Sophie Hannah
DLS Lecture – The Murder Mystery

Thursday 25 June 2026, 7.00pm
Witham Library, 18 Newland Street, Witham, Essex, CM8 2AQ

This year’s DLS Lecture marks the 50th anniversary of the Dorothy L Sayers Society.

Best-selling author Sophie Hannah will discuss the ever-popular murder mystery as a genre with reference to Sayers’ first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, Whose Body? and will also talk about her latest book Work Experience, a new collection of maverick poems plus two murder mystery plays, The Mystery of Mr. E and Work Experience.

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.
📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.

Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times, New York Times and Amazon Kindle UK No. 1 bestselling writer of crime fiction and poetry, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her murder mystery musical, The Mystery of Mr E, was released as a feature film in 2023, directed by Martyn Tott. In 2023, Sophie won the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger in the Library Award for her body of work, and in 2013 her thriller The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the National Book Awards. Sophie’s poetry has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A Level and degree level across the UK.

In 2018, she created the How to Hold a Grudge podcast, based on her self-help book of the same name. More recently, she has published two other self-help books: Happiness: A Mystery, and her latest, The Double Best Method, which was an Amazon UK Top Ten best-seller and is a guide to making the best possible decisions.

Sophie is the founder and coach at Dream Author Coaching, a coaching programme for writers and anyone who wants to write. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.

Work Experience: New Poems and Two Plays

Bestselling author Sophie Hannah’s new collection combines maverick, irreverent poems that rhyme and scan and will make you laugh aloud, together with the librettos of her two musicals whose rebellious protagonist is every bit as mischievous and independent-minded as his creator.

Pre-order a copy of the book from bookshop.org – released 27 May 2026