Reginald Hill: Photo courtesy www.shotsmag.co.uk

Reginald Hill, 1936-2012

The CWA is saddened to learn of the death on Thursday of Reginald Hill, aged 75.

Perhaps best known as the creator of Dalziel and Pascoe, he was the winner of the CWA Gold Dagger in 1990 (for Bones and Silence), the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 1995, and the Mystery Thriller Book Club People’s Choice in 2004. He remained a CWA member up to his death.

Tributes have flooded in from fellow crime writers: Ian Rankin tweeted “A lovely man, fine writer, great wit … Great intelligence, humour and plotting; Falstaffian main character; literary sensibility - all found in his ‘Dalziel and Pascoe’ books.”. Val McDermid added “the finest of writers, the finest of men, the finest of friends. I'm going to miss the wit, the intelligence, the banter” Natasha Cooper “A man of great wit and huge heart. His death leaves us all the poorer.” Chaz Brenchley “he was a great crime writer, and a great friend.”; Ruth Dudley Edwards “He was my favourite crime writer and was great company. I’'m desolate.”; Michael Jecks “Great writer who’ll be much missed.”

The CWA’s archivist Martin Edwards, in a tribute posted in his blog, said “Reg in person was exceptionally intelligent, but never condescending, strong-minded and honest but unfailingly generous, and, despite appearing on occasion to be quiet and reserved, quite simply, the wittiest person I’ve ever met.”

Reginald Hill was born in Harlepool in 1936. His mother was a great fan of Golden-Age crime writers, and he discovered the genre while fetching her library books. After National Service and reading English at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired to become a full-time writer.

He wrote almost sixty books, including twenty-four volumes of the Dalziel and Pascoe series. A twenty-fifth is due to be published next year.

An active member of the CWA, he for many years chaired the sub-committee that short-lists notable crime writers for the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger. He was a founder member of the CWA’s Northern Chapter. He also helped fellow crime writers in less formal ways: Ann Cleeves is not alone in recalling his helpful advice and guidance as she was embarking on her crime-writing career.

Reg is survived by his wife Pat, to whom we extend our condolences.

Connecting readers with writers

The Crime Writers’ Association has announced two major new initiatives: an association to put readers in touch with writers and the expansion of the successful National Crime Writing Week to an entire month next year.

Due to launch in February 2012 with a new website, the Crime Readers’ Association (CRA) will offer readers information about forthcoming books, exclusive interviews, and articles from CWA member authors. Readers will be invited to sign up to receive regular enewsletters featuring events, exclusive content, and news. In future, it’s planned that the CWA will also organise events for readers to meet authors.

National Crime Writing Week has over the past two years seen members of the CWA taking part in readings, discussions, readers’ group events and workshops in venues all over the country. The CWA has now decided to expand it to Crime Writing Month, beginning at Crimefest (May 24-27 in Bristol). There’s more about this development over on the Crime Writing Month website.

In a new initiative, Crime Writing Month will wrap up with a black-tie event, where the CWA Dagger Awards will be announced. The event will incorporate all of the CWA’s non-TV awards, including for the first time the Diamond Dagger and Ellis Peters Dagger for historical crime.

CWA Chair Peter James said: “We’re very excited about launching these new initiatives. The idea behind the CRA is to bring readers and writers closer together. The CRA will create a bond between fans and writers and promote further the crime writing genre.

“In an age when crime writing is so popular it made sense to find a way of helping writers and readers connect. Authors could not survive without readers and the CRA acknowledges the fact and celebrates the role of the reader in the burgeoning success of the genre. The CWA has showcased members’ events and books on our website for several years now– wee see the CRA is an extension of this and we hope it will help our members to grow their careers.

More details of both initiatives will be announced over the coming months, on this website, on the new CRA website, and on the Crime Writing Month website.