Authors Electric

Me at Eshaness, Shetland Literary festivals aplenty both hither and yon have been honoured with my presence and performance, among them several Crime Festivals. The venues for these are becoming more and more atmospheric Noir-wise, especially with the burgeoning popularity of Scandi Noir. Last November, I was at Iceland Noir, snowmobiling on a glacier, enjoying the spectacular landscape in the four-ish hours of almost-daylight, and meeting some luminaries of Icelandic crime fiction, some of whom are now translated into English. This November, I again headed North, to Shetland for the eponymous Noir instigated by Ann Cleeves who has a series of novels based there, now on TV. View from my hotel bathroom... View from my hotel bedroom... bit wet out there. The festival got off to a thrilling start, with storm Abigail throwing our tiny planes with their cute little propellers all over the sky, until they stopped flying altogether (perhaps the rubber bands got tangled inside)....

Iceland - a whole lotta lava going on Reporting back from participating in Iceland Noir, the Crime Fiction Festival held in Reykjavik, I first of all have to admit I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with Iceland, and would recommend it to anyone and most certainly will be going again. Despite the bizarre landscape of boiling hot streams and icy glaciers, volcanos ever ready to let rip, and basically a whole lot of lava going on, I felt strangely at home there. It could be my Viking ancestry, or just that it’s beautiful and strange, and the Icelanders are friendly, funny and rather like Geordies, though a lot more of them (50%) claim to believe in elves, trolls and the like. Not that far-fetched when you see the shapes the lava takes on. But recently a new road was diverted to avoid a large rock which was the home of elves. Even those who don't believe in them don't take chances. In such a hostile landscape with a small population chances are too risky. Just after noon, ...