Val McDermid returns to her old stamping ground this weekend for the Woodstock Literary Festival, writes ANDREW FFRENCH.

IN 1975, English student Val McDermid was graduating from Oxford University's St Hilda’s College.

At the same time, Colin Dexter’s first Inspector Morse novel was published, and the 35th anniversary of its publication will be celebrated this weekend at the Woodstock Literary Festival.

After graduating at Oxford, Ms McDermid went onto work for the tabloids for 14 years before embarking on a career as a crime novelist, and she is now one of the bestselling crime writers in the country.

Earlier this year, she was awarded the Crime Writers Association Cartier Diamond Dagger and last year she was awarded an honorary fellowship by St Hilda’s.

The 55-year-old told The Guide that she is looking forward to appearing at the same festival as Mr Dexter, an author she has long admired.

The author of Wire in the Blood, which was adapted for TV and starred Robson Green, is at Blenheim Palace at 11am tomorrow to talk about her new novel Trick of the Dark.

“I have always been a huge fan of Colin’s work,” she says.

“I read the Morse novels when they first came out and loved the intelligence of the plotting and the complexity of the characters.”

The writer returns to St Hilda’s every summer for a crime fiction conference which features crime writers and academics.

“Thankfully they have a lovely new block there and I don't have to stay in my old room,” she adds.

The Scottish-born author has been contemplating writing a crime novel set in Oxford for many years but has been waiting for the right story to come along.

She said she didn’t want to provide readers with a “soppy Brideshead” portrayal of the city.

There is nothing soppy about Trick of the Dark, which features psychiatrist Charlie Flint investigating a murder in the grounds of her old Oxford college. A groom is murdered within hours of his wedding and his bloodstained body is then dumped in the river.

As Charlie reviews the case, she soon discovers that things are not quite what they seem.

There are lesbian love interests in the novel but the author insists that her latest story should be considered a crime novel featuring certain characters as lesbians, rather than a “lesbian novel”.

It will be McDermid’s first appearance at the Woodstock Literary Festival, but she knows the town quite well because when her parents came to visit her at St Hilda’s, she would always insist they take her for lunch at The Bear Hotel.

The writer confessed she also used to “sneak in the back way” at Blenheim Palace.

“Is that the worst crime you have ever committed?” I asked the author. “That would be telling,” she replies with a chuckle, remaining true to her role as mystery writer, as she prepares to meet book fans at The Orangery.