Harrogate Post-Mortem

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

Given no one else seems to have started a thread following the 2007 Harrogate Crime-Writing Festival, I thought I'd start one in lieu of getting on with putting down my recollections of the event in a blog post.

For those who weren't there, this might give a flavour of the event, link to people's posts about their experiences or, in my case, provide an opportunity to thank everybody there for a great time and then apologise for not being able to remember the name of anybody I was introduced to. Sorry.

[Donna Moore]

I've saved the personal comments for my blog thingy so some comments about the event itself. It was really well organised and the evening events were, as ever, the highlight for me. I think it's a really good idea to have the late night shows. I didn't get to too many panels (according to Kevin, Jools and I were apparently always searching for food or cocktails (and, I'm sad to say, we always managed to find too much of both)) but the ones I went to were mostly excellent - especially the New Blood one, the interview with Lee Child, the Getting Vigorous game show format one, and the pet peeves panel on the Sunday morning. Good stuff with plenty of laughs.

All the panels I enjoyed were well moderated. The panels I didn't enjoy so much were ones where the moderation left something to be desired. I think the panelists could be talking about anything and as long as it's well moderated I will enjoy it. But when one of the panelists doesn't get to say anything for 40 minutes into the panel, then that's not good moderation.

It was a good location with a nice sized bar and lobby which allowed for mingling, and the staff were very nice and, more than happy to keep the bar open as long as it was needed.

The panel room was excellent and the TV screens were good - it meant you could see even if you were sitting right at the back.

For me though, the best bit is the people, and I have some lovely and fun memories, so thanks everyone for that.

And Vincent, I was very upset that you didn't remember my name all weekend. I kept telling you it was Donna, but you insisted that it was Weirdo.

My voice is still hoarse - did I REALLY talk that much? (Jools, you needn't answer that one)

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

Phew, I've just finished posting up my recollections of the event: Friday and Saturday/Sunday (not all names and references are hyper-linked up yet).

Sandra has also been doing a good job of aggregating up the posts made so far.

[Tom Cain]

If you want to know what really went on at Harrogate this year ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&a...

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

Excellent article, though I was a little shocked to finally read the explanation for the police cordon I saw outside the hotel on Saturday morning.