Agatha Christie voted as top crime writer

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has celebrated its sixtieth year in 2013 and held a poll to find the greatest crime writer, crime series and crime novel to mark the anniversary.

The CWA supports and promotes the work of crime writers, undeniably a hugely popular genre.

The winner of the Best Ever Crime Author was Agatha Christie, who wrote a staggering 66 detective novels (I wonder if anyone has ever counted up the murders!). Evidently she remains as popular as ever, with the Poirot series on ITV finishing last night with his final case Curtain.

Christie’s novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the Best Ever Novel. It was one of her earliest novels (published in 1926) and features her most famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot. It has, as ever, a magnificent twist at the end.

The winner of the CWA Best Ever Crime Series was Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation. And again I wonder, how many murders . . .?

Crime novels are as popular as ever, but it is good to see that older novels have stood the test of time and are still being read by today’s audience.

Get your crime novel proofread by WriteItClearly.com.

Play Scrabble to improve your vocabulary

The board game Scrabble must be excellent for improving one’s vocabulary. But I guess that’s only true if you consult a dictionary and try new words.

Paul Allan has just become Britain’s national Scrabble champion, so he knows how to get the best from his own vocabulary, reported the Daily Telegraph. “The whole dictionary is there,” he said, “and it is a rich dictionary. There are no good or bad words. You’re looking for strategic advantage.

“You can use swear words and nobody bats an eye. You would do that in the small church hall tournament playing against a 90-year-old nun. You just play it as if it’s an ordinary word.”

Competitive spirit indeed!

His winning round against Allan Simmons, however, contained more mundane than exotic words, with “conlines” scoring the highest with 98. (It’s a poison found in hemlock.) Simple words used to clinch victory were: “ugh”, “be”, “zed”, “vet”, “yeah”, “dorm”.

Other words in Mr Allan’s winning round that might have you scrabbling for the dictionary were: “fy”, “litu”, “bandura”, “swarf”.

Christmas is just around the corner. If you haven’t got Scrabble in your house, why not treat the family and improve your vocabulary with a few games?

In the meantime, come to WriteItClearly.com for the best in writing.

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