When I'm not writing...
I love writing. It's a treat. And these days it's squashed into weekends and evenings. More of my time is spent talking to readers, not just to promote my own work, but a huge range of authors who deserve to reach a wider audience.
Ann Cleeves greeted the start of the UK National Year of Reading in 2026 with delight: "Reading is joyous," she said. "It's an escape and a way of travelling without leaving home. It helps us to see the world through other people's eyes. Books can challenge our preconceptions and introduce us to new ideas. It can be entertainment and education. According to a report by the OECD reading for pleasure is a higher indicator of academic attainment than parental income or status."
That's why she is helping to fund Reading for Wellbeing, a scheme to examone and build on the importance of reading in health and wellbeing. The picture above shows her at a celebration event at The Word, South Shields, in February 2023.
In February 2026, she sent out an update to people who had subscribed to her mailing list. First she explained the backgrounf: just before the country locked down for Covid, she was asked to speak at a conference on Health Inequality, organised by Public Health England. She explained that reading had always been a solace for her, and had seen her through some tough times. At the end of her speech, she threw out a challenge to the audience. She would sponsor two part-time reading for wellbeing project workers if the people in the room could match fund her donation. By the end of the day, a core group of professionals - people working for Public Health England, in local authority libraries and the voluntary sector - had agreed to provide a steering committee, chaired by a local GP.
All the planning meetings were held remotely, but by the time lockdown was lifted, the project was ready to go. A wonderful organisation called Opening the Book was prepared to train people: and by now, there are fourteen staff working throughout the northeast of England, and another couple of workers based in the Woodyard in North Devon. Some work with charities, some are employed by the local authority. The aim is for a flexible model that can respond to local needs..
For 2026's National Year of Reading, Reading for Wellbeing was approached by The Queen's Reading Room to become their partners. "It's hard to say no to a charity sponsored by Her Majesty!" says Ann. TQRR has commissioned ground-breaking research by neuroscientists, which shows that reading even for a short time everyday has important health benefits. Our workers are putting the research into practice and sharing it on the ground with Primary Care Networks, GPs and social prescribers. I'm one of the judges to find the recipient of the first Queen's medal to be awarded to someone who promotes reading within their community."
Read more about the background to Ann's idea here.
Reading for Wellbeing - the website.
A Quarter Century of Murder Squad
In 2025, Murder Squad celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Yes, astonishingly, A quarter century ago seven, unknown, mid-list crime writers joined forces to publicise our work. Four of the original founders remain, plus two (relative) newbies. The squad has garnered many accolades and awards during that time - and now boasts not one, but TWO Diamond Dagger winners!
Our celebrations of Murder Squad's 25th anniversary were tremendous fun. The highlight was a wonderful evening at Stockport Guildhall, with a terrific audience - lots of bubbly and good cheer! Believe it or not, this was the very first time all six of us had got together in one place since our 21st anniversary. That's a sign of changing times: the ways we promote our books have been transformed since Margaret Murphy had the brilliant idea of setting up a virtual collective of seven northern crime writers in the hope of making our work better known.
The past quarter-century has been a glorious experience, a time of literary friendship and fun. We've done so much together, and Murder Squad has achieved everything we hoped for, and a good deal more, but now it makes sense for Murder Squad as a collective to go out on a high. All this means, and all that will change, is that the Squad website and newsletter will cease. Rest assured, we'll be as busy as ever, writing stories to keep you entertained and appearing at events - sometimes together, sometimes with others, sometimes individually. In other words, exactly as we've been doing in practice for several years now.
In the final MS newsletter, Ann wrote: "I wouldn't have missed the friendship and contact provided by the group, the advice, the shared meals and the laughter. We have done a lot of laughing. The twenty-five years have been kind to me. I'd already been published for nearly fifteen years when we got together, mostly in hardback to go straight to the libraries, without any advance contract, and with little recognition. Other Squad members were more successful with popular series and TV options, and I was glad to celebrate with them. I loved writing, my early morning escape from family life and the day job. Murder Squad made business and promotion fun too."
Murder Squad, left to right: Martin Edwards, Ann Cleeves, Cath Staincliffe, Kate Ellis, Chris Simms and Margaret Murphy
To mark this special year, we ran a short story competition with the theme 'Anniversary'. The competition closed on Saturday, 15th February 2025. We were impressed by the ingenuity and inventiveness of the entries and pleased to see a wide range of narrative styles - reflecting Murder Squad members' own eclectic mix of crime fiction! Cosy, gothic, psychological, and procedural crime all had an airing, and some stories included historical and even supernatural elements. We were delighted to find, after we'd chosen our top three, that the finalists were from the UK, Australia and the USA - a truly international selection for our shortlist.
Visit the Murder Squad website to find out who won - and to read the winning story!
Ann says: "A short story brought me my very first award nomination. I didn't win, but I still remember the excitement of it. I hope many of you enter Murder Squad's very special short story competition. After all, we're nearly as old as Vera!"
The original Murder Squad (right) were John Baker, Chaz Brenchley, Martin Edwards, Stuart Pawson, Cath Staincliffe, Margaret Murphy and Ann. Since then, the Squad has lost some members and attracted others. Two of the original line-up, John Baker and Chaz Brenchley, have since stepped down from the Squad, and Stuart Pawson retired due to ill-health. Stuart died in February 2016 and is sorely missed, though his Charlie Priest books live on. Kate Ellis and Chris Simms have joined us to provide new voices.
DIY Murder Mystery kits
I have been working with my publisher, Pan Macmillan, to come up with a way of doing events in libraries that don't involve me being there - I receive far more requests than I could possibly deal with. It's important too because libraries don't have the funds that they did to pay author expenses, publishers are getting much tighter and unless they're very successful authors can't pay their own way. So with the Reading Agency we put together a pack which should bring a new audience into the libraries but which staff should be able to manage by themselves.
It started with a murder mystery script based on my novel The Glass Room, starring DI Vera Stanhope, which I had already written for independent bookshops, festivals and public libraries: now I have teamed up with The Reading Agency to produce a special murder mystery night pack for libraries. The pack includes my script, a CSI report (prepared by Professor Lorna Dawson, a forensic soil scientist of the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen), 'whodunnit' forms to be completed by attendees, and a prize - everything librarians to hold spine-chillingly successful murder mystery nights for the readers in their libraries.
Libraries and independent bookshops will only survive if they provide a social, vibrant and interesting place for readers to talk about books. This project provides a template for a book-based event which will engage with regular readers and pull in a new audience. The traditional murder mystery has the accessibility of a familiar format - we've all played Cluedo or watched Poirot - but gives readers the chance to discuss their favourite crime fiction across the range of the genre. There are opportunities for income generation through books and tickets sales, for developing partnerships with community organisations and between libraries and bookshops, and for reader development training for frontline staff. But above all, it's great fun.
Download the Glass Room Murder Mystery pack from the Reading Agency website.
I followed up with a murder mystery based around a traditional Shetland Sunday tea: there's a script for four actors (with a guest appearance from detective Jimmy Perez), and - for a really authentic experience! - there are recipes for Shetland homebakes! The full kit is available on the Pan MacMillan website.
Finally - for now - there is a Darkest Evening Murder Mystery, conceived during lockdown, and designed to be run online. Scripts are availablem and it too can be run as an in person event, but it has also been filmed, with four actors reading the parts, turning St Aidan's church Thorneyburn into a grand house.