Saturday 17th June 2023
If a picture speaks a thousand words, then this collage pretty much sums up Murder In The Rhubarb Triangle, and event that took place at Wakefield Library on Saturday 17th June as part of National Crime Reading Month, an initiative that was started by the Crime Writing Association and The Reading Agency to encourage readers to #pickupapageturner.
I have never organised a ‘reader’ event before, but I could see the potential so way back in February I approached Wakefield Library to see if they thought there would be any interest in the local community. They revealed that crime fiction is one of the most borrowed categories, and after a few emails it was given the go ahead.
I would like to take a moment to thank the library team. From the very first email, to the day itself they gave it their all, leaving me with very little to do other than get the authors (more on that later). Elena, Allyson, Emma and the rest of the team – you are all absolute stars ⭐️
Now, I had no idea if there were any Yorkshire based crime writers, or any crime writers who wrote books set in Yorkshire let alone if any of them would be interested so I put a call out on social media, asked the CWA to reach out to anyone who met the criteria and also reached out to the connections I had made at various online and face to face events. I was delighted when everyone I asked gave me a very solid YES.
Phew, we had an event with authors!
Wakefield library is situated in the heart of Wakefield city centre, and it’s a beautiful building that shares space with the museum, the council offices and the community interested cafe on the lower floor Create Cafe.
I know the team at Create, and one of the owners Shaun is a good friend of mine. I love Create philosophy. They are pride themselves on giving the less advantaged in society a hand up, not a hand out. They have trainee’s gaining work experience in a busy cafe and they get involved in every aspect from serving coffee to cooking in the kitchen. It’s a huge open plan space, bright coloured with a friendly, welcoming atmosphere.
There was just one problem…
They don’t open on Saturday’s! Well, after a chat with Shaun, he and his team pulled out all the stops and opened the cafe for us. It worked perfectly. The authors took one side of the cafe, giving readers the chance to catch up with their favourite, buy books and have pictures taken. The cafe was buzzing all day.
Thank you to Shaun and the team for helping make the event the huge success it was.
The event itself saw 13 authors fill 4 panels throughout the day, ranging from cosy fiction through to psychological thrillers and police procedurals. I think the photo’s below sum up the day perfectly.
All in all, it was a brilliant day that introduced readers to new authors and in the end, that’s what it’s all about.
