Booking Information

Booking details can be found here

Programme

A full programme of events can be found here

Contact details

Full festival contact details can be found here

Start the 2008 Festival with a bang and join the short-listed authors for the announcement of this year's Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, hosted by Natasha Cooper on Thursday 17th July.

Friday 18th brings a great opportunity to meet Yorkshire-born author Peter Robinson. Now living in Canada, he is looking forward to returning to this county to celebrate Inspector Banks's 21st anniversary. This will be a very entertaining start to the first full day of the festival as Peter discusses his life and work with Simon Kernick.

On Saturday 19th, The New York Times best-selling author of nineteen suspense novels, including The Blue Nowhere and The Bone Collector, returns to Harrogate to deliver an intimate solo presentation giving the audience an insight into his life and work. Jeffery Deaver has won the CWA Gold Dagger and been nominated for three Edgar Awards, as well as being a two-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He normally divides his time between homes in California and Virginia, so don't miss this opportunity to hear from him on this side of the Atlantic.

Why, in these changing times, and over eighty years after Agatha Christie's first novel was published, does the traditional 'cosy' mystery remain so popular? MC Beaton, Colin Cotteril, Catriona McPherson and Jill Paton Walsh discuss whether Agatha really was the best crime writer who ever lived. Is her work, and the work of her successors, timeless in an ever-changing world? Why, too, do some crime writers have a dismissive attitude towards this particular sub-genre, and are these criticisms at all justified? Chaired by Paul Johnston on Sunday 20th.

Some of the hottest new authors in the genre will be at this year's festival, discussing their stories with novelist and Guardian reviewer, Laura Wilson. Swedish author Johan Theorin, film writer and director Kolton Lee, former James Patterson co-writer Andrew Gross and Claire Seeber, will all be talking about their work on Friday 18th.

In the centennial anniversary of the birth of Bond author Ian Fleming, the question is asked; is James Bond passé now in the post cold war era, or is he the kind of timeless hero the public need and love? On Friday 18th, panellists Charlie Higson, James Twining, Joseph Finder and Catherine Sampson, wrestle this question and more as they try to gauge whether 007 still cuts the mustard. Chaired by BBC Radio 4 regular Simon Brett.

Andy McNab joined the infantry as a boy soldier. As a member of 22 SAS Regiment he was involved in both covert and overt operations worldwide, commanded Bravo Two Zero in the Gulf War and became the British Army's most decorated soldier. Since publishing Bravo Two Zero he has written sixteen novels. On Saturday 19th he will be talking about his experiences and work to Laura Wilson, and giving a unique insight into what has been an exciting and highly unusual career path.

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. Her first novel was published in 1987 and she has since written eight more romantic suspense novels and nine medical thrillers. Interviewed by radio journalist Paul Blezard, she will provide the perfect end to another great Festival on Sunday 20th.