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This is the National Year of Reading of which I as an author and reader am a great supporter. So I thought I'd take a moment to look back at the events I've done this year and look forward to those yet to come. My thriller, In Cold Daylight , was shortlisted for the World Book Day Prize in February and in March on World Book Day I gave two talks: one to the sixth form of a local school and the other to readers at Portsmouth Library. I've undertaken a marathon book signing event on the Wightlink Ferry, back and forwards from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight all day - and yes it was a calm day, thankfully. I've spoken at libraries in Dorset, Sussex and Hampshire and taken part in a great murder mystery evening organised by Portsmouth Library in July. I've supported Independent Bookseller's Week with fellow authors Kate Mosse and Dee Williams. I've ran a Writing Fiction Workshop at Sinah Warren holiday complex and given talks to retirement associations, business...

The News in Portsmouth are running a very worthwhile campaign called Spread The Word , which aims to get more children and young people reading. Part of this initiative is to record well known local and national people talking about their favourite books and what reading means to them, so I was very honoured and pleased to be asked to contribute. Here I am talking about one of my favourite books from the Golden Age of Crime ( 1920s to 1940s). The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell, who incidentally was one of the founder members of the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) of which I am a member. Published in 1938 this book is not only a great puzzle but realistically portrays what life was like in London in the 1930s and shows the sharp contrast between the rich and the poor. The reader visits a London that has long since vanished, with working barges on the River, the many wharfs and docks alongside it, the London smog and much more. It also focuses on a very modern problem, dru...

The National Year of Reading was launched by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Education Secretary, Ed Balls, in January in order to help build a greater national passion for reading among children, families and adult learners alike. Reading is a great leisure activity and highly affordable for everyone, especially when we need to tighten our economic belts. In fact it needn't cost a penny in the UK because we have a wonderful network of libraries. Personally I am very grateful to the library service because if it hadn't been for my small local library in Portsmouth, as a child I would never have discovered the pleasure of reading and writing, coming as I do from a non-book household. When people ask me which writers inspired me the wonderful Enid Blyton opened up a whole new world for me - a world of adventure and mysteries. I, like many others, devoured her Secret Seven and Famous Five mysteries before moving on to another great mystery writer, Malcolm Saville . Just seeing the...