The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is one of a portfolio of events managed and presented by Harrogate International Festivals, a multi-arts cultural organisation and a registered charity. As well as celebrating the biggest names in crime fiction it provides a platform for emerging talent and marks a key date in the literary calendar.
Launched in 2003, the Festival has grown into Europe’s largest literary crime fiction event of its kind, and has achieved international acclaim for its programming, atmosphere and organisation. It encompasses several activity strands including the Theakston Old Peculier Awards, Creative Thursday and – subject to funding availability – a number of year-round community and education programmes, such as The Big Read and literacy programmes within schools and communities.

Theakston Old Peculier is the title sponsor of the Crime Writing Festival along with the annual Novel of the Year and Outstanding Contribution Awards.

The Programming Committee, along with the Festival Office, forms the creative force behind the Crime Writing Festival. Made up of a small group of industry specialists, authors, agents, reviewers, editors and/or publicists, the Committee is charged with devising a programme of events for the Festival in partnership with the Festival’s staff.
This programming process involves developing a diverse schedule of events including elements such as Special Guest interviews, panel discussion themes, cabaret events and creative writing workshops. A key programming objective for every Festival is to create new and innovative ideas which stimulate existing audiences and will attract new ones. The Programming Committee and Festival Office work in partnership to ensure high quality programming which appeals to the broadest possible audience.

The current Programming Committee is made up of the 2026 Programming Chair Lisa Jewell (author), Mark Billingham (author), N.J. Cooper/Daphne Wright (reviewer), Vaseem Khan (author), Steve Mosby (author), Ruth Ware (author), Laura Sherlock (publicist) and Francesca Pathak (Publisher).  

The Programming Chair, an honorary position, is a crime author who acts as chair of the Programming Committee and as a figurehead for the Festival during their tenure. The Chair is appointed by the Programming Committee in consultation with the Festival Office and is an author who the Committee and Festival Office believe will apply their personality and specialist interests within the genre to create an original and innovative programme within the Festival ethos, in partnership with the Committee and the Festival Office. The 2024 Programming Chair was Ruth Ware and the 2025 Programming Chair was Mick Herron. 

We run a number of awards including the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, and the McDermid Debut Award. 

The Crime Novel of the Year Award is our longest running award and is now in its twenty second year. 

Submissions for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year are open to all publishers, who are invited to submit up to three titles per imprint. Novels written by UK and Irish passport holders are eligible and titles must be published in paperback for the first time from 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026. There is no fee at point of entry. The longlist of 18 titles is selected by the Awards Academy. If you are a new publisher, or a publisher that is not on our list, please contact info@harrogate-festival.org.uk and we will add you to the list for updates.

The Awards Academy is made up of 20 journalists, reviewers, booksellers, bloggers & podcasters and representatives from within the industry. It includes members from a number of minority communities. Awards Academy members are offered an honorarium for their contribution on the Academy.

All titles are available digitally to all members of the Academy. The Awards Academy members are all avid readers of crime fiction, so we expect they will already have read a significant number of the books that are submitted for longlisting over the course of the previous year. The longlist provides a snapshot in time of the genre, and with the Academy being large and reflecting a range of tastes and viewpoints, we do not expect every member to have read every book that is submitted.

Prior to 2010/11 the longlist was chosen by our bookselling partners, over the years Ottakar’s, Waterstones, WHSmiths and Asda with the general public then voting for the winner both by paper vote and online. The winner was the book with the largest number of votes. The Academy was created in 2010/11 in a bid to create a more equitable solution and re-balance the voting public to avoid those with large social media followings to drive voting vs those authors with a more private approach. The Academy and the longlisting and judging process continues to evolve as we seek to ensure the most representative approach to choosing a winner.

We are always interested to hear from potential members within the industries listed above to join the Awards Academy. We are particularly keen to hear from those who feel they would bring a different perspective to our existing Academy and who can help us achieve our aim of being truly representative of all sections of society – including those who may be underrepresented in the UK crime writing scene – this includes, but is not limited to, ethnically diverse backgrounds, those with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, or individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Please contact info@harrogate-festival.org.uk for further information, or to register your interest in joining the Awards Academy.

For the Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Awards Academy chooses a longlist of 18 titles from the titles submitted by the publishers. Each individual member of the Academy is asked to rank their top 18 books and the titles with the highest overall scores go though.

The public is invited to vote for its favourite from amongst the longlisted titles over a four-week period. The general public can only vote once and all votes are deduped at each relevant stage.
The members of the Academy each also vote to create the shortlist by ranking their top six titles, with the online public vote acting as one Academy vote.

Votes are anonymous within the Academy, and the vote is moderated by Harrogate International Festivals.

A select judging panel reviews the 6 shortlisted titles and a winner is chosen by the panel along with the public vote, which makes up one vote on the panel.
Voting is cleared between shortlist and winner voting stages, so every person has the opportunity to vote on both the longlist and for their favourite shortlisted title to win the Award. The public has a window of five weeks to vote on the shortlist. The general public can only vote once on the shortlist and all votes are de-duped at the relevant stage. The Awards Academy is not involved in judging the winner from the shortlist.

The Winner is announced on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and receives a cheque for £3,000, and an engraved oak beer cask from Theakston’s Brewery.

The judging panel is chaired by Simon Theakston, who is Chairman of headline sponsor T&R Theakston LTD, and includes radio producer, podcast host and children’s author Joe Haddow, journalist Lisa Howells, genre fiction buyer at Waterstones Gaby Lee, journalist Matt Nixson, journalist Mark Lawson and critic Ayo Onatade.  

The judges are offered a fee for their contribution on the panel. 
The public vote counts as the 7th judge on the judging panel. 

Members of the public are invited to cast their votes for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award on the Vote page.
Only one vote per person is permitted at each stage, and if you vote for more than one author, none of your votes will be counted.

Voting is cleared between shortlist and winner voting stages, so every person has the opportunity to vote on both the longlist and for their favourite shortlisted title.

There is no public vote for the Outstanding Contribution or for the McDermid Debut Award.

The Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award is awarded annually to a crime fiction author in recognition of their contribution to the genre. The recipient of the Award is selected by the Festival Programming Committee and is awarded an engraved oak beer cask from Theakston’s Brewery. There is no public vote for this Award, and the Awards Academy and Novel of the Year judging panel are not involved.

Introduced in 2024, the McDermid Debut Award recognises debut authors of crime fiction. 
The Award is open to UK and Irish debut authors of crime fiction, and authors who have already published novels in other genres are not eligible. Debut titles must be published for the first time, in hardback or paperback original, between 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026. 

There is no longlisting stage for the McDermid Debut Award. A shortlist is chosen by a group of successful and established crime writers. The winner will be decided by a judging panel, with members receiving a fee for their work as a judge. There is no public vote for the McDermid Debut Award. 

2025 

In 2025, Abir Mukherjee won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Hunted. Elly Griffiths received received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contibution Award in recognition of her exceptional contribution to crime fiction. David Goodman won the inaugural McDermid Debut award for A Reluctant Spy. 

2024 

In 2024, Jo Callaghan won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for In the Blink of an Eye. Martina Cole received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contibution Award in recognition of her impressive writing career. Marie Tierney won the inaugural McDermid Debut award for Deadly Animals. 

Theakston Old Peculier is the title sponsor of the Crime Writing Festival along with the annual Crime Novel of the Year and Outstanding Contribution Awards and McDermid Debut Award. T&R Theakston has been the Festival’s headline sponsor since 2005, having first come on board as a sponsor in 2004.
Waterstones is the Bookseller Partner for the Crime Novel of the Year, and the Daily Express is the Media Partner.