THE BODY IN THE GARDEN Crime and Garden Writers' Festival Set for Adelaide, Oct 25-27

A new festival is set to join the October line-up of arts events in Adelaide. 'The Body in the Garden', a crime and garden writers' festival, will be held in the Botanic Garden during the weekend of 25-27 October. Readers love crime novels and readers love books about gardening - and many readers love both - and this quirky festival will feature a mix of Australian and international writers on these topics.

The organisers of the festival, Rose Wight OAM (long-time executive producer Adelaide Writers Week, Festival of Ideas) and Penelope Curtin, (arts administrator, bookshop owner, director South Australian Food and Wine Writers' Festival and freelance editor), with support from an advisory committee, have assembled a line-up of writers - around 22 altogether from Australia and overseas.

The festival follows the tradition of South Australia being an innovator and leader in the area of festival events. Like the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, the Body in the Garden will be the first festival of its kind in Australia - and probably in the world.

Ms Wight and Ms Curtin said, 'Adelaide, the ideal festival city because of its convenience and compact size, also boasts one of the oldest botanic gardens in Australia - an idyllic and apt location for this festival.'

The nature of the festival - the unusual pairing of crime and gardening - is likely to attract a great deal of interest from Adelaide audiences, including avid gardeners who have never before attended a writers' event, and generate a great deal of publicity for both Adelaide and the Botanic Garden.

Publishers from around the world have been delighted to support a new literary event in South Australia, the home of the much-loved and highly respected Writers' Week.'

Among those who have accepted invitations to the festival are the highly acclaimed Swedish crime writer Hakan Nesser.

'When we sent an invitation to Hakan Nesser, we never dreamed that Nesser, winner of the European Crime Fiction Star Award and three-time winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award, would accept', said Ms Wight and Ms Curtin.

Toby Musgrave, one of the UK's leading authorities in garden history and design, has also agreed to be a guest of the festival, as has crime writer Anne Cleeves, whose Vera Stanhope series, set in the north of England, was recently screened on Australian television. Australian writers who have accepted invitations include Gabrielle Lord, Paul Bangay and the Melbourne duo, Fabian Capomollo andMat Pember.

The program for the festival will be released in September this year.

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