> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thebeemagazine.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Working Class Library Episode 8: Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell - URL: https://thebeemagazine.com/the-working-class-library-episode-8-running-hot-by-dreda-say-mitchell/ - Published: 2026-07-15T17:16:27.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-22T19:55:54.000Z - Description: Lee Child joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss Dreda Say Mitchell’s groundbreaking 2004 novel Running Hot. - Author: Lee Child - Tags: Podcast For the eighth episode of the Working Class Library, the globally bestselling author Lee Child joins hosts Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about Dreda Say Mitchell’s groundbreaking 2004 novel [Running Hot](https://www.waterstones.com/book/running-hot/dreda-say-mitchell/9781904559092?ref=thebeemagazine.com). *Running Hot* was not conceived as a crime novel, but it established Mitchell as a significant voice in contemporary urban crime fiction. Set in pre-gentrification Hackney in east London, the novel’s story centres on Elijah “Schoolboy” Ray Campbell, a petty criminal and former jailbird desperate to leave his past behind and start a fresh life as a chef in Devon. His dreams of escape are derailed when he finds a mobile phone near a dead body in the street, and his subsequent adventures take us into the dark heart of contemporary London. In 2005, the novel was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for best first-time crime novel, making Mitchell the first Black British author to win the prestigious honour. “Having grown up on an estate and seen some of the most intelligent men I knew end up treading the path of crime,” she said, she wanted to “figure out how I ended up at university and becoming a teacher while many of the young men I grew up with had ended up in prison”. However, she also “wanted the novel to have a certain type of ending because I was tired of reading stories or watching TV where the Black character ends up dead by the end”. Ultimately, her goal was simply to tell something of what life was like growing up in working-class east London because “very often I feel that working-class lives are not explored; we don’t really want to talk about them”. It was this use of crime as a way of talking about issues in modern urban society that drew Lee Child, himself a working-class man from Birmingham, to the book. When we asked him to choose a novel for this crime special, he didn’t hesitate in naming this one. Together with Richard and Claire, he considers why it is so important in 21st-century British crime writing – and how Mitchell so cleverly puts the capital on the page. Finally, we ask if it deserves a place on the shelves of our imaginary library of great books by and about working-class people. ### Books and authors mentioned: Margaret Atwood – [The Handmaid’s Tale](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781784873189?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Enid Blyton – [The Famous Five series](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781444910582?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Lee Child – [Killing Floor](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780553826166?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Philip Larkin – [High Windows](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571260140?ref=thebeemagazine.com) John D. MacDonald – [The Deep Blue Good-by](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781448170227?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Denise Mina – [The Good Liar](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781529931785?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Dorothy L. Sayers – [Murder Must Advertise](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781473621381?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Robert Tressell – [The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781840226829?ref=thebeemagazine.com) [A Guide to Running Hot by Dreda Say MitchellDreda Say Mitchell was told that “someone like her” would never be accepted as a writer. But in 2004 her east London-set novel Running Hot became a hit – and changed British crime fiction.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/56/fc56b9ab-b4c1-4291-8dc6-e491452ed510/content/images/icon/favicon-9e366dd1-29a6-46d9-ae84-7add17a9bed9.png)The BeeSiobhan McShane![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/56/fc56b9ab-b4c1-4291-8dc6-e491452ed510/content/images/thumbnail/dreda-say-mitchell-85dd5408-108b-4e6c-adc3-5b0cfe70b8f3.jpg)](https://thebeemagazine.com/a-guide-to-running-hot-by-dreda-say-mitchell/) --- [Tip the Bee](https://thebeemagazine.com/#/portal/support) All donations go towards supporting the Bee’s mission to nurture, publish promote and pay for the best new working-class writing.