20 July 2021
Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid; Reynard the Fox
Poet Daljit Nagra and crime writer Val McDermid discuss capturing different forms of speech, a sense of place, and politics – in a conversation organised with the Royal Society of Literature and Durham Book Festival, and hosted by presenter Shahidha Bari.
Release date: 14-10-2020
Plus, how the medieval fable of Reynard The Fox has lessons for us all today.
As a new translation and retelling by Anne Louise Avery is published, she joins Shahidha to discuss the book with Noreen Masud – a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker from Durham University. Based on William Caxton’s translation of the medieval Flemish folk tale, this is the story of a wily fox – a subversive, dashing and anarchic character – summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion. But is he the character you want to emulate, or does Bruin the Bear offer us a better template?
10 July 2021
Village SOS – Audible Audiobook download – by Val McDermid
Village SOS (Woman’s Hour Drama)
By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Sarah Beeny
Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
Release date: 05-03-12
DCI Marion Bettany, played by Helen Baxendale, continues her investigation into Colin Arnott’s murder, but the residents of Shilwick are curiously reluctant to help.
Colin’s plans to turn a deconsecrated chapel into a performing arts centre had ruffled feathers throughout the village, and Bettany wants to know if that’s a strong enough motive for murder.
10 July 2021
Deadheading (2014) Dead Clever (2015) Dead Pan (2017) Dead Weight (2018)
10 July 2021
Deadheading – Episodes 1 – 5 by Val McDermid
First Released On: Sun 21 Oct 2018
4 Extra Debut. Comic capers amongst the carrots when a body is found on an allotment. Stars Julie Hesmondhalgh and Miriam Margolyes. From June 2014.
Directed and Produced by Justine Potter
A Savvy Production for BBC Radio 4.
10 July 2021
Dead Clever – Episodes 1 – 5
First Released On: Mon 6 Jul 2015
DS Jason Trotter thinks that a professor who is wearing some of his brains on the outside of his head might just be his chance to put DCI Alma Blair in her place.
Producer Beth O’Dea
23 June 2020 – 28 mins
Released On: 23 Jun 2020 – Available for over a year
Crime writer Val McDermid and business woman Martha Lane Fox talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they really love. Val’s choice is This Is Shakespeare: How to Read the World’s Greatest Playwright by Emma Smith, Martha’s is How to be Both by Ali Smith and Harriett’s is The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.
Producer Beth O’Dea
1 April 2020 – 51 mins
Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime
What better way to begin The Tartan Noir Show than with The Queen of Crime, Val McDermid? Theresa Talbot talks to Val about her new book, which is not about crime and death, but about hope! ‘Imagine a Country’ is a collection of essays by prominent Scots, edited by Val and geographer, Jo Sharp.
14 January 2020 – 47 mins
Val speaks to Ben not at the library but from within a cosy nook of her favourite indie bookshop – Topping & Company in St Andrews. It’s a beautiful shop. Val is old pals with founder Robert Topping. She loves this place so much that she even arranged for her home bookshelves to be handcrafted by the shop’s go-to joiners.
6 February 2019 – 27 mins
Crime writer Val McDermid meets graphic artist Vin Deighan.Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime
6 August 2018
Dangerous Visions: Resistance
Val McDermid’s thriller examines what happens if antibiotics stop working. Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
Note: For information only, this episode is not currently available.
14 April 2018
Dangerous Visions: The Kraken Wakes
John Wyndham’s science fiction novel adapted by Val McDermid. Performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a terrifying modern retelling of alien invasion and global flooding.
Note: For information only, this episode is not currently available.
6 February 2019 – 27 mins
Crime writer Val McDermid meets graphic artist Vin Deighan.Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime
28 August 2018 – 14 mins
Unexpected stories of education: The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the crime writer, Val McDermid, about an unusual educational experiment she was part of in the 1960s.
Val chooses Virginia Woolf’s novel for Queer Icons, BBC Radio’s celebration of LGBTQ culture.
Written in 1928, Orlando is about a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history.
Interview link…
Danny Baker meets crime writer and Raith Rovers fan Val McDermid. Former England, Liverpool and Everton goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis plays the Sausage Sandwich Game.
Val McDermid talks to Shereen about the freedom she found as a child growing up in Fife, breaking the mould and moving to Oxford University, here she developed an impressive English accent, complete with Oxford stammer.
She tells Shereen how feminism, football and left wing Fife politics have shaped her view on life and crime writing.
John Crace digests Val McDermid’s update of Northanger Abbey, and asks if her attempt to square up to Austen’s gothic melodrama is fine or foolhardy
History of the lesbian novel part 1 2008
History of the lesbian novel part 2 2008
Mariella Frostrup talks to Val in this episode of Open Book on BBC Radio 4
Val talk to Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4. Sunday 14th July 2013
Harriett Gilbert is joined by the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid and comedian and neologist Alex Horne in the first of a new series of the paperback discussion show.
Among the books under discussion are Andre Agassi’s revealing autobiography of life lived centre stage at Centre Court, Jeanette Winterson’s acclaimed memoir of her childhood, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, and Remembering Babylon, David Malouf’s prizewinning 1993 outsider novel set in Australia.
Val McDermid is just as no-nonsense as any copper she might imagine — or write about in one of her novels, including her latest, ‘The Retribution.’
Val McDermid and Laurie R. King
Her schedule in Santa Cruz was going to be complicated and mostly filled, but she was hanging out with Laurie R. King, who was kind enough to help Val arrange an hour over at KUSP, in the big meeting room where the three of us sat down to talk about Val’s work and the mystery genre.
Go to www.bookotron.com for more…
Val McDermid joins readers to discuss The Mermaids Singing, the story of a serial killer who stalks the gay subculture of a northern town. James Naughtie presents.