Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
We are delighted to welcome bestselling and award-winning US author Megan Abbott for the annual Noirwich Lecture; a rich, nuanced, and thoughtful reflection on the ethics and responsibility of the crime writer , and the need to reframe the focus in news journalism. How do we come to the beliefs we hold? Whose point of view is taking centre stage? How does crime writing feed into corrupt systems and which relationships do we need to reassess going forward?
Megan will also discuss true crime in the age of the docuseries. Netflix recently adapted her novel Dare Me, and she has recently worked with David Simon (The Wire) on HBO. Join us for a fascinating look into the current state of documentaries and the explosion in popularity of true crime.
Megan is the award-winning author of nine crime novels, including the just published The Turnout, and the bestselling You Will Know Me and Dare Me. Her work has won or been nominated for the CWA Steel Dagger, the International Thriller Writers Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and five Edgar awards. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Paris Review and the Wall Street Journal. She is also the author of The Street Was Mine, a study of hardboiled fiction, and film noir. She received her Ph.D. in American literature from New York University. A writer on HBO’s highly acclaimed The Deuce, she recently served as co-showrunner and co-creator of Dare Me, which completed its first season on the USA Network and Netflix internationally.
Influential true crime documentary features mentioned:
Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
Andrew Jarecki’s Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s The Staircase (2004) (docuseries)
Recent true crime docuseries referenced:
Liz Garbus’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2020) (HBO in U.S., Sky TV in UK)
Madison Hamburg’s Murder on Middle Beach (HBO in U.S., Sky TV in UK)
Jesse Vile and Ellena Wood’s The Ripper (Netflix, 2020)
Lisa Bryant’s Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (Netflix, 2020)
Jenny Popplewell’s American Murder: The Family Next Door (Netflix, 2020)
Zackary Drucker & Nick Cammilleri’s The Lady and the Dale (HBO in U.S., 2021
We are delighted to welcome bestselling and award-winning US author Megan Abbott for the annual Noirwich Lecture; a rich, nuanced, and thoughtful reflection on the ethics and responsibility of the crime writer , and the need to reframe the focus in news journalism. How do we come to the beliefs we hold? Whose point of view is taking centre stage? How does crime writing feed into corrupt systems and which relationships do we need to reassess going forward?
Megan will also discuss true crime in the age of the docuseries. Netflix recently adapted her novel Dare Me, and she has recently worked with David Simon (The Wire) on HBO. Join us for a fascinating look into the current state of documentaries and the explosion in popularity of true crime.
Megan is the award-winning author of nine crime novels, including the just published The Turnout, and the bestselling You Will Know Me and Dare Me. Her work has won or been nominated for the CWA Steel Dagger, the International Thriller Writers Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and five Edgar awards. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Paris Review and the Wall Street Journal. She is also the author of The Street Was Mine, a study of hardboiled fiction, and film noir. She received her Ph.D. in American literature from New York University. A writer on HBO’s highly acclaimed The Deuce, she recently served as co-showrunner and co-creator of Dare Me, which completed its first season on the USA Network and Netflix internationally.
Influential true crime documentary features mentioned:
Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
Andrew Jarecki’s Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s The Staircase (2004) (docuseries)
Recent true crime docuseries referenced:
Liz Garbus’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2020) (HBO in U.S., Sky TV in UK)
Madison Hamburg’s Murder on Middle Beach (HBO in U.S., Sky TV in UK)
Jesse Vile and Ellena Wood’s The Ripper (Netflix, 2020)
Lisa Bryant’s Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (Netflix, 2020)
Jenny Popplewell’s American Murder: The Family Next Door (Netflix, 2020)
Zackary Drucker & Nick Cammilleri’s The Lady and the Dale (HBO in U.S., 2021
