Locked Up Festival

This afternoon sees the opening of the first-ever Locked Up Festival, organised by Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste of the brilliant Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast.

As you would expect from the title and, well, *gestures at the world* this is a virtual festival, which means you can attend from wherever you happen to be on the planet.

Just check out this amazing lineup...

I'm really proud to be helping open the festival at 2:30pm this afternoon. Our panel is on One Star Reviews (n.b. I've got enough, if you were thinking of kindly providing me with inspiration), and I'll be talking to Elly Griffiths, Chris Brookmyre and Mark Billingham about our best worst reviews.

Tickets for the full weekend are a mere £20, and every penny goes to support the work of the Trussell Trust. I believe ticket holders will be able to view panels on catchup after the live broadcast, which I guess is one big advantage over a physical festival.

Get your tickets here, but be fast, as it's almost sold out.

Quizknobs & Zoomsticks

How's your lockdown going?

It's been lovely weather here in the UK this week, and for the first time in my adult life, I'm grateful to have a garden. We're really fortunate that everyone is safe and well so far, and with three kids in the house, there's always something to do.

One of the many effects of the pandemic is that pretty much every literary festival has been cancelled for the foreseeable future. As in so many other fields, the void is being filled with online events, one of which I'm really excited to be part of next Friday. 

The upside of everything going online is you can join in from literally anywhere. Just subscribe to the new Crime Waves YouTube channel and you can join us.