police were also looking for another man, Piran Ditta Khan. Khan was thought to be the mastermind behind the robbery, but had fled to Pakistan. A lengthy battle followed to force his return to the UK to stand trial.

In January 2020, Khan was arrested by the Pakistan police. And last week he was flown back to the UK and formally charged with the murder of PC Beshenivsky. Other charges included robbery and firearms offences.

The Aftermath
When she died in 2005, PC Sharon Beshenivsky became the seventh female UK police officer killed in service, and the first since PC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984. PC Fletcher died after a shot was fired from the Libyan Embassy while she was stationed outside monitoring a demonstration against then-Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Efforts were made by a right-wing organisation to classify the murder of PC Beshenivsky as a racially motivated crime. Opponents pointed out that there was no obvious racial motive, and that the robbers were as likely to have fired upon any responding police officers, regardless of their ethnicity.

In January 2020, PC Sharon Beshenivsky’s daughter, Lydia – by then eighteen, told an interview with the Daily Mail that she intended to join the mounted section of the police service. I have not been able to verify whether in fact she has done this or not.

(For once, Mrs Google has failed me!)

This week’s Word of the Week is quincunx, meaning an arrangement of five objects, with four of them forming the corners of a square or rectangle, and the fifth in the centre, as in the spots on a dice or a playing card.

April 22 2023: Zoë Sharp will be appearing with Caro Ramsay and Sarah Ward at Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth as part of the Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival. Their panel will be Event 6: Trade Secrets, 10:15 – 11:15 on Saturday, April 22 2023. “Writing a long series has its own difficulties, as does writing under two names in two different directions. How do you keep track? What are the things you know from your other lives that you bring to your writing? Learn a few trade secrets from three of the best. Panellists: Caro Ramsay, Zoë Sharp. Chair: Sarah Ward. Close Up Reader: Nigel Williams.”

Hot Off the Press
May 02 2023: A quick plug for John Lawton’s latest Joe Wilderness espionage thriller, Moscow Exile. Lawton will be launching the fourth novel with his thief-turned-reluctant spy in the lead role, at The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Lawton will be in conversation with fellow author Mark Ellis, who is celebrating the upcoming publication of his latest DCI Frank Merlin wartime thriller, Dead In The Water.

Moscow Exile
‘Charlotte is a British expatriate who has recently settled in Washington, D.C. with her second husband, but enviable dinner parties aren’t the only thing she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie Leigh-Hunt has been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy Burgess, last seen disappearing around the corner and into the Soviet Union. Charlie is surprised to cross paths with Charlotte, an old flame of his, who, thanks to her gossipy parties, has a packed pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share.

‘Two decades later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way above his pay grade – but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going to try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies…

‘Featuring crackling dialogue and brilliantly plotted Cold War intrigue, Moscow Exile is a gripping thriller populated by larger-than-life personalities in a Cold War plot that feels strangely in tune with our present.’

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-murder-of-pc-sharon-beshenivsky.html

The post The Murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..