Peter’s Children of the Revolution, the latest DCI Banks novel, is just out in paperback, and it has soared to the top of the UK’s best-seller lists, with a substantial lead over the rest of the list. This is the first time that one of Peter’s books has hit number one in the Official UK Top 50 list. If you haven’t read Children of the Revolution yet, grab it now; it’s flying off the shelves!

Happy Holidays to All!

I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Stockholm earlier this December, courtesy of my Swedish publisher Minotaur. They tell me I have sold 3 million books there!

Highlights of the week were dinner at Restaurant Sturehof with best-selling Swedish writer Camilla Läckberg and my Swedish translator Jan Malmsjö, the Books and Dreams event with Carina Nunstedt at the wonderful old Skandiabiografen cinema, dinner at Den Gyldene Freden rsetaurant in the Old Town with the winners of the Swedish Book Club competition, and, last but not least, a trip to the town of Eskilstuna to receive the Golden Crowbar (previously Martin Beck) Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection and drink beer and single malt whisky with K. Arne Blom.

Camilla Läckberg with Peter in Stockholm.

I also had a photo session with my publisher’s resident photographer Caroline Andersson. Along with all this, we also managed to find a little time for sightseeing in Stockholm, particularly the Old Town, with its narrow cobbled streets, and the Vasa Warship Museum, built around an enormous 1628 wooden warship raised in 1961. It’s a definitely a city to return to, perhaps in warmer weather!

Peter in his Nordic noir mood.

The next Inspector Banks novel, Children of the Revolution, will be published in the UK on 15 August. In this novel, A college lecturer is found dead – murdered and dumped on a railway line near his home with £5,000 in his pocket. DCI Banks and his team are drafted in to investigate, and soon discover that the case is far from clear-cut.

Read more about Children of the Revolution.

Peter will be traveling quite a bit, and doing a number of events to support his new Inspector Banks novel, Children of the Revolution. The following is a list of confirmed dates. For more information, contact the venues listed.

UK TOUR DATES 2013.

Monday, 5 August, 8.00pm. Topping & Co, Bath, Somerset.
Tuesday, 6 August, 8.00pm. Sidmouth Folk Festival, Sidmouth, Devon. With Martin Carthy.
Wednesday, 14 August, 12.30pm. Waterstones, Newport Crescent, Middlesborough.
Thursday, 15 August, 12.30pm. Waterstones, High Street, Northallerton.
Saturday, 17 August / Sunday, 18 August. St Hilda’s Crime & Mystery Conference, St Hilda’s College, Oxford.
Monday, 19 August, 7.00pm. Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Birmingham.
Tuesday, 20 August, 7.00pm. Waterstones, College Lane, Liverpool.
Wednesday, 21 August, 12.30pm. Waterstones, Bishopgate Walk, Wakefield.
Wednesday, 21 August, 7.00pm. Waterstones, Albion Street, Leeds.
Thursday, 22 August, 12.30pm. Waterstones, Frenchgate Centre, Doncaster.
Thursday, 22 August, 7.00pm. York Library, Museum Street, York.

(Sunday, 25 August – Sunday, 1 September: SOUTH AFRICA book tour. Details tba.)

Friday, 6 September, 6.30pm. No Alibis Bookstore, Botanic Avenue, Belfast.
Wednesday, 11 September, 12.30pm. Waterstones, High Street, Colchester.
Wednesday, 11 September, 6.30pm. Jarrolds, London Street, Norwich.
Thursday, 12 September, 1.00pm. Waterstones, Derby.
Thursday, 12 September, 7.30pm. Huddersfield Town Hall, Ramsden Street, Huddersfield.
Tuesday, 17 September, 4.00 – 5.00pm. Cultural Exchange Round table with Barry Forshaw, Francois von Hurter, Howard Curtis, Ilaria Meliconi. Chaired by David Platten. Crime Fiction in the Modern Era, University of Leeds, Leeds.
Wednesday, 18 September. 5.00 – 5.45pm. In conversation with Diana Holmes. Crime Fiction in the Modern Era, University of Leeds, Leeds.
Sunday, 22 September. 7.30pm. In conversation with Mark Billingham. Richmond Walking & Book Festival, Richmond School Sixth Form Centre, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

CANADA TOUR DATES 2013.

