Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland in 1955, award-winning crime writer Val McDermid released her first novel in 1987 and has since sold more than 17m books internationally, becoming known as the Queen of Crime for her Dr Tony Hill series, which was adapted into the ITV drama Wire in the Blood. She will be speaking at Val McDermid: A Life in Writing on 21 August at the Edinburgh international book festival and her latest novel, Past Lying, part of the Inspector Karen Pirie series, will be published by Sphere on 12 October. McDermid lives in Edinburgh with her wife, geography professor Jo Sharp.
1. Show
The Ballad of Truman Capote, Edinburgh
I’m looking forward to Andrew O’Hagan’s one-man show at the Edinburgh fringe. It’s set just before Truman Capote’s notorious black-and-white ball: the notion is that Capote holes up in his room for an hour before the event itself. It’s a monologue, described as a tragicomical memory play. O’Hagan is an interesting writer: he’s witty, incisive and extremely well read. And if he brings half of the joie de vivre and brio to this that he brings to being in his company it will be a very entertaining hour.
2. TV
The Sixth Commandment (BBC One)
This was a harrowing story of two elderly people who were separately befriended, then poisoned by a young man who preyed on their loneliness to seduce them into signing their property over to him. It demonstrates how vulnerable we can all be to flattery when we’re feeling unloved. Writer Sarah Phelps gets right under the skins of the victims, played by Timothy Spall and Anne Reid. It’s chilling and very dark, but also very credible. None of us wants to die alone, but equally none of us wants to have our lives cut short.
3. Book
The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie
Sarah Ogilvie has tracked down the people who contributed to the Oxford English Dictionary, introducing us to some of the thousands of contributors. And an extraordinarily motley crew they are too. It is arranged, as it would be, alphabetically, and the categories range from hopeless contributors, rain collectors and outsiders to murderers. Ogilvie has done her research: she has really dug into a huge array of people. I am a pedant – I love words and I cherish my OED, with its magnifying glass – so having the background of it explained was fascinating.
4. Place
The Belgian coast
We were in London for Pride and realised we had pretty much clear diaries, so we got on the Eurostar and went to Belgium, starting off in Bruges. You can walk around for hours staring at the glorious medieval buildings, stopping now and again for chocolate or beer or to rest in the public hammocks. We went on to the Belgian seaside, which is served by the longest tram line in the world. There are all these lovely little towns – you can go explore, have an ice-cream, get back on the tram, get off at the next stop, have mussels. I heartily recommend it.
5. Podcast
Gone Medieval
I’ve got a side project that involves finding out a lot about the middle ages in Scotland, something about which I know a negligible amount. So I’ve been deep-diving into this podcast because it’s got all sorts of strange, dark corners – things you wouldn’t necessarily expect. There are obvious topics such as how to dress, but then you get sucked into things like medieval trans saints and sex workers, and the medieval origins of coronations. I’m easily distracted by shiny things, and this is a podcast that’s full of shiny things.
6. Art
Scottish Women Artists at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh
Last night I went to a preview of this terrific exhibition, celebrating women who challenged and shaped the art scene in Scotland, often ignored in their lifetimes. There are painters you would expect, such as Catherine Read, Joan Eardley, Anne Redpath, Alison Watt, but also people whose work I didn’t know. It was a joy. There’s an extraordinary painting by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, which has a bright red background – you almost feel you’re being drawn into this still life. As I said to the curators, it’s smashing the patriarchy one painting at a time.
