A NORTH Wales library has become home to a prestigious silver crime writing award. The team at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, announced the addition of the esteemed Diamond Dagger Award to its archives. This prestigious award, presented annually by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) alongside 12 other Dagger awards, is a lifetime achievement award recognising outstanding contributions to crime writing in the English language.
The Diamond Dagger itself was designed by Cartier and consists of a silver book with the names of past winners engraved into the pages and a diamond-encrusted dagger plunged into it. It was first won by Eric Ambler in 1986 and over the years it has been won by giants of British crime writing history. These have included PD James, John le Carré, Dick Francis, Ruth Rendell, Margaret Yorke, Lionel Davidson, Robert Barnard, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Lee Child, Catherine Aird, Martin Edwards, Martina Cole, and, most recently, Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke.
Alexandra Foulds, archivist the Flintshire library, said: "The Diamond Dagger Award is one of the most respected accolades in the literary world, celebrating the enduring impact of crime writers whose work has left an indelible mark on the genre. The Dagger awards are such a symbol of crime writing that they have not only been awarded to some of the most famous authors of the genre but they have also featured in their works; the Golden Dagger is used as the attempted murder weapon in Anthony Hor.