We are extremely grateful to HarperCollins for generously sponsoring a wine reception to close this year’s conference at the British Library. We look forward to relaxing together with delegates before we all head home after what we hope will have been another enjoyable and interesting day. The reception will take place immediately after the closing panel session “Ask The Experts”.

The programme for the conference has now been finalised and we are delighted to confirm the speakers and topics.

9:30 Doors Open and Registration

9:55 Welcome

10.00 Simon and Lucy Brett: Lord Peter Wimsey on Radio 4

10.30 Martin Edwards and Christine Poulson discuss ‘John Bude and the British Library Crime Classics’

11.00 Mark Aldridge: Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness  

11.30 COFFEE

12.00 Tony Medawar: The Man Who Lost His Head: The Life and Works of Edmund Crispin

12.30 Dolores Gordon-Smith and Jake Kerridge: True Crime influences on the Golden Age

1.00 – 2.00 LUNCH

2.00 Ronaldo Fagarazzi: BBC’s ‘Detective’: 1960s Golden Age TV Adaptations

2.45 Moira Redmond: Fancy Dressed to Kill: The Costume Party in the Golden Age

3.15 John Curran: Golden Age College Crimes

3.45 COFFEE

4.15 Jim Noy: Enid Blyton, Detective Novelist

4.45 Ask the Experts

The organisers reserve the right to amend the programme if necessary.

To book your ticket go to:

We are very pleased to confirm the names of more speakers who will be appearing at Bodies From The Library 2024.

In addition to those previously announced, the following speakers will also be at the conference: Lucy Brett, Ronaldo Fagarazzi, Dolores Gordon-Smith, Jake Kerridge, Jim Noy, Christine Poulson and Moira Redmond.

Topics that will be covered at this years conference, with more yet to be announced, include: Radio adaptations of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories of Dorothy L. Sayers, John Bude, Miss Marple, True Crime Influences and College Crime.

To book your ticket click on the link below:

We are delighted to confirm the first speakers for the Bodies From The Library conference on 1st June 2024.

Tony Medawar makes a welcome return along with Simon Brett, Martin Edwards and John Curran. We are also hugely excited that Mark Aldridge will also be making his first appearance at the conference.

We will be announcing some of the topics that will be included in the conference very soon.

To book your conference place go to:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bodies-from-the-library-2024-tickets-785835002647

We are delighted to announce that tickets for the Bodies From The Library conference are now on sale.

The conference will take place at the British Library on 1 June 2024.

To secure you place go to:

I’m taking a weekend off from the final preparations for this year’s Bodies From The Library conference, which is now only two weeks away, to attend the Alibis in the Archive conference at the wonderful Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden, near Chester. I must say it is great to be able to relax while somebody else is doing all the hard work (in this case the indefatigable Martin Edwards ably supported by the Gladstone’s Library team).

Today’s sessions have featured Dolores Gordon-Smith talking on the mysterious true crime from the Victorian era, the murder of Charles Bravo, Martin himself talking on the 70 year history of the Crime Writers’ Association from its inception on Bonfire Night 1953, Felix Francis talking about how his parents carved out a new career writing bestseller thrillers after the end of his father Dick Francis’s illustrious career as a top jockey, and Len Tyler on the often difficult balancing act to avoid lapses into bad taste when including humour in writing crime fiction.

We were also privileged to be given access to items from the archive of the Crime Writers’ Association which has been transferred to Gladstone’s Library under a long-term agreement that will see the archive protected and properly catalogued for use by scholars of its history.

Tomorrow promises further treats including a look at adapting classic crime fiction for TV and film, investigating just how “cozy” golden age detective fiction was and Chrissie Poulson will be taking a look at detective fiction with university settings.

And, of course, I am looking forward to seeing and hearing Martin, Dolores, Chrissie and Len again very soon when they give their talks at Bodies From The Library on 24th June.

We are delighted to announce some of the speakers who will at this year’s Bodies From The Library conference. They include:

Simon Brett
Martin Edwards
Kate Jackson
Tony Medawar
Richard Reynolds
and
Len Tyler

More speakers will be announced shortly.

Topics they will be covering include:

S. S. Van Dine
Agatha Christie
Impossible Crimes
One-off Golden Age Novels
Clifford Witting
and
How “Golden” is the Golden Age?

But who is talking on which subject? All will be revealed…

Tickets are now on sale for the eighth annual Bodies From The Library conference.

