Murderous Media | Cause UK

It’s been an intensely busy year of media work for our client the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Ann pitched stories, issued key press releases and liaised with journalists from local, regional and national print, alongside broadcast and bloggers.

The event itself was filmed by Sky News and ITV Calendar. Live broadcasts included BBC Radio Five Live who contacted the festival to broadcast live from the awards night, and BBC Radio York who broadcast the entire Anna and Adam show from the festival, alongside Stray FM.

We achieved meaningful features in The Spectator, with a piece written by author, Stav Sherez on the Festival highlights.

Two pieces in The Times resulted from interviews with authors Charles Cumming and Lee Child.

Ann pitched author Gregg Hurwitz to write a blog for The Guardian on ‘toxic masculinity’ which has had over 1,000 shares on social media.

She also pitched the theme to Telegraph journalist Jake Kerridge, featuring Gregg and Lee Child.

We positioned colour pieces on Lee Child in The Sunday Times (Me and My Motor), and Peter Robinson in the money pages.

Features also ran in the Saturday Telegraph, The Express, in the pages of the festival’s media partner, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post, York Press and Harrogate Advertiser. Festival photographer and Cause UK associate, Charlotte Graham, took a spectacular photo of Lee Child and John Grisham that dominated the Saturday Telegraph.

The Crime Novel of the Year press release was covered in the Guardian, Yorkshire Post, and Mail on Sunday in print, as well as syndicated to regional press via the Press Association, and in book trade press.

As well as media around the event, year round press work included Ann interviewing Lee Child for Yorkshire Living magazine and a feature in the Independent on Harrogate wearing the crown for the UK’s bookiest town. Press releases announcing John Grisham as special guest and Lee Child as chair appeared in the Mail on Sunday, and syndicated to regional media across the UK via the Press Association.

The Financial Times picked the Festival as one of the best book events, as did Country and Town House magazine, the Mail on Sunday chose it as one of the ‘Hottest Festivals of the summer’ and The Times picked it in its ‘summer’s hottest tickets’ cultural highlights. Author Sophie Hannah picked her favourite books for Good Housekeeping magazine.

In April, Ann helped gather author contributions for a major feature in the Guardian, front page of the Review, which featured crime writers perfect books to celebrate the news the genre has outsold literary fiction. She also pinned down interviews for the BBC on the story.

For the London launch party, we set up an interview with the Press Association and Lee Child, which featured in the Daily Mail and across the news wire, with photos featuring in The Bookseller pictures of the week, and in regional print, such as Yorkshire Life’s society page.

In May, Ann supported the annual Big Read, with reader in residence Mari Hannah, with radio interviews on BBC Sheffield and Bradford’s Sunrise, and features in the Yorkshire Post, Telegraph and Argus, Sheffield Star, Hartlepool Mail, Ripon Gazette and Chronicle to encourage local readers to attend the library events.

More coverage is due with a feature on how to write a bestselling crime novel in Marie Claire magazine, an exclusive interview with John Grisham in the Mail on Sunday, a Great Drives travelogue in the Saturday Telegraph with Lee Child, and a feature on Denise Mina in New Zealand news.

Phew!