Peter James: Novelist and Film Producer: ITV Crime Thriller Awards

Peter's blog

Wednesday, August 27, 2008
ITV Crime Thriller Awards

I'm delighted to tell you I've been shortlisted for the Author of the Year category in the inaugural ITV Crime Thriller Awards - details of which are in the press release below.

One of you kind readers sent me an email of commiseration when I failed to win the Theakstons Crime Thriller Of The Year Award - the third consecutive event for which I had been shortlisted and did not win, telling me I must be feeling a bit like Martin Scorsese, forever being nominated for an Academy Award and not winning! Another of you, and very rightly, in my view, wrote to me that to be on the shortlist, is to be a winner. I totally agree with that!!!!

Here is the press release below:

ITV3 announces first nominees for inaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards

ITV3 today announces the first nominees for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards, a glittering event at London’s Grosvenor Hotel on the 3rd October. The awards ceremony will celebrate the crème de la crème of crime fiction with awards focusing on the best of British and International crime thriller novels. The Crime Thriller Awards are the culmination of a 7 week Crime Thriller Awards Season of programming which begin on Monday 18th August with Profiling Ian Rankin.

The three award categories which are announced today are the Author of the Year, the International Author of the Year and the Breakthrough Author Award.

The Author of the Year nominees are:
Peter James (Not Dead Enough, Pan), Robert Harris (The Ghost, Hutchinson), Lee Child (Bad Luck and Trouble, Bantam) and Ian Rankin (Exit Music, Orion).

The nominees for International Author of the Year are:
Jeffrey Deaver (The Sleeping Doll, Hodder & Stoughton), Steig Larsson (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Quercus), Karin Slaughter (Skin Privilege, Arrow) and PJ Tracy (Snow Blind, Penguin)

Breakthrough Author Award nominees are:
Chelsea Cain (Heartsick, Pan), Stuart MacBride (Broken Skin, Harper), Michael Robotham (Shatter, Sphere) and Anne Zouroudi (The Messenger of Athens, Bloomsbury)

During September we will also be announcing nominees for awards celebrating crime thrillers on screen – including the Best New Film, Best New UK TV Drama, Best New US TV Drama, Best Actresses in Film/TV and Best Actor in Film/TV.

At the awards ceremony, as well as the winners of the awards above we will also announce the first three entries into the Crime Thriller Hall of Fame – three authors who throughout their illustrious careers have represented the pinnacle of the crime thriller genre.

Each award of the evening will be presented by celebrity faces with a connection to the world of crime fiction – from celebrated authors to actors whose portrayals are admired the world over.

Running up to the glittering ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards will be six weeks of the greatest of crime dramas. Each week will begin with a specially commissioned documentary profiling the six best crime writers working today. The six authors who have been chosen are Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, PD James, Lynda La Plante, Val McDermid and Ruth Rendell. Viewers of ITV3 will then be able to vote between these authors to select the author who will win the first ITV3 Writer’s Award for Classic TV Drama.

The documentaries will introduce the viewers to the personalities behind the shows, their writing methods, and the fabulous lifestyles their success has bought them. Each documentary will be followed by the very best episodes of the crime shows that came from these great writers.

Many participating retailers will be mounting displays and supporting the season in-store throughout September, including WHSmith, Waterstones, Borders, TESCO etc. It is likely to be the most successful campaign in terms of promoting Crime and Thriller writing that there has ever been.

ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Season & Crime Thriller Awards are commissioned by Claire Zolkwer, Commissioning Editor, Entertainment on behalf of Emma Tennant, Controller of ITV3 and CITV. The Executive Producer is Amanda Ross and the series is Produced by Gareth Jones.

posted by Peter James at 9:50 AM 14 comments

Comments:

Hi,
I don't know if you really will be reading this message or if someone else will be reading it for you.
Just want to say that your novels are great. Am now reading your third novel and I can't wait until he's finished. The character of Roy Grace really does it.
Greetings out of Belgium

By Anonymous, at 10:12 AM

Hi, it is me who reads them and responds! Thank you for these kind words.

All best

Peter James

By Peter James, at 5:52 PM

Oh, ok. Didn't think that. Want to correct my words also. It isn't of course your 'third' novel, but the third novel with R. Grace that I meant.
In fact it must be weird to get mail of strangers, people all over the world who read your books and give their comment. Who leave their ideas on your site.
I always read in the train when I'm going to my work. Or when I'm going home. This morning I read the paragraph when Roy gets a telephone call that Sandy has been seen in another country. I wonder what happened to her. You really have given him a burden: professionally he's constantly confronted with his personal life, with his past. It is sad in a way.
Am writing a book myself. A story that is in my head for a very long time and that just wants to be written -:) I believe it goes like that: you create characters and from some point they are living their life themselves. Although the writer can adjust here and there :-)
Ann

By Anonymous, at 10:48 AM

Wow, this whole Crime and Thriller Writing campaign sounds like heaven for the fans! I wish it included NZ in the promotion. You are in very good company indeed Peter, with some fabulous authors and novels. I look forward to following this with great anticipation. Good thing is 3 of the best reads are in 3 different categories so I can send winning thoughts to you, Stuart and Steig (R.I.P)

Linda
x

By Anonymous, at 11:38 AM

Absolute shoe-in Peter. Get on Betfair!
Congratulations, a very well deserved nomination and I'm really glad they have recognised you.
Saw copies of your books in German today in a Zürich bookshop, I debated for a while about buying one but thought it would be slightly beyond me at this stage!
Jo

By Jo Adams, at 6:10 PM

Thanks, Ann, Linda and Jo for these comments. Just back and trying to catch up on my gazillion emails and postings!

