Press Release
Little, Brown Author Val McDermid wins CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award12/01/2010
Little, Brown author Val McDermid has been named as the winner of this year’s CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, an award honouring outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing. The announcement has been made by the Crime Writers’ Association in recognition of Val’s work over more than 20 years.
The CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger is the latest accolade in a highly successful career which last year saw Val inducted into the Hall of Fame at the ITV3 Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards.
Val McDermid's books have been translated into 40 languages, with over two million copies sold in the UK and 10 million worldwide. She has written 23 bestselling novels and ITV’s Wire in the Blood was based on her books.
She said of the CWA Carter Diamond Dagger award: “'I'm delighted to be admitted to this very select group of crime writers. To be awarded the CWA Carter Diamond Dagger is a distinction every writer dreams of. It's been an amazing twelve months - inducted into the Hall of Fame, elected to an Honorary Fellowship at St Hilda's College, Oxford and now the Diamond Dagger. But my readers can be reassured about one thing - I'm not going to rest on my laurels. There are still plenty of mountains for me to climb.”
Margaret Murphy, chair of the CWA, said: “The CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger award acknowledges the work of an author who has made an outstanding contribution to the genre. Val McDermid is a worthy winner whose work has entertained and thrilled millions of readers as well as many more who have enjoyed the TV adaptations her books have inspired.”
“The recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award is chosen by the members and committee of the CWA and is very much an honour awarded by the author’s peers and thus makes it special.”
The Cartier Diamond Dagger Award is sponsored by Cartier, who have done so since its inception in 1986. The CWA committee selects writers nominated by the membership. Nominees have to meet two essential criteria: first, their careers must be marked by sustained excellence, and second, they must have made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language, whether originally or in translation. The award is made purely on merit without reference to age, gender or nationality.