To book your place at the foremost conference on Golden Age Detective Fiction, taking place at the British Library on 24th June 2023, click on the link below:

Book Your Tickets

We are delighted to announce that the 2023 Bodies From The Library conference will take place at the British Library Conference Centre on 24th June.

We are currently putting together the programme and will be announcing speakers shortly.

Tickets will go on sale within the next few weeks so watch this space for more information as it is announced.

​What with a global pandemic, running the 2021 conference completely online using Zoom for two hundred delegates from around the globe and praying that my broadband would stand the strain, and holding our first live conference in the restaurant of the British Library after an electrical fire closed the conference centre two days before the 2022 Bodies conference was scheduled to take place (big thanks to all the AV team and other staff at the British Library for pulling off the seemingly impossible in under 48 hours), it has been an eventful last few years and I think it is forgivable the excitement and stress we managed to overlook the fact that we are now at the point where we are marking the centenary of the Golden Age.

It seems appropriate, therefore, in this age of Prizes that we ought to consider awarding prizes for books published 100 years ago. With that in view, I hereby inaugurate the Centenary Prize for Golden Age Detective Fiction which is open to any work of work of Golden Age Detective Fiction published 100 years ago this year.

Now, if I had got my act in gear sooner, I wouldn’t be launching this Centenary Prize with the publications of 1922 because, let’s face it, 1922 was not a vintage year for GAD fiction. In fact, the shortlist I have come up with is, how to put this… a little underwhelming.

But beggars can’t be choosers, so here goes:

The provisional shortlist for the 2022 Centenary Prize for Golden Age Detective Fiction is:

The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton

From the writer of the Father Brown stories we have a one off experiment that kinda, sorta, maybe works. But don’t take my word for it, you can check out the views of the far more erudite Kate Jackson at her Cross Examining Crim blog: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922) by G. K. Chesterton – crossexaminingcrime (wordpress.com)

She rates it a respectable 3/5 on writing style and 4/5 on characters.

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

This novel marks the first entry in the long-running Tommy and Tuppence series. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of Tuppence who comes out well in the feisty heroine with brains stakes but, oh dear, Tommy is such an irritating chap. He has the brawn but is under the illusion that he has the brains in the outfit too. Yes, I know that this is all part of the joke as Christie sends him up and Tuppence lets him take credit where none is due but, sighs deeply at this point, the joke does pall by the end. Well, by the end of chapter two for me but, hey, such is life.

The Pit-Prop Syndicate by Freeman Wills Crofts

Now I am a big fan of Freeman Wills Crofts and his Inspector French police procedurals. He is a true Master of the Humdrum (as Curtis Evans has so aptly described this sub-genre of GAD fiction). But, I think, by common consent, this is not one his finest entries in the category. Curtis dismisses it: “with its soppy heroine moaning over and over to her beloved, like a wilting Victorian miss, that their love ‘cannot be’…[is] not nearly [one of] Crofts’ strongest books in my opinion” –http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/

The Problem of Thor Bridge by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Only a short story this, and a late one at that, but it has the twin merits of featuring Sherlock Holmes and some mysterious marks on the balustrade of a bridge which give a clue to the identity of the killer and both means and motive for the killing. Not bad for a brief little package of little more than a dozen pages when collected in The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. It also served as the blueprint for what is, arguably, the first true detective story featuring Albert Campion – let’s just say that Margery Allingham leant heavily on features of its plot for her novel so it has certainly demonstrated a legacy out of proportion to its slim size.

Helen Vardon’s Confession by R Austin Freeman

It is sometimes, somewhat unkindly, suggested that Freeman modelled his scientifically minded sleuth Dr Thorndyke on Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. But, I truth, what detective in GAD fiction does not owe at least a tip of the (deerstalker) hat to Holmes? Nick Fuller argues that this may be Freeman’s worst book: Helen Vardon’s Confession (Freeman) – The Grandest Game in the World (wordpress.com) It certainly features some nasty anti-Semitism but fans of Thorndyke (and I am one of them) have to live with this and other uncomfortable views expressed by their author. For a fair analysis of this and other issues I recommend you turn to another Thorndyke fan, Jim Noy, in conversation with Dolores Gordon Smith (another – there are a lot of us about) at: In GAD We Trust – Episode 20: The Dr. Thorndyke Stories of R. Austin Freeman [w’ Dolores Gordon-Smith] | The Invisible Event

So there you have them. Five shortlisted pieces of GAD fiction from 1922.

Which do you think deserves the Centenary Prize for Golden Age Detective Fiction? Or do you have another title you would nominate?