As crime fiction fans from all over the world prepare to descend on Oxford for St Hilda‘s upcoming 2025 Crime Fiction Weekend: ‘Detecting the Gothic: tales from the dark heart of crime fiction‘, we get the lowdown on who, and what, to expect at this year’s exciting festival.
Sarah Hilary – festival programme director (and crime writer) – is hugely excited about this year’s gothic theme, and the extraordinary range of world famous crime writers attending, including Mick Herron, Olivia Isaac-Henry, Anna Mazzola, Stuart Neville, Ambrose Parry, William Ryan, Catherine Ryan Howard, Stuart Turton, Catriona Ward, Ruth Ware, Louise Welsh and Guest of Honour Val McDermid.
Running from August 8-10, the Friday night opener features Mick Herron of Slow Horses fame, an incredible three course dinner and a live address by Anna Mazzola, ‘The Queen of Darkness’, as Sarah Hilary describes the famous CWA Gold Dagger award-winning author.
“We always have fun with the theme,” Sarah says, “and it means we can ride the crest of what’s popular in crime fiction and see what’s down the line. It keeps the festival fresh and tallies with what’s going on around the world. People love to learn something new, and have a voracious appetite for crime fiction. It’s an endlessly fascinating subject and still the most popular literary genre.
“What makes St Hilda’s Crime Festival Weekend so original is that it’s not about authors standing up and talking about their books, but about the writers who will bring the St Hilda’s Crime Festival Weekend theme to life.
“And as gothic occurs in a lot of crime fiction, we thought very carefully about which crime writers would fit this year’s bill and most engage and inform our audiences.”
As for the notoriety of St Hilda’s Crime Festival Weekend 2025, this is its 32nd year, and it continues to go from strength to strength.
“People may think St Hilda’s Crime Festival Weekend will be scholarly and earnest, but actually it is warm, welcoming and friendly. We aim to be inspirational and entertaining rather than overly academic, and offer a very intimate environment. All the authors congregate on the lawn between talks and chat to people and sign books, so it’s very accessible and informal,” Sarah says.
“Plus St Hilda’s has a long literary history, from Barbara Pym and Dorothy L Sayers to PD James and of course Val McDermid. It’s always been college based because we have all the facilities at St Hilda’s, from the Jacqueline Du Pré auditorium to the incredible dining room and catering.
“While there are bigger festivals – Harrogate has just finished and they have audiences of thousands – we are dictated by capacity but we still offer something totally original and have a significant online audience.”
What else can its audiences expect then? “On Saturday night we stage new whodunnit ‘Who Killed Johnnie Alucard’ written specifically for the festival by Oxford based Philip Gooden and featuring a dubious cast of authors,” she laughs.
So how does that come about? “We give Philip the theme and then he roams with it to keep the audience guessing, and we broadcast it to our online audience live, which is something we carried on after lockdown and has been really popular. And then people can ask questions online or in person and Blackwells Rare Books are providing first editions for the winners who work it out, one online and one in person.”
Anna Mazzola will also pre-record her speech to play live online (to get rid of acoustic inhibitors). “Keeping an online presence is really important, because while lots of people travel from far and wide to come to the weekend, we have people from all over the world watching it online and taking part in the Q&As which is genuinely exciting,” Sarah says, “and makes it perfect for anyone who can’t travel to Oxford and keeping St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend open to the world.
So what is the enduring appeal of crime fiction then that keeps it so prevalent? “Crime fiction shows the truth of any society and allows us to look into the dark corners of our world from the safety of our sofas. Of course people also love mystery and resolution.
“But there has also been a resurgence in the popularity of true crime, cosy crime and TV crime drama, which keep feeding the appetites.
“Either way, people come back to St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend time and time again – we have a couple who have come from Austria every year for the past 32 years.
“And while the full weekend tickets have sold out, the Friday night (August 8) is sold separately and we’d love some more locals to come along and see what’s on offer.
“Because Oxford is the perfect place to host a crime fiction festival, especially with this year’s gothic theme, which everywhere in Oxford from the ghost tours to the architecture and the gargoyles on every corner. There can’t be a better setting.
Book here https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/events/2025-crime-fiction-weekend
