We can now announce two more speakers confirmed for this year’s Bodies From The Library conference. We are delighted to welcome back both Jim Noy and Tom Mead who have spoken at past conferences on a diverse range of topics including obscure locked room mysteries, impossible crimes, fair-play clueing and Enid Blyton (a mystery writer not to be overlooked).

Tom Mead

Tom Mead is a Derbyshire mystery writer and aficionado of Golden Age Crime Fiction. His novels include Death and the Conjuror, The Murder Wheel, Cabaret Macabre and The House at Devil’s Neck. He also recently published a collection of mystery stories, The Indian Rope Trick (and Other Violent Entertainments). His books have been translated into twelve languages (and counting), nominated for various awards and named books of the year by The Guardian, The Telegraph, Publishers Weekly and Crimereads.

Jim Noy

Jim Noy has a particular enthusiasm for the golden age detection of the 1920 to the 1950s, especially locked room mysteries and impossible crimes. He blogs at The Invisible Event, where he also publishes the infuriatingly occasional In GAD We Trust podcast.

We are delighted to announce that Martin Edwards and Victoria Dowd will be speaking at this year’s Bodies From The Library conference. Martin has been a regular speaker at past conferences and Victoria was a very popular debut speaker at last year’s conference so it is great to welcome her back.

Martin Edwards’ most recent novel is Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife; he has published five novels (with a sixth, Fever Island, due in September) set in the 1930s and featuring Rachel Savernake, as well as series based in the Lake District and Liverpool. He has won two Edgar awards and lifetime achievement awards for fiction (the CWA Diamond Dagger and the Dagger in the Library), scholarship (the Popular Culture Association’s George N. Dove award), non-fiction (the Poirot award) and short fiction (the Golden Derringer). He is President of the Detection Club and consultant to the bestselling British Library Crime Classics.

http://www.martinedwardsbooks.com
http://www.doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/

Victoria is the award-winning author of the Smart Woman’s Mystery series and has been shortlisted for the CWA Dagger. Her novel, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder, won The People’s Book Prize for fiction and was In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel’s Book of the Year. Her novel Murder Most Cold won the Grand Puzzly award. Her short fiction has been widely published and was awarded the Gothic Fiction prize, and the Sykehouse Filmfest Silken Noose award. She is also the author of the historical crime series, The Charlotte Blood Chronicles. Victoria is the Vice-chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and was a criminal defence barrister.

https://victoriadowd.com/adapting-agatha/

Booking has now opened for the 11th annual Bodies From The Library conference taking place at the British Library in London on 20th June 2026.

We are also very pleased to announce that we have been able to keep the price down to the same as last year…a bargain at £45 (plus Eventbrite booking fee).

To book your place go to:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bodies-from-the-library-2026-tickets-1977907487539?aff