October 2025
Welcome to this occasional round-up of publication and other writing news …
Firstly, I’m pleased to report that Fedora, which was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Dagger in 2014, has been included in Then There Were More (Flame Tree Publishing, 2025) a selection, edited by Martin Edwards, of the best short fiction by CWA members.
Earlier in the year a more recent work, Criss-Cross, made its first appearance in Playing Dead (Severn House, 2025), a collection of stories written by members of The Detection Club, also edited by Martin. Beginning with the discovery of a body close to the Tumulus on Hampstead Heath, it features Alex Hadley, in charge of one of the Major Investigation Teams in the Met’s Homicide & Crime Command and, moving hesitantly back from semi-retirement – as one does – a certain Charlie Resnick.
Criss-Cross is at the heart of discussions I’m having with my French publisher about putting together a collection of stories for their Rivages Noir imprint. It looks as if it will include some half a dozen Resnick stories, one Frank Elder and four that feature my north London Private Eye, Jack Kiley, none previously published in France.
Then there is a brand new Resnick story, commissioned for a forthcoming collection set in and about the city of Nottingham. It has a title: Long, Long Time. A first sentence … Resnick tipped the beans into the palm of his hand. Fazenda Barrinha from Brazil by way of the Cartwheel Roastery in Sneinton. Just not – not yet – a publication date. But with increased age comes patience and as soon as details appear you may be sure that I will pass them on. A book of stories about Nottingham – got to be worth waiting for! Eh, duck!
Finally, almost, to Taiwan, where my publisher, Donmay, have been producing beautiful editions of the Resnick novels, and have asked me to write a preface to Darkness, Darkness, marking the final book in the series – something I was only too pleased to do.
And so, to poetry …
Surely you can’t just call yourself a poet my father said?
I was filling out my passport application at the time.
Surely there must be some kind of examination?
Thus begins ‘Occupation’, one of the poems in Blue in Green, a pamphlet collection published by Shoestring Press back in April. If you don’t yet have a copy (!) they can be purchased from Central Books … – 020 8525 8800
Happy reading !
January 2025
Writing this on a beautifully bright but cold day in the office space I share with my partner, Sarah, in the garden flat in north London we moved to last summer. Aside from today’s match between Grimsby and Notts County being cancelled some 90 minutes before kick off, all is good.
News first of a pamphlet collection of new poems – Blue in Green – that will be published by Shoestring Press on March 21st. There are two launch readings planned, one, on Wednesday 9th April, at Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham, where my fellow reader will be Rob Etty, the other on the following evening, Thursday 10th, at Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town, north London, where I shall be partnered by Mike Bartholomew-Biggs.
https://fiveleavesbookshop.co.uk/events/john-harvey-and-rob-etty-a-shoestring-press-reading/
If you happen to be near either of those venues, it would be good to meet you and sign your copy, should you wish, but if not, copies can be ordered from either Five Leaves or Owl or through the distributors, Central Books …
T: + 44 (0) 20 8525 8800 E: W: centralbooks.com
With my other writing hat on, a new short story, Criss-Cross – in which a certain Charlie Resnick makes an appearance – will be published on March 4th in Playing Dead, a collection of new stories by members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards and including stories by … well, you can see below …
My story, Fedora, which was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Dagger in 2014, is scheduled to appear later in the year in a collection, also edited by Martin Edwards, of the best short fiction written over the years by members of the CWA. More details to follow.
Oh, and there are rumours of yet another Resnick short story in the works, in which Charlie looks back at his Nottingham past …
Happy New Year!
2024
Apologies for the lengthy gap between these posts. Part of the reason for my tardiness is that my partner and I have recently moved, downsizing, as seems to be the fashion, from a fairly large house to a garden flat in the same locality, and being forced to say goodbye to many things along the way – not least 35 boxes of books collected by Amnesty International UK for resale in their bookshops and on line.
That aside, there is a smidgeon of writing/publishing news. A new short story, Criss-Cross, featuring Alex Hadley, senior officer in one of the Major Investigation teams within the Met’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command – and a leading character in the final book in the Frank Elder series, Body & Soul (2018) – together with one Charles Resnick (Det. Insp. retired), is due to be published in a collection of new stories by members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards, due out in the Spring of 2025.
Later in 2025, Fedora, which won the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2014, will be included in another collection edited by Martin Edwards, this one bringing together the best of short fiction written over the years by CWA members. And if you didn’t catch Fedora first time around and don’t want to wait several months, it’s available as an e-book here or as one of seven stories in Going Down Slow, published by Five Leaves Publications (2017) and readily available from Five Leaves Bookshop.
Short fiction aside, since the publication of On Balance (Shoestring Press, 2023), I’ve been working towards having enough poems for a new collection, tentatively titled Blue in Green, after a Miles Davis track from 1959.
If you’re in the area and want to check them out, I shall be reading some of the new poems plus a few from On Balance, at the Torriano Meeting House in Kentish Town, north London on Sunday, October 27th, when I shall be sharing the stage with Tamar Yoseloff, who will be reading from her new collection, Belief Systems (Nine Arches Press, 2024). More details here.
I’m pleased to say that after some mobility problems have prevented me from doing so in recent years, I shall be back at CrimeFest in Bristol in 2025, 16th-18th May. The last time I was there was near the occasion of my 80th birthday when I had the pleasure of being interviewed by fellow-writer Alison Joseph.
Finally, it’s worth noting that now that I am getting around a tad more easily, I’d be very open to invitations to read from and talk about my work from any libraries, readers’ groups, independent bookstores et cetera that might be interested. Please contact me here.