MW Craven has been named as the winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award in Harrogate tonight.

Carlisle-born Mr Craven joined the army at 16 and became a probation officer role before taking up writing.

He won the award for The Botanist, which is his latest thriller featuring the character Detective Sergeant Washington Poe.

He received a £3,000 prize, as well as an engraved beer cask handcrafted by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakston Brewery in Masham.

More than 17,000 tickets have been sold for the four-day festival at the Old Swan in Harrogate, which began today.

Numerous best-selling authors and celebrities are in town for the event, which is run by Harrogate International Festivals.

A record 14,110 readers cast their votes between six shortlisted authors for crime novel of the year.

The shortlist included:

Elly Griffiths (The Locked Room)

Doug Johnstone (Black Hearts)

Fiona Cummins (Into the Dark)

Ruth Ware (The It Girl)

M.W. Craven (The Botanist)

Gillian McAllister (Wrong Place Wrong Time)

Read more:

• Thousands descend on Harrogate for crime writing festival
• Reduction in Harrogate fire engines to begin next year

The judges, including Simon Theakston, Steph McGovern, Matt Nixson from the Daily Express, journalist Joe Haddow, Lisa Howells and Gaby Lee from Waterstones, met yesterday to decide the winner, with the public vote counting as the seventh judge on the panel.

Ms Griffiths was highly commended for the penultimate mystery in her bestselling Dr Ruth Galloway series The Locked Room. She has now been nominated for the award six times, and this is her first highly commended.

Ann Cleeves honoured

Tonight’s ceremony also saw Ann Cleeves receive the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her writing career.

Cleeves, the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV’s The Long Call respectively.

Previous winners include Sir Ian Rankin, Lynda La Plante, James Patterson, John Grisham, Lee Child, Val McDermid, P.D. James and last year’s recipient Michael Connelly.

Ms Cleeves said:

“The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate has always been a very special festival for me because I was in at the beginning.  I’m delighted to accept this award and to help the team celebrate 20 years of brilliant crime writing.”