A respectful silence fell over the crowd at CrimeFest this last Saturday night, May 13, as the prize for best humorous novel of 2022 was bestowed posthumously upon Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May’s Peculiar London (Doubleday), the last of his unique books featuring the fictional Peculiar Crimes Unit and its elderly sleuths, Arthur Bryant and John May. Fowler, you will remember, died on March 2 of this year, following a lengthy battle with what was described as “a rare form of cancer.” He was just 69 years old.
Unlike the rest of the Bryant & May series (which began with 2004’s Full Dark House), Peculiar London was not a murder mystery, but rather a travelogue featuring some of his odd pair’s favorite haunts in the British capital. That book bested more conventional amusing works by Mick Herron, Elly Griffiths, Mike Ripley, and others for the prize.
Barry Forshaw, well-known crime-fiction critic for the British daily newspaper The Financial Times, took to the stage during this year’s convention in Bristol, England, and there delivered a moving acceptance speech on behalf of Fowler’s husband, Pete Chapman.
“This valedictory posthumous award is something special and sad,” Forshaw remarked. “I’d seen Chris several times since his diagnosis and he was always cheerful and stoic right to the end. When I left him the last time, he shook
my hand and told me he still had a lot of books left in him, but his body had let him down. We won’t now read those books, but we have his wonderful legacy.” Forshaw went on to read aloud a letter that Chapman had sent thanking the organizers of CrimeFest for this commendation. It said:
“Chris would have been very proud. To win it would have been a great honor for him, though surely the irony of winning a Last Laugh award would have brought a smile to his face, because Chris had the blackest sense of humor. To Chris, writing was everything. The joy writing brought him over a career spanning 50 years was immeasurable.Below are all the 2023 CrimeFest Award winners and other nominees.
“I found an unopened document on his computer. It was a half-finished Bryant and May novel. In one of his final blog [posts], Chris wrote something I want to share with you that reflected his love of books, ‘There is something magical about an unopened novel. I have shelves filled with luscious, unread novels and now I can’t even reach them.’
“On behalf of Chris, I thank you.”
Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award: A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacy Willingham (HarperCollins)
Also nominated: A Good Day to Die, by Amen Alonge (Quercus); Bad for Good, by Graham Bartlett (Allison & Busby); The Maid, by Nita Prose (HarperCollins); Ashes in the Snow, by Oriana Rammuno, translated by Katherine Gregor (HarperCollins); Kalmann, by Joachim B. Schmidt, translated by Jamie Lee Searle (Bitter Lemon); Dirt Town, by Hayley Scrivenor (Macmillan); and The Siege, by John Sutherland (Orion)
eDunnit Award: The Book of the Most Precious Substance, by Sara Gran (Faber and Faber)
Also nominated: The Cliff House, by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus); Desert Star, by Michael Connelly (Orion); The Botanist, by M.W. Craven (Constable); A Heart Full of Headstones, by Ian Rankin (Orion); and Nine Lives, by Peter Swanson (Faber and Faber)
H.R.F. Keating Award (for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction): The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
Also nominated: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, by J.C. Bernthal and Mary Anna Evans (Bloomsbury Academic); A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, 1945-2020, by John le Carré, edited by Tim Cornwell (Viking); Simenon: The Man, The Books, The Films, by Barry Forshaw (Oldcastle); Gender Roles and Political Contexts in Cold War Spy Fiction, by Sian MacArthur (Palgrave Macmillan); and Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Hodder & Stoughton)
Last Laugh Award (for the best humorous crime novel): Bryant & May’s Peculiar London, by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)
Also nominated: The Locked Room, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus); Bad Actors, by Mick Herron (Baskerville); Hope to Die, by Cara Hunter (Viking); Mr. Campion’s Mosaic, by Mike Ripley (Severn House); and The Moose Paradox, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)
Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Crime Drama: Slow Horses (seasons 1 and 2), based on the books by Mick Herron. Produced by See-Saw. Shown on Apple TV+
Also nominated: Babylon Berlin (series 4), based on the books by Volker Kutscher. Produced by X-Filme Creative Pool, ARD Degeto Film, Beta Film, Sky Deutschland, Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Shown on Sky Atlantic; Grace (series 2), based on the books by Peter James. Produced by ITV Studios. Shown on ITV; Karin Pirie, based on the books by Val McDermid. Produced by ITV Studios. Shown on ITV; Magpie Murders, based on novel by Anthony Horowitz. Produced by Britbox and Eleventh Hour Films. Shown on BritBox; Reacher, based on the books by Lee Child. Produced by Amazon Studios, Blackjack Films, Paramount Television, and Skydance Television. Shown on Amazon Prime; Shetland (season 7), based on the books by Ann Cleeves. Produced by Silverprint Pictures. Shown on BBC; and Vienna Blood (season 3), based on the books by Frank Tallis. Produced by Endor Productions, Seven.One Studios. Shown on BBC.
