Nicola Sturgeon in Harrogate today

Pictured in Harrogate today - Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter.

The Scottish leader is to take part in the festival on Sunday morning when she be interviews her good friend and crime-writing luminary, Val McDermid in person at the Old Swan Hotel.

This writer won crime fest's top award in Harrogate last night

Staged by Harrogate International Festivals, approximately 16,000 tickets have been sold for the four-day extravaganza, with lovers of the genre coming from as far as New Zealand and Australia to attend a series of talks, workshops, dinners and an opening night awards ceremony which took place last night.

Score of authors from around the world will be taking part in the festival – the seventeenth - which kicks off with a day-long writing workshop, “Creative Thursday”, and concludes with Bodyguard writer and Line of Duty creator, Jed Mercurio, in conversation with BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern.

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