Venice Noir
Venice Noir is an international crime fiction festival held each year in the city. As co-founder and international director, David has helped to build it into one of Europe’s most distinctive literary events — all public events free to attend. In 2026 the festival was staged in the Ateneo Veneto, Teatro La Fenice and the Ridotto of the Hotel Monaco, once frequented by Casanova. More information at www.venicenoir.com.
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The Three ‘Moors’ of Cannaregio: A Walk Around Campo dei Mori
Venice doesn’t just tell its astonishing history through books and paintings and music. It’s there in the streets too, if you just stop to look. Let’s take a walk around a quiet part of Cannaregio and I’ll show you an example many often miss. The ‘Moorish’ statues Head to Campo dei Mori and you may…
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Lama d’Ombra: The Glass Blade That Will Crown Venice Noir 2026
We conclude Venice Noir with our award to a writer we feel has made a significant contribution to the field of crime and thriller writing. Last year our first prize went, deservedly, to Ian Rankin who you can see testing the sharpness of it below… Yes, it was a stunning piece of glass sculpture made…
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Venice Noir launches at Harrogate
Just back from a surprisingly warm and sunny Theakstons Crimewriting festival at Harrogate where we launched the international edition of Venice Noir 2026. Here are some of my co-conspirators after the event — Suzy Lishman, our resident super pathologist who has a fantastic panel on her hands this year; Philip Gwynne Jones, Erin Kelly, historian…
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Countdown to Venice Noir… Harrogate here we come
We’ve been working on the international line-up for Venice Noir 2026 for months… and I’m delighted to tell you now it’s done. Unfortunately I’m not going to tell you what we have in store. Only that it’s even bigger and better than last year, now running across four days, and we’ve added La Fenice opera…
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Venice comes to Harrogate
If you’re coming to the great Theakstons Crime Festival at Harrogate next month please put 1pm on Saturday in your diary. That’s when we’ll be announcing the programme for Venice Noir 2026… and quite a few surprises along the way. I’ll be there along with Philip Gwynne Jones. Erin Kelly and Noir’s resident pathologist and…