Val McDermid FRSE FRSL, dubbed ‘the Queen of Crime’, has sold over 17 million books to date across the globe and is translated into more than 40 languages. Her latest Karen Pirie novel, Still Life, was published in paperback in February 2021, to be followed in May by a graphic novelisation of Resistance, her critically acclaimed 2017 radio drama series, illustrated by Kathryn Briggs and published by the Wellcome Collection. Val’s latest hardback, 1979, launching a new series featuring journalist Allie Burns, was published in August 2021. Val was chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017 and has served as a judge for both the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2018 Man Booker Prize. She is the recipient of six honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She is a panellist for the RSL Open Fellowship programme in 2021.