Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Fictional Landscapes
Christina Hardyment
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
10:00am
1 hour
Weston Lecture Theatre
£10 - £18
Writer and journalist Christina Hardyment explores the landscapes of 20 crime novels and explains what the settings meant to authors such as Agatha Christie, John Buchan and Colin Dexter.
Hardyment ranges from the Devon moorland of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles to Buchan’s Galloway Hills, a Georgian House that inspired Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly, Dexter’s Oxford and London’s Brick Lane of Ajay Chowdhury’s The Waiter. Hardyment followed in the footsteps of Britain’s best-known crime writers to find out what exactly motivated them to choose these settings for tales of mystery and murder.
Hardyment is author of several works of non-fiction including The Pleasures of the Table, Writing the Thames and Novel Houses: Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings and of her own series of Alyce Chaucer mystery novels based on the real-life granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Presented by Bodleian Libraries
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