Douglas Skelton
18Jan

Four Blokes put the ho-ho in homicide

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Four Blokes in Search of a Plot – Neil Broadfoot, Gordon Brown, Mark Leggatt and Douglas Skelton – are heading to the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

On Wednesday March 18 they will be ensconced in The Glad Café on the city’s Pollokshaws Road and delivering their own particular brand of mayhem and madness.

Yes, there will be a mirtherrrr…!

It’s an improvisational show that sees the guys given a main character and murder weapon and then take turns to create a crime story, with the audience selecting who goes next.

And as they write their 100 words or so, they don the sacred Tea Cosy of Inspiration. Because they can.

You’ll find details here:

Four Blokes in the Glad Cafe

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27Jul

Getting back together with Denzil Meyrick and Neil Broadfoot

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I’ll be teaming up once again with Denzil Meyrick and Neil Broadfoot in August, this time in Dunfermline.

We’ll be doing our best to remain professional in the town’s Grill 48 Bar. Knowing us, we won’t manage anything near professional.

We had lots of fun in Perth earlier in the year and this event promises to be a laugh, too.

Tickets are available in Waterstones Dunfermline, priced £5.

Details Here

All welcome to come along.

 

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15Apr

Four Blokes in Search of a Plot hit Southside Fringe

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The Four Blokes – Gordon Brown, Neil Broadfoot, Mark Leggatt and Douglas Skelton – are taking their hunt for that elusive plot to the Glasgow Southside Festival Fringe next month.

They’ll be in The Cellar on Thursday May 23.

Give them a main character and a M**der weapon. Then watch them take it in turns to create a crime story before your eyes. There’ll be thrills, spills and cliffhangers.

And you can ask them questions about crime, crime writing, life, love, pain – the whole damn thing.

Their shows have had the audiences rolling in the aisles in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dumfries, Stirling, Bute and Newcastle appearing at festivals throughout the land including Bloody Scotland, Newcastle Noir, Bute Noir and the Byres Road Festival.

More details – and how to book tickets – here:

https://allevents.in/glasgow/four-blokes-in-search-of-a-plot/200016915111546

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8Feb

Joining forces with Denzil Meyrick and Neil Broadfoot in Perth

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Perth has a new literary festival – and the first event is a crime panel!

I’m joining old pals Denzil Meyrick and Neil Broadfoot in Perth’s Museum and Art Gallery on Friday April 26 on the opening night of the inaugural Soutar Festival of Words.

You can learn more about the festival here.

The panel will be great fun, if we can keep Meyrick under control. Which is unlikely!

If you live in Perth or can get there, come and see us!

No times or other details yet, but will update as soon as I know.

 

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1Jan

Four Blokes and the Sleuthing gang join forces again

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Yes – it’s true!

Those Four Blokes are still searching for that plot and the trail is taking them back to Dumfries’ fabulous Theatre Royal.

Once again, they will be joined the Carry on Sleuthing team in a double bill of mirther (that’s a mixture of mirth and murder, in case you hadn’t spotted it).

 

The crime writers on offer in the show are Caro Ramsay, Lucy Cameron, Neil Broadfoot, Gordon Brown, Mark Leggatt, Michael J. Malone and Douglas Skelton.

The blokes will, as usual, create a crime story before the audience’s very eyes – and given it’s taking place on Burns Night, there may well be a Bardic flavour. Be prepared for exploding haggi, Slashy Sarks and a man’s a corpse for a’ that.

The Carry on Sleuthing epic this year will be ‘A Death on the Ocean Wave’, a cunning tale of murder and skulduggery aboard an ocean liner. Once again ace sleuth Letitia Luvibod will look up from her knitting to fathom the mystery and bring the identity of the dastardly murderer to the surface – but the audience have to spot the clues and put forward their own theories. To do so they have to wade through a sea of bad jokes and red herrings. Perhaps even a couple of turbot.

You’ll find details here. You can buy tickets singly at £8 or £12 for both shows:

https://www.evensi.uk/carry-sleuthing-66-68-shakespeare-street-dg1-2jh-dumfries/279949477

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27Oct

A weekend of murder and mayhem

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It’s an attractive little town, like many in the highlands. Neat streets. Solid stone buildings. Stunning views to the mountains.

But for one weekend a year it becomes the focal point of murder and mayhem. A centre of dark acts and despicable deeds.

And that’s just the jokes in Carry on Sleuthing!

Yes, it’s time for the Wee Crime Festival in lovely Grantown-on-Spey (November 2-4).

This will mark the fourth year I’ve trekked northwards for this absolutely terrific event and one of these years they’ll find me out.

Once again the Crime Writers Associated Players (CWAP) will be debuting a brand new Carry on Sleuthing. There will be drama, horror and tears. And that’s just when Michael J. Malone can’t find his sporran.

