David Baldacci in Conversation at Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

He’s the superstar author with a movie star’s megawatt smile, a former lawyer whose novels have been translated into 45 different languages, selling around 130 million copies of them have been sold around the world.

Having had such success, coupled with his slick look, you might expect David Baldacci to be an over-confident, brash individual, but not a bit of it. Instead, he exudes old world charm and humility and, 30 years on from the publication of his first book, he remains as thrilled as ever by the writing process.

As a result, he was as pleased as punch to receive the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award at Harrogate’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on Thursday evening.

“It means everything,” he claims. “When I say that British crime writing is the gold standard, I really mean that. And being rewarded by your peers is an amazing thing. They know how the sausages are made and that they’re not always pretty!

“I’m just thrilled that we have 20,000 people attending a writing festival somewhere on the planet. That’s incredible. I’m going to go home and tell everyone about it.”

It’s not his first visit to the event – that came in 2011, but it was a whole different ballgame back then: “There were no tents, that I can tell you. There were still thousands of people, but nothing like this.”

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