Here’s a brief presentation of Bad Boy, the forthcoming Inspector Banks novel, by Peter himself.

Here’s another award nomination we’ve just heard about. Peter has been nominated for the CWA Short Story Dagger Award for 2010. His novella Like a Virgin, from the recent collection The Price of Love, was chosen in the shortlist along with a half-dozen other stories. This award, along with other Dagger awards from the Crime Writers’ Association, will be announced on 23 July in Harrogate, during the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Once again, Peter Robinson has been nominated for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. The longlist has just been published, with 20 titles, including All the Colours of Darkness. Readers are invited to vote for their favorite books that will make the 8-title shortlist. Go here to vote for your favorite book among the 20 candidates.

We’ve got covers for Bad Boy, the next Inspector Banks novel due out in a few months. Here they are, in the following order: UK, US and Canadian versions.

One of the most exciting projects I have been able to work on over the past three years is the creation of a Peter Robinson Scholarship at the University of Leeds. Ultimately, the scholarship will support three students each through a three-year course in English Literature, with a bias towards Creative Writing.

The first person to win the scholarship, Caroline Vickers, started her studies at Leeds last year and is just approaching the end of her first year. I was fortunate enough to meet her and have a chat when I was in Leeds last week, along with Michelle Calvert and Jill Bullock from the Leeds alumni team, who set the whole thing up. A fine time was had by all.

It’s called Bad Boy, and it’ll be due out on 5 August in the UK, late August in the US, and 14 September in Canada. Peter will be touring New Zealand and Australia from 16 August to 3 September, and will be at a number of events in Canada in late September and October.

We’ll have more about the book soon: a plot summary, cover, and tour dates for Peter.

Shooting has started on the first episodes of the new DCI Banks TV series. Starring Stephen Tompkinson, the series, with an initial pilot of two 60-minute episodes, is due to be premiered in Autumn 2010. For more about the series and the cast, here’s a press release with more details.

The first installment of this series is based on Peter’s Aftermath, and you might want to make sure you’ve read it before the series starts; or not. If you want to be surprised, and haven’t read the book, perhaps you’ll save the reading for after.

There seems to be a trend of new police shows in the UK. The Independent recently ran an article about several new shows, including the Banks series.

ITV, which will be presenting the Inspector Banks TV series, has issued a press release about the series.

“ITV today announced it has commissioned two-part pilot episode of DCI Banks: Aftermath, based on the hugely successful detective novel from award-winning international crime writer Peter Robinson.

Produced by Left Bank Pictures and starring Stephen Tompkinson as DCI Alan Banks, the two x 60 minute episodes will go into production in Yorkshire at the end of April 2010.”

No hints as to when the pilot will air, however. We probably won’t know that until after shooting has completed. We’ll let you know when we find out.

Peter was in Paris recently for the Paris Book Fair, and had many interviews with the French press. Here’s a video interview on France 24, France’s international news channel in English.

Watch the interview.

I met with Stephen Tompkinson to discuss the forthcoming Inspector Banks TV series in Florida last month. I don’t have a lot more news except that the director is to be James Hawes (Enid, The 39 Steps, several Merlin and Doctor Who episodes) and filming begins at the end of April. As soon as I have any word on who’s playing Annie, I’ll post it.

This year is shaping up to be a very busy one from August onwards, with the BAD BOY Tour kicking off in the UK, then Australia, New Zealand and Canada with hardly a chance of a break between countries. More details when I have them.

Before then I’ll be doing a couple of events in Ontario over the summer, including programming and introducing a night of chamber music in Ottawa on July 10 and performing at the Leacock Festival in Orillia on July 23. I’ll also be teaching a Crime Writing course at the University of Toronto from July 5 to 9.

There’s plenty of great new music to keep me going. Saw Kate Rusby at Hugh’s Room in Toronto last night, and she was terrific. New CDs stacked up include Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate, Amy Macdonald, Jimi Hendrix, Jesca Hoop, Joanna Newsom, Josh Rouse, the White Stripes, and string quartets by Haydn and Tchaikovsky.