About 80 people packed into Buriton Village Hall on Monday 5th December to listen to best-selling thriller writer Graham Hurley.
His informal and entertaining talk held everybody spellbound with people hanging onto his every word in the same way as his readers are gripped by his page-turners.
He ranged from his formative years ("the greatest gift that I ever received was a ticket for our local library from my mother") through his time as an award-winning film-maker for Southern TV and TVS to his best-selling DI Faraday novels - all set locally in and around Portsmouth.
But he began his talk "in the middle", describing how he had researched the opening pages of his 'One Under' novel in and around the parish of Buriton - only yards from where he was delivering the talk.
Mr Hurley provided detailed insights and advice into how a successful author researches material for his books and how he develops his characters, plots and storylines - and, at the end of the evening he answered scores of questions from the audience and signed copies of his books.
His DI Faraday novels have been translated into sixteen languages and have received widespread critical acclaim - spreading his descriptions of the village of Buriton far and wide.
