CWA and Reading Agency hail National Crime Reading Month as the biggest to date

This year’s National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) has been hailed by the organisers as “the biggest campaign to date”.

According to the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) and the Reading Agency, which runs the June initiative, more than 100 crime fiction events were hosted across the UK to mark the month.

Ambassadors such as Ian Rankin, Anthony Horowitz and L J Ross helped to amplify the campaign in the media reaching an online audience of more than 80 million, the organisers said, while features were placed in the Telegraph and across BBC radio and a #PickUpAPageTurner Twitter campaign was launched.

Sam Blake, CWA board member, National Crime Reading Month director and author, said: “After flagship launch events in London, Dublin and Cork, NCRM was embraced online and off by libraries, bookshops, bloggers, writers and readers.

“It shows the incredible appetite for this genre, and the positive role it can play in encouraging reading. Ensuring accessibility and inclusivity was a touchstone of the project, and online events, podcasts and interviews are still available on the NCRM website.”

The National Crime Reading Month culminated in the CWA Dagger Awards ceremony on 29th June, which saw Ray Celestin win the coveted Gold Dagger for crime novel of the year, Sunset Swing (Mantle). Prizes for Janice Hallett, Mark Billingham, M W Craven and a posthumous award for Thalia Proctor were also given out at a gala dinner in central London’s Leonardo City Hotel.

Blake added: “As our ambassador Anthony Horowitz, who has written over 40 books including the bestselling Alex Rider teen spy series, said: ‘National Crime Reading Month is a great idea. Really there should be 12 of them a year.’”