Best Crime Fiction Novel for Children (aged 8-12): The Good Turn, by Sharna Jackson (Puffin)
Also nominated: A Girl Called Justice: The Spy at the Window, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus Children’s Books); Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case, by Anthony Horowitz (Walker); Spark, by M.G. Leonard (Walker); The Ministry of Unladylike Activity, by Robin Stevens (Puffin); and Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe for Trouble, by Sarah Todd Taylor (Nosy Crow)
Best Crime Fiction Novel for Young Adults (aged 12-16): Five Survive, by Holly Jackson (Electric Monkey)
Also nominated: Needle, by Patrice Lawrence (Barrington Stoke); The Butterfly Assassin, by Finn Longman (Simon & Schuster Children’s); Truth or Dare, by Sophie McKenzie (Simon & Schuster Children’s); I Must Betray You, by Ruta Sepetys (Hodder Children’s Books); and The Notorious Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud (Walker)
3 comments:
Do you have information on the comments made by Peter Guttridge? Over at Twitter, there are many comments being made about his speech that many felt was offensive, but as with most things like this, very few are publishing what was said or the context of what was said (I think there is this bizarre belief that by merely repeating offensive comments people feel that is an endorsement of such comments, and to me, that just adds confusion).
I am sure I can leave @peterguttridge to defend himself, if he so wishes. To my mind, if he was guilty of anything at all it was not of being offensive, but rather of misjudging the mood of his audience and losing their interest.
Since I was reporting the awards for The Rap Sheet, I left a tape recorder running during his speech. After reading your comments I've played it back. All I can say is that he made a couple of jokes that misfired and used his time on stage to express a view that we may be going too far these days in terms of censorship and self-censorship for fear of upsetting some people's sensibilities.
He did tell one rather splendid joke about how when he first attended a crime fiction convention he'd remarked to the late Reginald Hill how surprised he was to discover that a bunch of peope who spent their time writing about murder and mayhem were so friendly and convivial in real life.
Hill retorted, 'If you want to see blood on the carpet you need to go to a meeting of the Romantic Fiction Association."
"Of course you wouldn't be allowed to say that these days in case you upset romantic fiction writers," Guttridge bemoaned, warming to a theme he would return to several times during the night.
It's fair to say that on the night I'd felt his speech wan't particularly well-received. Listening back to the recording, I can confirm that.
It's ironic really that after telling his audience how friendly he thought they were, he was to discover they could be a little more hostile than he'd imagined.
I should probably add I'd seen him on stage earlier in the day elsewhere at the festival and he'd been witty and urbane and was then warmly applauded by the crowd.
You win some, you lose some
Thank you so much for your reply. I am finding that in this world so driven by "social media" and electronic communication, context and intent are two of the first things ignored and misrepresented, especially when it comes to a contrast between the younger and older.
Personally, I have grown so weary of people failing to ask something as simple as, "Is 'this' what you meant in your comments?" before expressing deep harm (and I don't mean this as to lessen one's reactions to another person's behavior, only that often times there is a difference of interpretation of context and intent).
Again, thank you because you have provided more specifics than any others.
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