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The Incident Room, Orion’s immersive events space, is returning to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival later this month featuring Ian Rankin, Mari Hannah and Winnie M Li.
It will run in tandem with the festival’s main programme, launching at The Old Swan Hotel’s library in Harrogate on 23rd July.
The line-up includes festival chair Rankin, Hannah and Cate Quinn. Orion will be launching its 2022 highlight Complicit by Li (pictured) with an in-conversation event and socially distanced signing. The publisher is also hosting an online Incident Room on 17th July, with the full line-up to be revealed on 9th July, for those unable to join the festival in person.
The Incident Room has hosted events every year of the festival since first launching in 2017.
“The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is a highlight in the literary calendar and we are so looking forward to being able to return to Harrogate to celebrate in person," Orion m.d. Katie Espiner said. "After a difficult year it’s more important than ever to support festivals and the arts, and we hope that the safe implementation of this year’s festival will be the first of many events to come in 2021.”
Li revealed how she had first attended the festival as a budding writer. "It's so exciting to be able to launch the advanced proofs of my upcoming book Complicit at Theakston's this year, especially since I first started attending the festival as an unpublished, aspiring novelist" she said. "There's always a wonderful community of crime readers and writers at Harrogate, and after a year in lockdown, I'm sure that warm, face-to-face atmosphere will be especially buzzing." Complicit was signed in a 48-hour pre-empt earlier this year.
Lizzie Brewster, head of development and communications at Harrogate International Festivals, said: “We are thrilled that the Orion Incident Room is once again returning to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate - the home of crime fiction. Whilst the past 16 months have been incredibly difficult for our arts charity, the fascination with crime fiction is ever growing with the genre going from strength to strength."
Organisers of the crime festival confirmed a return to live events for 2021, after the government unveiled its roadmap out of lockdown in February. In 2020 it was forced to cancel the in-person festival owing to Covid-19, alongside its wider summer season, with events moved online. Recently announced headliners include Richard Osman and Ann Cleeves.
Tickets to all physical events are free and will go live at 10 a.m. on 9th July via the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival website. For more information on the virtual events, follow Orion Crime on Twitter and Facebook.