Peter's Blog

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The Bentley Is Back

At the beginning of 2007 I took delivery of a Bentley Continental GT. I fell in love with the looks of these cars the moment they first appeared. To me they were pure sculpture on wheels, and next to my DB7, one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

But my joy of owning this car lasted a mere 18 months - before it caught fire as Helen and I were driving in it on our way to a charity event at Glyndebourne Opera House (see earlier blog!)

In the long ensuing saga, about which there will be a further blog, the car was off the road for a staggering 12 weeks. I got fed up in the end and bought another one, the massively uprated Bentley Continental GT Speed, (pictured) a car with real attitude!

It has has 600 BHP, will do 203 mph and handles as sharply as a Porsche. Jeremy Clarkson, I believe, said it was the best road car he had ever driven and I completely agree with him.

I recently let a traffic police officer friend of mine have a lengthy drive in it, and he was grinning from ear to ear as he drove it, saying it was the best handling road car he had ever driven. He is right. It is a glorious beast and at least if this one catches fire - well, it is fire engine red!!!

Northern Tour

In response to enthusiastic requests from so many of you, I'm delighted to let you know that my publisher are arranging a short Northern tour for me on Dec 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

It is still in the process of being finalized, but so far, I will be doing signings in Newcastle, York, Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester and Cheshire.

All confirmed details are now up in the Appearances section of my website -- and I very much hope to meet many of you at these events.

I have also had a a lot of requests from those of you in Scotland and I am longing to come back and travel around your country - hopefully a tour will be arranged for next year - and besides, it would give Roy Grace (not to mention his creator!!!) a good opportunity to broaden his range of knowledge on whiskies...

Peter James - Literary Villain!

A number of you have written to me to say that I appear as a villain in the Jeffrey Deaver novel Sleeping Doll!

I met Jeffrey Deaver a couple of years ago for the first time when we were on a panel together at Left Coast Crime, and I must say, I think he is one of the nicest people I have met in the whole crime writing world - a view shared by many. Despite his very dark books, and that he looks like a prosperous undertaker, he is warm and witty in the flesh and quite delightful company.

I met him again about ten days ago, at the ITV3 Crime Thriller awards and told him that in return I was going to put him in my new novel (Dead Tomorrow) as a real sleaze-bag. "Yes please!" , he replied enthusiastically. "The sleazier and bigger scumbag the better!"

Oh boy, I sure hope he means that... I think I have done him proud, as you will see in the book next year!!!

Bouchercon - or "Them Canny Scots!"

Just back this morning from Baltimore, where I was attending the biggest event in the US crime fiction calendar, Bouchercon - their equivalent to our Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, with a glittering array of star attendees, including Val McDermid, John Harvey, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Laura Lippman, Karin Slaughter, Mark Billingham, John Connelly and many others.

I was on a panel with Natasha Cooper, a great British crime writer, and lovely person, who sells more in the US than here and deserves much higher recognition in the UK, debating the theme of "At what point do you end a crime series?" Well, fear not, with the fun I am having writing the Roy Grace series and with the wonderful enthusiasm of all of you readers I have no end in sight -- indeed, I still feel as if I am right at the very start of this series! So plenty more pain for you all to come!

I had tea before I left to catch the plane, with Stuart MacBride, a writer who I really rate. Stewart won the "Breakthrough Author" category at the recent ITV3 Awards. Only problem of course is that he's a Scot, which meant two of the plum awards going to Scots that evening, the other, Author Of The Year, for which I was shortlisted, being awarded to my nemesis... (Does Rankin rhyme with Moriarty???).

When I told Stewart that I was flying back on the 9.20pm British Airways flight, together with Mark Billingham, John Harvey, Natasha Cooper, Anne Cleeves, Jason Goodwin, and numerous other members of the UK crime writing elite on board, he perked up visibly, with the typical gallows humour of a crime novelist. "Give me the flight number," he said . "I'll sit up all night tracking it on the internet. Just think if the plane goes down with all you lot on it... Half of the UK crime writing elite wiped out in a fell stroke. I could then be No 1 for months!"

It's good to know who your friends are...

ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards

Well, the Awards ceremony was indeed a glittering affair at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, on Friday night, and as usual, whenever I am lucky enough to be shortlisted for an award, I always arrive a nervous wreck...probably even more nervous than usual this time as it was such a prestigious award, AUTHOR OF THE YEAR, and I was up against some massive talent, in the forms of Robert Harris, Lee Child and Ian Rankin.

Well... I'm happy to report that all the time I spent practising my happy loser smile was not wasted! After the entire nation saw me scowling back in 2007 which I lost out by just five votes to Ian Rankin for the Richard and Judy Crime Thriller Of The Year Award, I decided I should at least look like a good sport. So when - as I had predicted - Ian Rankin won, at least I smiled graciously! As one of my heroes, the late, great, curmudgeonly actor, W C Fields famously said, "Start every day with a smile and get it over with."

But on a serious note, thank you all so much for the numerous emails of support you sent me. Having such lovely readers as you means more to me than any prize I could ever win.

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