An enjoyable weekend was had at the Park Inn, attending the Essex Book Festival's Golden Age of Crime Weekend. Many of you will know that our Chair, Seona Ford, is also Chair of the Essex Book Festival.
The weekend offered a celebration of Edmund Crispin, a talk by author Guy Bolton, a crime writing masterclass by author Nicola Upson and a session with writing duo Nicci Gerard and Sean French aka Nicci French.
Henry Hemming gave a riveting talk on his book M: Maxwell Knight: MI5's Greatest Spymaster.
Author, member and friend of the Society, Martin Edwards, chaired a Crime Writers' Association (CWA) panel of Christine Poulson, JM Hewitt and Paul Gitsham where the authors discussed their work, getting published, staying published and the benefits of belonging to the CWA community.
'A Criminally Good Afternoon Tea' was had by those attending the session with Nicola Upson, who talked about her latest book, Nine Lessons, set in Cambridge and featuring Josephine Tey.
It was good to catch up with members attending this event. We look forward to returning to Southend next year.