'Bloody Scotland' (1)

 

So that's a not very good photograph of Richard Armitage, the actor turned thriller writer. This was the second session that Doreen and I went to; we were a very long way back hence the short comings of the picture. Well that and the lighting. I had been delighted to see that RA, an actor who I have long admired, was to be at the festival and even obtained a copy of his book Geneva to read (well, listen to) before the event. It's a multiple POV and he and the amazing Nicola Walker were the main narrators. I did not find it either thrilling or engaging and in fact gave up part way through, contenting myself with the final chapter and the epilogue just to confirm to myself that I was right about who was good, who was bad, and what the bad guys were trying to do. I was very pleased that the book had been an Audible freebie, as it meant that I hadn't had to waste any of my money on it. He has now written a second book, but I won't be bothering Audible for that. To be honest I think it's probably an OK book, I'm just not a fan of thrillers. We were very amused when it came to the questions because they were almost all from women who all said something along the lines of 'Good evening Richard, my name is xxx' which was funny because in the previous session no-one had felt it incumbent upon themselves to give their names when asking questions!!

The session before this was a two hander of Peter James, who writes the Roy Grace series of detective novels set in Brighton, and Elly Griffiths who recently brought her Ruth Galloway series to a close. I've heard Griffiths before and she's delightful, I hadn't heard Peter James but he was good value. He also told a couple of funny stories about Martin Amis, which almost reconciled me to the hours of my life I wasted reading Amis' book London Fields. Almost, but not quite. 

And then it was back to Doreen's for an overnight stay.