Profiles
The Authors
Stuart MacBride
'Stuart MacBride is the most exciting thing to happen in British crime fiction in the last ten years…’ Northern Echo
His first book‚ ‘Cold Granite’ was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers best debut novel, Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award and the International Thriller Writer’s best debut novel award, and won the Barry Award for best first novel. The follow-ups, 'Dying Light' and 'Broken Skin', were both Top Ten bestsellers. Broken Skin won the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Breakthrough Author of the Year. Stuart also won the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library‚ awarded for a body of work.
Stuart lives in northeast Scotland with his wife Fiona‚ cat Grendel‚ and a vegetable plot full of weeds.
*Photograph courtesy of Karolina Webb.
Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves is well known for her Inspector Ramsay novels, set in Northumberland, her Shetland Quartet, and her Vera Stanhope series, which will be televised soon on ITV and stars Brenda Blethyn.
Her novel, 'Raven Black', the first book of the Shetland Quartet, won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, awarded annually by the Crime Writers Association.
Val McDermid
Val McDermid has written a large number of crime novels, including three different series of books - the Lindsay Gordon Mystery series, the Kate Brannigan series, and the Dr Tony Hill and Carol Jordan books, which have been made into the highly successful Wire In The Blood TV series, starring Robson Green. In 2010, Val won the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger award for outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing.
Margaret Murphy
Margaret Murphy is the author of many stand-alone novels, as well as two series, one set in Liverpool, featuring Chief Inspector Jeff Rickman, Detective Sergeant Lee Foster and Detective Constable Naomi Hart, and the other about barrister Clara Pascal.
Peter James
Peter James is an international best-selling crime novelist and film producer. He is best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series based in Brighton, which is soon to be televised. His books have been translated into 29 languages.
Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham is the author of the bestselling Tom Thorne series of crime books, as well as being a televeision screenwriter, actor and stand-up comedian. He has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, in 2004 for Lazybones and in 2009 for Death Message. The Tom Thorne series of books will be televised in the autumn of 2010 on Sky One.
The Scientists
Professor Lorna Dawson
"I have a colleague who has expertise in soil forensics, did a PhD on the mineral characterisation of soils,
"We could do an elemental analysis and compare to the available soil and geochemistry databases...." so says Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) in a recent edition of the BBC's Silent Witness.
The colleague she is referring to is Professor Lorna Dawson, who has more than 20 years experience in conducting and managing research and application in soil-plant interactions.
One of the main current thrusts of her work is in the research and application of soil and vegetation information in forensic case work, in both the investigative and evaluative phases of police investigations. She is head of soil forensic science at the James Hutton Institute, and Principal Investigator on an EPSRC funded research project; SoilFit, and a co-coordinator of an EPSRC funded international geoforensic network, which brings together geoscientists, forensic scientists, police practitioners, statisticians and lawyers. She has also worked on case investigations with various police forces in the UK and with the Forensic Science Service.
She is a member of the British Society of Soil Science, the Institute of Professional Soil Scientists, co-organiser and member of the Scottish Root Group, member of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Science and Society Advisory Panel and member of The Environmental Knowledge Transfer Network Technical Advisory Group.
Professor Dave Barclay
Professor Dave Barclay is a world renowned forensics expert and Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
Professor Barclay is a former head of physical evidence for the UK National Crime and Operations Faculty, where he was involved in reviewing more than 200 murder investigations, cold case reviews and inquiries into alleged miscarriages of justice, including the Bloody Sunday inquiry, the Omagh bombing, the World's End murders in Edinburgh, and the Millie Dowler and Soham murders.
His extensive experience also led him into becoming an adviser for the BBC television series Waking the Dead and more recently, the Channel Four documentary, Dispatches, invited Professor Barclay to Praia da Luz, Portugal to review the Portuguese police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He undertook a similar review for Aljazeera this year which came to the conclusion that Yasser Arafat was almost certainly assassinated with Polonium.
Dr James Grieve
Dr James Grieve is a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Medicine at the Department of Pathology at the University of Aberdeen and a Police Forensic Pathologist for the North East and Grampian area.
He has carried out numerous post-mortem investigations including sudden unexpected natural events, suicides, homicides and accidents, as well as deaths possibly resulting from medical mishap. He regularly gives evidence in the criminal courts and at Fatal Accident Inquiries.
Professor Sue Black
Professor Sue Black is a forensic anthropologist and head of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She was the lead forensic anthropologist to the British Forensic Team in Kosovo. The work of Sue and her team was featured in a BBC 2 series History Cold Case.
The Masters of Ceremonies
Damien McLeod
Damien Mcleod, a well known and well loved voice in the north east brings his wit and wisdom to Original 106.
Quentin Cooper
Described by the Times as both “the world’s most enthusiastic man” and “an expert on everything from pop music to astrophysics”, by the Daily Mail as someone whose “wit and enthusiasm can enliven the dullest of topics”, and by the Daily Telegraph as “dauntless”, Quentin hosts a diverse range of events in Britain and beyond as well as appearing regularly on radio, TV and in print.
He’s best known for presenting the UK's most listened to science programme,The Material World on BBC Radio 4 – described as “the most accessible, funny and conversational science programme on radio” by the Radio Times, “excellent, a splendid listen” by Nature, and “quite the best thing on radio” by Bill Bryson.
He also writes a regular column for BBC Worldwide linking science and fiction, hosts the monthly The Thing Is events at the Wellcome Collection in London and has presented, produced and been a regular contributor to countless other science, technology, arts and entertainment programmes across BBC radio and television, Channel 4, the Discovery Channel, ITV and other channels. In his – limited - spare time still manages to be a film critic on BBC Radio 2 and elsewhere.
Quentin is much in demand to host conferences, chair panels, facilitate debates, conduct interviews, give talks, MC events, sit on advisory boards and run science communication and media skills workshops.
These include the Knowledge Transfer conferences at Heriot-Watt and St Andrews universities, winner of the Times Higher award for best event; real-forensics-meets-crime-fiction show Murder Mystery and Microscopes, winner of the CIB Scotland award for best live communications event, and the UK and international finals of future faces of science competition FameLab at the Royal Institution and Cheltenham Science Festival.
Among organisations he’s worked for regularly and recently are the Royal Society, BBC Training, the British Council, the British Science Association, Lego, the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the Institute of Physics, Channel 4, NESTA, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, the London School of Economics, the UK Energy Research Centre, many universities, most UK and European science festivals, various national governments and several UK research councils.
Many moons ago Quentin studied Artificial Intelligence and Psychology at Edinburgh University and he also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism Studies from University College Cardiff. He has been awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from Heriot-Watt University and in 2012 he was delighted to accept an invitation to become an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
