Jeanette Winterson In Conversation with Val McDermid at Martin Harris Centre

She’s fast becoming a national treasure is Val McDermid. Not only did she amiably chortle her way to a win on the festive version of Universally Challenged and regularly gives the other teams a run for their money on Radio Four’s Round Britain Quiz (yes, I am that sad), she is also one of the biggest names in crime writing, last year publishing her 30th novel. Just digest that a minute. Out of Bounds was her 30th novel. How does she even find the time to go on panel shows, let alone swot up for them?

Val’s novels have been translated into 30 languages and have sold over 10 million copies worldwide. She won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year for The Mermaids Singing, the first instalment in the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series. You know it: it was adapted into the successful TV drama Wire in the Blood, starring everyone’s favourite extreme fisherman, Robson Green, in the role of clinical psychologist Dr Hill. Val has also somehow managed to write two other series of books: the first about a journalist called Lindsay Gordon; the second featuring the private investigator character Kate Brannigan. Take a breath.

At this event hosted by The University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, Professor of Creative Writing and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author Jeanette Winterson will be chatting to the queen of Tartan Noir about plotlines, processes and publishing. Both are engaging speakers, and you can expect some edge of your seat stuff. Especially if they start cooking up the perfect crime…