I did a panel at Capital Crime a couple of weeks ago, and the topic was crime writers from Brighton.
It really is a pretty extraordinary list, and I’m sure I’m missing a few. I have a brain like a sieve. Off the top of my head:
- Graham Bartlett
- Julia Crouch
- David Fennell
- Elly Griffiths
- Araminta Hall
- Kate Helm
- Peter James
- Jack Jordan
- Dorothy Koomson
- Jeff Noon
- Lesley Thomson
- Simon Toyne
- Lynne Truss
- P.D. Viner
I count all of them as mates. We all know each other in some kind of way. At some point we’ve all sought each other out.
I’ve tried to think about why this is. Brighton is a place that attracts people who work from home, for a start. Which is something that writers do a lot. There’s a beach to walk along when we need to get away from our screens, and the downs behind us. There are cafes to escape to.
And out of that comes community. Because writers often find they work best when they talk to other writers.