A celebration of classic crime novels with Mark Billingham, Kate Jackson, Abir Mukherjee and Victoria Selman.

At this special event to open National Crime Reading Month 2023, join us for a fascinating and lively investigation of the timeless – as well as the weirdest and most surprising – characters, settings, murders, objects and more in the classic crime fiction genre. The staple themes to be found in the British Library’s hugely popular Crime Classics series.

The event also marks the publication of Kate Jackson’s How to Survive a Crime Classic Novel which imagines what you would you do if you found yourself in the world of the golden age murder mystery.

How would you avoid being framed for murder – or evade an untimely demise? From dinner parties to detective interrogations, you’ll need to know how to keep your wits about you in a world of red herrings, hidden identities and one too many suspicious butlers…

Mark Billingham began his career as an actor, comedian and TV writer and published his first crime novel, Sleepyhead in 2001, which became an instant bestseller in the UK. The series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thorne continued with Scaredy Cat and was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried, Death Message, Bloodline, From The Dead, Good As Dead, The Dying Hours, The Bones Beneath, Time Of Death, Love Like Blood, The Killing Habit, Their Little Secret, Cry Baby and the most recent The Murder Book. Mark is also the author of the standalone novels In The Dark, Rush Of Blood, Die Of Shame and his latest, Rabbit Hole. A series based on the novels In The Dark and Time Of Death was screened on BBC1 in 2017. Mark is also a regular contributor to radio and TV and is a member of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a combo of bestselling crime and thriller writers who performed at the Glastonbury.

Kate Jackson is the author of How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel. She reviews classic crime fiction and hosts the photo-sharing meme #MurderEveryMonday on Twitter and Instagram. She has spoken at the Bodies from the Library conference and the International Agatha Christie Festival and is a regular contributor to Crime and Detective Stories magazine (CADs). Previous books include The Pocket Detective and The Pocket Detective 2

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in Raj-era India which have sold over 400,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 15 languages. His books have won numerous awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen, the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing and the Amazon Publishing Readers Award for E-book for the Year. Alongside fellow author, Vaseem Khan, he also hosts the popular Red Hot Chilli Writers podcast.

Victoria Selman is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Truly Darkly Deeply and the critically acclaimed Ziba MacKenzie series. She has been shortlisted for the CWA Debut and Short Story Daggers and is a host on the popular Crime Time FM podcast. She read Modern History at Oxford University and holds certificates in criminal profiling and criminal psychology.