Ann,good luck with your writing. Yes it is strange - but wonderful - to get comments and suggestions from all over the world. I think it is one of the great plusses that the internet has brought to authors - the ability to communicate directly with readers, which never used to happen in the ponderous days of written fan mail, when the custom was, to protect the authors from stalkers and from downright angry readers, the reader would write to the publisher, who would forward the letter to the agent who would forward it to the author, who would get it probably a month to two months after it had been sent!

All best

Peter

By Peter James, at 10:13 AM

Yesterday I saw a programme on television "Fantasy homes by the sea" (we also have such a programme called "Househunting", but than in Dutch) and the location where the televisionmakers were looking for a new home for a couple, was Brighton. I must say that I had a slightly different idea of the city when reading your books :-) All the criminality you are writing about, all the suspicious people walking in the streets,... gave me the idea of a real 'crimecity'. But instead it was beautiful :-) They showed pictures of the coast of Brighton, of Hove, Sussex, the streets were you can shop, old restaurated houses,... I can understand now why you can write so much about that city and environment; it is really inspiring.
Ann

By Anonymous, at 3:53 PM

Hi Ann

Thank you! I've just written a few words on Brighton for a Spanish magazine, which might explain a little more about why it is so great a city for me:

All very best

Peter

To the outsider, Brighton is a hip, beautiful seaside city, but it has a long history of darkness - right back to its roots as a smugglers village! In Regency days it gained a reputation both as a fashionable bathing resort, but in 1841 when the London-Brighton railway line opened, criminals flooded down from London, finding rich pickings and a much nicer environment than their city! They brought cock-fighting, prostitution, pick-pockets, muggers, smugglers, burglars, and gangs. Simultaneously, with the railway enabling quick access from London, many wealthy Londoners brought their mistresses down here and it became known as place for “dirty weekends”.
Three consecutive past Chief Constable of Sussex Police have all told me that Brighton is the favoured place to live in the UK for first division criminals to live in. The reasons are: Firstly it has a lot of escape routes, very important to all criminals: It has the Channel ports, Eurotunnel, and Gatwick Airport just 25 minutes away. London 50 mins by train. It has a major seaport on either side – Shoreham and Newhaven, perfect for importing drugs and exporting stolen cars, antiques and cash. It has the largest number of antique shops in the UK – perfect for laundering stolen goods and cash. For nine years running, except for one year, it has held the title the Tourist Board do not like me mentioning: “Injecting Drug Death Capital of England” ! It has a wealthy young population combined with the largest gay community in the UK, providing a big market for recreational drugs. It has two universities, so a big drug-taking student community. A huge number of nightclubs and a large transient population. Very importantly it has not been over-written by other writers. The only previous author to delve into its criminal underbelly – and quite brilliantly, was Graham Greene in Brighton Rock in 1938.

By Peter James, at 8:47 PM

Peter you make our wonderful city sound a bit scarey. I love Brighton because it is diverse, vibrant and extravert. Its restaurants bars and shops I think are second to none. This is the first time that I have any insight into its criminal reputation. Bit of a culture shock, but I am finding it really interesting. I have lots of reading up to do to find out more. I thought I would read Brighton Rock. I have some notes I made at a talk you did and I need to investigate these more. So much to do so little time. Jacqueline Twamley

By jacqueline twamley, at 10:32 AM

Hi Peter

I only discovered your books this year and have really enjoyed the Roy Grace series. Living in Brighton, it is great to read a book and to be able to picture the places. I find it very difficult to put your books down once I have started reading as I can't wait to find out what is going to happen next! Hence, I read them one straight after another. Please can you tell me when your next 'Roy Grace' book is likely to be published.

By Anonymous, at 9:37 PM

Hi Jacqueline - don't worry too much - it is a wonderful city and its crime heart gives it a special vibrancy in my view!

Hi Anonymous - the next Roy Grace novel, DEAD TOMORROW, will be published in June 2009 - I just finished the first draft last night!, finally... gulp!

All best

Peter

By Peter James, at 9:58 PM

If you need a fan to read over your draft-i'd like to volunteer my services :)

Lisa

By Anonymous, at 2:48 PM

more info on above.

I came accross your books thanks to review on amazon about 2 months ago, whilst looking for a book or two to take with me on my honeymoon. Your books came highly recommended so I bought dead simple. Starting to read it before the wedding was a bad idea as I had if finished in a few days, to the detriment of the wedding arrangements :) But I was hooked so I went to my local bookshop and found Looking good dead and not dead enough as a 2 for 1, fantastic, honeymoon sorted. It was only a matter of days after returning for honeymoon that I was in search of Dead man's footsteps, this one took me little longer to get through because of having to go back to work, drag :), but I finished it last night and i'm so sad that I will have to wait until next June to read the next installment and just don't know how i'll cope :)

Any chance of your surprising us all and releasing it early?

Lisa

By Anonymous, at 3:06 PM

Hi Peter,
I hope all went well at the Crime Thriller Award ceremomy on 3rd, I guess the results are secret until it's televised on the 6th, as I couldn't find anything on line about the winners. I really, really hope you won - you certainly deserve it.

By Hey Jude, at 10:01 AM