Daynote - Mon 22 Jun 2026 - Capital Crime 2026

I got back from my second Capital Crime yesterday, absolutely exhausted. It was quite a weekend, starting with the Fingerprint Awards on Thursday evening, then my panel with fellow spy authors Paul Warner, James Wolff and Chris Humphreys, on the Friday morning. There's no photos of that event (James, not his real name, is former SIS, so no cameras allowed) but my friend Jordan did get some of the signing:

After that, with my panel done, I spent the rest of the day going to panels, hanging out with writers and readers, decamping to the pub to enjoy the sun and then going for a very nice dinner with friends. I finally fell asleep, exhausted, rather too late.

Thankfully I had very little to do on the Saturday aside from show up for a couple of planned meetups with friends and new acquaintances, which was very nice. At this point, several folk I know from Scotland and elsewhere were heading off to get trains or flights, so I found myself kicking around the venue until I bumped into my friend and fellow Debut Prize shortlister Claire Wilson, who gave me some much-needed chill time. I then joined in with a really nice group in the hotel bar, but I was fading fast by that point and London was insufferably hot.

I'm still at the 'just happy to be here' excitable part of my author career, which has tended to mean I show up early for these kinds of festivals and leave late, but I think I may have to rethink that strategy purely to preserve a bit of energy, time and money - I was dying on my feet by the end of the weekend. Still, I'm home now for a couple of days before a day job trip (back) to London, then, thank goodness, nothing until mid-July, so I can recover a bit. I've met several authors recently who do exponentially more travel than me and I have no clue how they do it.

Still, I'll hopefully make it to Capital Crime again next year - I had a fantastic time and the new venue near Barbican looks like it could be a game-changer. It's a couple of weeks earlier next year, so get your bookings in early.

Another nice thing that happened over the weekend was this great review from Geoffrey Wansell in the Mail:

The 'most exciting new spy series since Slow Horses'? Wow. I will absolutely take that incredible compliment.

ON DECK: I managed to finish off my consolidation edit (finally) on Project DRIFT on the train home yesterday, so this morning I dived back into the drafting, getting 813 words. Not a big day, but I'm feeling my way back into the story now that I've re-read and edited the whole thing. I suspect I'll speed up over the course of the week. However, this week I also allegedly have edits coming back on Project VAULT, so I'm aiming to get as many words down on DRIFT as I can before that happens. You've got to make the most of the gaps in this business.

LISTENING: Greatly enjoyed this interview on the Le Carré Cast, with fellow spy novelist (but also actual former spy) Charles Beaumont, talking about Smiley's People. I do really love the format of this podcast, allowing spy authors to dig into why a particular book works for them. I had a great time on my own episode and I think it's clear Charles enjoyed his too.

WATCHING: We watched the first two episodes of WIDOW'S BAY when I got home last night, which were excellent. It's hard to describe in terms of comparisons, but everyone involved in it is clearly having the time of their lives.

READING: Didn't read a word of fiction all weekend. Looking forward to finishing off DECEPTION by Alan Parks (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) this week though.

LINK: A very good list of book event ideas from Pine State Publicity for authors who want to do something other than the standard wine, chairs, 45 minutes discussion, reading/questions format that's so ubiquitous. Some great ideas in here. Hat tip to Erin Hardee for the link.

UP NEXT: Back down to London tomorrow night (frankly I'd rather chew glass than get on another train this week, but I'll be okay after some vitamins and another night's sleep) then home on Thursday morning. Mostly there for the day job, but I'll also be popping into Goldsboro Books to sign stock for SOLITARY AGENTS and hopefully also Waterstones Piccadilly.

Then on Friday I'm off to my last planned book event for June, which is my friend Benedict Anning's launch for his debut, ATOMIC COFFIN (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) on Friday. I'm looking forward to that, but also to collapsing afterwards. Somewhere in among all that I'm going to try and get back into the running and lifting routine. I tried frontloading my runs last week before Capital Crime and managed to pull my calf muscle, but it seems to be okay now. We'll see.

Onward!