A Q & A with two of Britain’s leading writers in the fields of crime and espionage
Helen Fields is a former criminal and family law barrister, with a background as both a prosecutor and defence counsel, It is this depth of knowledge about crime that lends a fierceness to her writing. From Courts Martial to care proceedings, the Coroner Courts to the Crown Court, she draws on her professional years for the extraordinary colour and texture that makes her writing jump off the page. Helen is a Sunday Thames Best Seller and has been twice long listed for the McIllvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year.
The ‘Perfect’ series, set in Edinburgh, introduced the world to DI Luc Callanach. This year saw the release of Degrees of Guilt, her first psychological thriller under the pen name H.S. Chandler, a book as shockingly realistic as it is darkly entertaining. Helen’s latest character creation is Dr Connie Woolwine, an American forensic psychologist and profiler, based on a real FBI Agent who consulted on the first book. You can follow Connie’s investigations in The Shadow Man, One for Sorrow and The Institution.
Merle Nygate is a novelist and screenwriter. Her career has taken her from working on BAFTA winning TV to New York Festival audio drama to writing original sitcoms. She previously worked for BBC Comedy Commissioning. She has been a writer and script editor across multiple genres. Her first espionage novel, The Righteous Spy won the Little Brown/UEA Crime Fiction Award. Her second, Honour Among Spies was a Sunday Times Thriller of 2024. Her third novel in the series, The Protocols of Spying was a Financial Times Thriller of 2025.
Doors open at 19:00
This talk is part of the Elmbridge LitFest 2026 programme.