Caro Ramsay will once again be taking the leading role. Spinster sleuth Letitia Luvibod is becoming very much her alter ego, I think.

But that’s just one event in the weekend of fun and fear.

There are top names attending this year.

Stuart McBride!

Alex Gray!

Craig Robertson!

Alex Sokoloff!

Neil Broadfoot!

Sandra Ireland!

Thomas Enger!

Margaret Kirk!

Helen Forbes!

Hugh Pugh, Barney McGrew!

Well, okay perhaps not the last two.

The events mostly take place in the Pagoda, a terrific venue in the town, while the Saturday night dinner takes over the Garth Hotel restaurant and the Sunday session will be found in Grantown Golf Club.

Come along and make a weekend of it. It is a truly great festival – Marjorie in the Bookmark and her willing band of volunteers really do a great job in pulling all this together.

 

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17Oct

Four Blokes search for the plot in Bute

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The Four Blokes boy band (????) heads for the exotic island of Bute on Friday to bring their own brand of lunacy to the islanders.

Neil Broadfoot, Gordon Brown, Mark Leggatt and Douglas Skelton be in the Museum – fitting, considering their age – from 7pm.

As usual, it promises to be a fun-filled night, with the guys attempting to create a story from scratch, while wearing the sacred Tea Cosy of Inspiration.

 

For tickets – call Print Point, the island’s fabulous book store, on 01700 503389

The guys appear thanks to Bute Noir.

 

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17Oct

The Janus Run Glasgow Launch

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I’ll be heading to Waterstones in Argyle Street for the Glasgow launch of THE JANUS RUN.

I’ll be chatting about the book, writing about a city in which I don’t live, thrillers, mobsters, black ops agents and possibly tap dancing cats with fellow crime writer Neil Broadfoot.

And before you, ask no – I couldn’t get anyone better.

Kidding.

Maybe.

Anyway, it all kicks off at 6.30pm and I hope to see you.

Tickets are free but the store asks that you book, so here’s the link:

https://www.waterstones.com/events/douglas-skelton-launches-the-janus-run/glasgow-argyle-street

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24Aug

What’s happening in the next month

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I’ve got a busy few months ahead of me, which is never something to complain about. It keeps me on the streets, as it were.

The Four Blokes in search of a Plot tour is already underway with a session in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street Waterstones that really rocked. I even sang. After a fashion.

Picture by Ellie Petrie

 

The tour, with Gordon Brown, Neil Broadfoot and Mark Leggatt, continues as follows:

Thursday August 30 – Blackwells, Edinburgh

Thursday September 13 – Waterstones Stirling

Friday October 19 – Bute Museum, Isle of Bute (as part of Bute Noir’s ongoing calendar of events)

The Tour coincides with all four of us having new books hitting the shelves. Funny how things work out.

Neil Broadfoot’s newie is NO MAN’S LAND, the start of a thrilling new series featuring two-fisted Connor Fraser centred in Stirling.

Gordon Brown’s is DEEPEST WOUNDS, the latest in his Exciting Craig McIntyre series.

Mark Leggatt’s latest is THE SILK ROAD, another suspenseful tale featuring Connor Montrose.

Mine, as you all know, is THE JANUS RUN, which I describe as Jason Bourne meets the Sopranos.

From September 21 to September 23, I’ll be attending Bloody Scotland in Stirling, one of the premier crime fiction festivals in the world!

I’m chairing a couple of panels during the festival – one with Quintin Jardine and Denzil Meyrick, the other with Nick Triplow, Cathi Unsworth and Harry Brett – but I’ll also be joining the Carry on Sleuthing crowd to present Murder at the Knickerage.

Speaking of The Janus Run and Carry on Sleuthing, I’ll be launching the book officially at the Tidelines Festival in Irvine’s Harbour Arts Centre on Sunday September 30 – and later that day we’ll be back with Knickerage.

 

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19Jul

Four Blokes look for that plot in Glasgow

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They seem to have been searching for that elusive plot for a long time – will they find it in Glasgow?

Why not come along and find out!

Neil Broadfoot, Gordon Brown, Mark Leggatt and Douglas Skelton return to Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street with the brand new, all fun format of their unique panel game.

Four crime writers are given a protagonist and a murder weapon by the audience and have to create a new crime story within the hour.

The audience select which writer will batter out the next 100 words and while that author dons the sacred Tea Cosy of Inspiration, the other three answer questions about the genre.

Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity see them.

Okay, there’ll be other opportunities, but it sounded good.

You can book your place here:

https://www.waterstones.com/events/four-men-in-search-of-a-plot/glasgow-sauchiehall-street-53940

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