She is best known for a series of novels featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley. The 21st book in the series was published in January 2022. The first 11 were adapted for television by the BBC as earlier episodes of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001). A later, separate four-part series entitled Lynley to be shown on BBC One began filming in 2024, starring Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay.[2][3]
Early life
Elizabeth George was born in Warren, Ohio, the second child of Anne (née Rivelle) and Robert Edwin George. She has an older brother, author Robert Rivelle George. Her mother was a nurse, and her father a manager for a conveyor company.[1] The family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was 18 months old.[4] She has described the family as "quite poor" and with little formal education, but recounts that her mother gave her an old Remington typewriter, and she began writing at the age of 7.[5] She says: "I have always felt compelled to write. When I began reading the Little Golden Books as a 7-year-old, I knew that I wanted to write one, too. I wrote tiny stories like that in the beginning."[6] She names Anne of Green Gables as one of the literary influences of her childhood.[7]
She received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Cal State University Fullerton in 2004[11] and was awarded an honorary Masters in Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in 2010.[12]
Her first published novel, A Great Deliverance (1988), introduces the upper-class Detective InspectorThomas Lynley of Scotland Yard (in private life, the Earl of Asherton) and his working-class partner Detective SergeantBarbara Havers.[13] When asked in interview why she chose to create a titled hero, she spoke of the freedom of being a debut novelist, saying: "I could do anything, you see, because when I started I never thought it would be published."[5]
Since 1988 George has published 20 more Inspector Lynley mysteries, four young adult novels in the Whidbey Island series, three collections of short stories and two self-help books for writers. She names the author John Fowles as her main literary influence.[6]
She established the Elizabeth George Foundation, a grant for unpublished and emerging writers, in 1997.[14]
George has taught creative writing seminars in the US, Canada and the UK.[8][15]
Personal life
George married Ira Jay Toibin in 1971 and they divorced in 1995.[10] George is currently married to retired firefighter Tom McCabe.[16] She has spoken of her struggle with depression,[17][6] saying: "Happiness is an inside job - it takes a long time to learn that."[5] She moved from Huntington Beach, California[18] to Whidbey Island, Washington.[16][19]
Reception
George has spoken of being a great Anglophile since her first visit to Britain in 1966, and of watching UK TV shows and reading books by UK novelists to "pick up the syntax of British speech."[16] She has been praised for the authenticity of her portrayal of "the nuances, class system, language, humour and habits of the British,"[16] although not all critics have been in agreement. The Times crime critic Marcel Berlins has described her as: "an exasperating writer, (who) insists on perpetuating a police procedure that hasn’t existed for decades, is not good on social mores and her dialogue often reveals a tin ear."[5] Critics have commented adversely on the length and complexity of her novels[20] whilst acknowledging the satisfying nature of the read.[21]
↑ George, Elizabeth. "Chapter 2". A Great Deliverance. As if a grammar school background and a working-class accent were social diseases that might infect him
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
