The Gold Dagger Crime Thriller Awards: were on ITV last evening, and were a joy to watch. With a great many handsome and beautiful TV and film stars sitting amongst the not quite so glamourous writers, I realised why I have written them in the past, and will do so again in the near future.
Inspector Morse writer, Colin Dexter is, of course, getting on a bit now, and had to help himself along with a walking stick; but his acceptance speech was the most humourous and best, probably because he couldn't say a quick 'thank you' to his agent, publisher and readers, and then scuttle away on the nimble feet the younger authors' have.
Julia McKenzie, the latest Miss Marple, was there to present an Award, but as many of you know, Joan Hickson will never be bettered as Jane Marple in my book. In fact, when Agatha Christie was still alive she met Hickson at an event, and told her "you would make an ideal Jane Marple;" and she was right; so whether McKenzie is up to the mark, we shall see.
Martina Cole was there and her books are most enjoyable, yet Harlen Coben, an American crime writer, won an Award, and his books aren't.
But the best writer to win was Lynda La Plante, who went off on one in a quite frantic diatribe saying something along the lines of: "Publisher's should by now realise the day of the 'big money' celebrity autobiography has passed, and we are now dragging the bottom of the barrel. A good many excellent crime writers' are being left by the wayside because of such books, and this should not be allowed to happen!"
Bravo! Lynda.
And as if to put her words to the test, AC/DC's Brian Johnson's book was in Asda, and for £20, well, the words were like those in a kid's book and it is ridicuolously thin, and I thought, blimey, he must have had a boring life! And I suppose he has, as the publisher probably did a cut-copy-paste from Wikipedia and then called it a day; and there isn't much about him on there, either.