I’ve just returned home from my fifteenth annual trip to the
UK, each of which has centered around the St Hilda’s Crime and Mystery Weekend in Oxford. Those
who have attended know that St Hilda’s is unique, in that each conference has a
theme. 
This year’s theme was “The
Wages of Sin” and included such talks as “Tiger in the Smoke: the Theology of
Margery Allingham” (Kate Charles); “Anarchism and Anger: William Godwin’s Caleb
Williams – the first crime novel?” (Andrew Taylor, this year’s CWA Diamond
Dagger winner); and “The Attenbury Emeralds” where Jill Paton Walsh discussed the genesis of her third Dorothy L. Sayers novel, based on one of Lord
Peter Wimsey’s early cases. Check out the full program here. Next year's theme is "Behind the Mask," August 20-22. Start making your travel plans now!
I was thrilled to be invited to speak at St Hilda's and had already
settled on a topic – the seven deadly sins as motive in crime fiction. Then I was told I would be last on the
program, and I knew from past experience that speakers in that time slot were
expected to be funny. OMG. On to Plan
B. I’d never been good at remembering all the seven deadly sins. It's like trying to name each of Snow White’s
Seven Dwarfs – I was always forgetting one or another. I dug into research and slowly my talk: “Dante, Dorothy and Disney: the Seven Deadly Sins in Crime Fiction” emerged. Did
you know that Gilligan’s Island was an allegory for hell and that each of the
seven castaways represents one of the seven deadly sins? I'll bet the sitcom's creator didn't either. Or that Reebok has recently introduced
a line of basketball shoes themed to the seven deadly sins? (I’ll take sloth. They’re stunning in aqua.) You can also buy Livestrong-style
wristbands for each of the seven deadlies. The vendor, Archie McFee, also sells hopping, yodeling lederhosen. But I digress. I had
a great time at St Hilda's, everyone laughed in all the right places, and there was a scramble for the wristbands, so I guess my talk
went well.
Earlier in the week, I had visited Ludlow, on the Welsh
border, to attend the second annual Crime in the Castle held in historic Ludlow
Castle and organized by crime novelist, Kate Charles. Over one hundred people
paid 5 pounds each (to include a glass of wine!) to hear Kate, Natasha Cooper, Andrew Taylor, Phil Rickman, Martin Edwards, Laura Wilson, Suzette
Hill and me talk about writing crime fiction. The event was co-sponsored by Mystery Women (thank you
Lizzie Hayes!) and Stanton Stephens of Castle Bookshop in Ludlow. To promote the evening, Stanton decorated
his shop window with a “body in the library” theme so realistic that a
pedestrian, staggering by at 2 a.m. slightly the worse for drink, called 999 to
report, “There’s a bloke in the bookstore!
He’s been murdered!"
After a relaxing week in Somerset attending the Edington
Festival of Music Within the Liturgy, I hopped a train to Dartmouth in Devon
where I plan to set my next Hannah Ives mystery. The parallels to Annapolis are many -- Dartmouth is home to
the Britannia Royal Naval College and the River Dart is alive with
sailboats. For me, it was love at
first sight. I resisted the urge
to stop on Lower Street at the first estate agent I came to and look up
“cottages for sale,” checking instead into Cherub’s Nest, a charming B&B on
Higher Street
which overlooks the Harbour Bookshop, owned for many years by
Christopher Milne -- yes, that Christopher! – and a
couple of doors away from the Singing Kettle Tea Shoppe where I had a fabulous
cream tea.
From my first arrival at Totnes train station, I was taken
under the collective wings of three British couples who at one time or another
had participated in the U.S. Naval Academy/Britannia Royal Naval College faculty
exchange.
Jill (who organized my
whole visit!) picked me up at the train, took me to the Stoke Fleming village
fete – check out the vegetable competition! --
-- and gave me dinner at the home
she shares with her husband, Ian, set high on a hill overlooking
Dartmouth.
The next morning, I climbed the steep steps up Horn St to meet Richard who gave me a walking tour of historic Dartmouth, then took me to ancient St. Saviour’s church for a charity luncheon. There I was introduced to his wife, Anna, and to David, who accompanied me on
the mile-long hike to Dartmouth Castle, with a stop for coffee at The
Apprentice, a upscale restaurant in old St Barnabas Church where young people
down-on-their-luck train to be professionals in the food services
industry. Later in the week,
David’s wife, Maralyn, collected me in her car for a trip across the Dart to
Kingswear for a visit to Coleton Fishacre, the holiday home of the famous
D’Oyly Carte family – sorry my husband, Barry, had to miss this as there isn’t
a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta he hasn’t directed! We crossed the Dart on the ferry for a 20-minute drive
down to Slapton Sands, the infamous beach where Operation Tiger, a full-dress
rehearsal for D-Day went horribly wrong and nearly 1000 Americans lost their
lives.
One morning archivist Richard Porter gave me a fascinating private
tour of the Naval College which, like the U.S. Naval Academy, was built around
1905. Prince Charles studied there, as did his son, William, as
well as many Royals before them. In
between, I managed to work in coffee with Lesley Dennison, manager of the Dart
Marina Spa and sister to my friend, California mystery writer, Hannah
Dennison. Their mother works as a
docent at Greenway, the holiday home of Agatha Christie, just opened to the
public this spring by the National Trust.
No visit to Dartmouth would be complete without a pilgrimage to
Greenway, so I rode the ferryboat up there one day. Unfortunately, the remains of Hurricane Bill were lashing
Devon at the time, tearing at my raincoat and turning my umbrella inside out,
so I had only the briefest glimpse of Agatha’s gardens and never made it down
to the boathouse – where Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly was set – at all. The house, however, is fabulous! Warm and welcoming, with books,
hats, canes and personal items laid out as if Dame Agatha were simply away for
the day. Even got to see her loo. This photo was taken by a friend on a much sunnier day!
Not much time for shopping, alas, but I did manage a stroll along cobbled, pedestrianized Foss Street, where I bought a locally-made sailing duffle for my husband, then popped into Simon Drew, where I ran into the quirky, punny cartoonist himself --
-- and met his faithful dog, Rabbit. Rabbit convinced me that I needed to purchase some greeting cards and a t-shirt. I like that in a pet.
When I said goodbye to David at the Totnes train station last Saturday, it
was with the hope that I’d be back to Dartmouth, and soon, bringing my husband
along with me. What better place for a sailor and a mystery writer to spend quality time?
Please release ALL THINGS UNDYING on Kindle!
Posted by: Beverly Valcovic | October 03, 2010 at 09:39 AM