Friday, 4 October – Sunday, 6 October. Cabot Trail Writers Festival, North River, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Monday, 14 October – Sunday, 20 October. Calgary WordFest, Calgary, Alberta.
Thursday. 24 October, Gryphon Theatre Guild Authors Night, Barrie, Ontario.
Ottawa Writers Festival, tba between 25 and 30 October.

SWEDEN 2013.

Tuesday, 19 November. Evening event for Books and Dreams magazine in Stockholm.

The DCI Banks televisions series has won the Royal Television Society (Yorkshire Branch) Award for Drama over stiff competition from The Syndicate and Emmerdale – 40th Anniversary Episode! On 24 June 2013, at the award ceremony for the Royal Television Society (RTS) Yorkshire Centre Awards 2013, Stephen Tompkinson accepted the award for ‘Best Drama’ for DCI Banks, Left Bank Pictures for ITV.

Filming of more DCI Banks episodes will begin soon, in Yorkshire. No dates have been set yet for broadcast.

ITV has commissioned a third series of DCI Banks dramas, with three two-part episodes being scheduled for 2014. These will be Wendseday’s Child, Piece of My Heart and Bad Boy, with Stephen Tompkinson as Alan Banks.

DS Cabot, played by Andrea Lowe, will be returning from maternity leave, and Caroline Catz will xbe back as the DI Helen Morton.

Filming will begin in August in Yorkshire, and air dates will be confirmed in the future.

The Daily Mail has published an article about the Top 10 criminal masterminds , listing “the world’s most successful living crime writers.” Peter Robinson comes in at number 9 in this list, which contains such renowned authors as David Baldacci, Patricia Cornwall, Ian Rankin, Michael Connolly and others.

The Mail says the following about Peter:

Age/Nationality/Sales: 63, British/Canadian, 10m sales worldwide.

Crimefighter: DCI Alan Banks moves to the town of Eastvale for a ‘quiet life’ – naturally, his arrival has the same effect on the murder rate as Hercule Poirot checking into your hotel.

For fans of… normal cops. Banks isn’t a kung fu ace, forensic whiz, or at loggerheads with the universe.

Killer book: Gallows Views. The Yorkshire tourist board can’t have enjoyed Banks’s debut, as peeping toms, glue-sniffers, and murderers run riot in a sleepy village.

Deadly detail: Biology teacher has a cellar full of dead blondes.

Screen violence: Stephen Tompkinson is appropriately down-to-earth in ITV’s hit adaptation of the Inspector Banks novels.

On March 19, Peter Robinson and Martin Carthy took to the stage in York to perform Crimes and Ballads, a combination of a story by Peter Robinson and songs by Martin Carthy. Based on the English folk song Little Musgrave, Peter Robinson’s story sets out the tale of unrequited love. “At appropriate intervals Robinson takes a back seat and the space that presents itself allows Carthy to sing songs that complement the text. Tales of loss and longing and of heartbreak and stolen dreams.”

As reported by David Markham in York Mix:

To witness them individually would have been enough. To pair them together was inspired. I couldn’t help but think that in a world where we as a population are increasingly expected to embrace pace and change, tonight’s performance demanded that we stop and think and revel in the talents of two gifted men and the warmth of the community of people in the building. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

It was a moving performance, in an intimate setting in a converted church. There will be other performances in the future, and we’ll post information about them on the site.

Before the Poison has won the 2013 Dilys Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. The award was announced by Tom Schantz at the Left Coast Crime Convention, in Colorado Springs, on 23 March.

This is a very great honour indeed. I have never won a Dilys Award before, so it’s also a big thrill. I’m especially glad at having won for Before the Poison, which was something of a departure for me. My thanks to the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association for the award and for all your support over the years.

Get more information.