Val McDermid Interviewed by Emma Smith

International bestselling crime writer Val McDermid talks about historical crime writing, a play she’s writing about the death of Christopher Marlowe and about her new novel 1979.

McDermid says she has always been fascinated by Marlowe as a character and a writer. She is particularly drawn to his death in mysterious circumstances in an alehouse in Deptford. The three men with him at the time were all closely connected to the Walsingham family and the English secret service. Meanwhile, 1979 is the first in a new series. Allie Burns, a reporter chasing her first scoop during the winter of discontent, finds herself investigating the criminal underbelly of respectable Scotland.

McDermid is an international bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her multi-award-winning series and standalone novels have been adapted for television and radio, most notably the Wire in the Blood series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan. An ITV adaptation of the Karen Pirie series, featuring a Scottish cold case detective, is underway. She is a winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger recognising lifetime achievement and the Theakstons Old Peculier award for Outstanding Contribution to Crime Writing. Here she talks to Emma Smith, professor of Shakespeare studies at Hertford College and author of This is Shakespeare.

This event is part of the festival’s crime fiction programme.