Minette Walters | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 26 September 1949 Bishop's Stortford, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, writer |
| Genre | Crime, suspense |
Minette Caroline Mary Walters DL [1] (born 26 September 1949) is an English crime writer.
Minette Walters | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 26 September 1949 Bishop's Stortford, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, writer |
| Genre | Crime, suspense |
Minette Caroline Mary Walters DL [1] (born 26 September 1949) is an English crime writer.
Walters was born in Bishop's Stortford in 1949 to Samuel Jebb and Colleen Jebb. As her father was a serving army officer, the first 10 years of Walters's life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England. Her father died from kidney failure in 1960. While raising Walters and her two brothers, Colleen Jebb painted miniatures from photographs to supplement the family's income. [2] Walters spent a year at the Abbey School in Reading, Berkshire, before winning a Foundation Scholarship at the Godolphin boarding school in Salisbury.
During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Walters volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys' home in Jerusalem. She graduated from Trevelyan College, Durham in 1971 with a BA in French. Minette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. They have two sons, Roland and Philip.
Walters joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in 1972 and became an editor of Woman's Weekly Library the following year. She supplemented her salary by writing romantic novelettes, short stories, and serials in her spare time. The romantic novelettes were written in approximately two weeks and published under a pseudonym that remains a secret. [2] Walters turned freelance in 1977 but continued to write for magazines to cover her bills.
Her first full-length novel, The Ice House , was published in 1992. It took two and a half years to write and was rejected by numerous publishing houses until Maria Rejt, Macmillan Publishers, bought it for £1250. Within four months, it had won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey award for best first novel [3] and had been snapped up by 11 foreign publishers. Walters was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. Walters's second novel, The Sculptress, which was inspired in part by an encounter Walters had as a volunteer prison visitor, [2] won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. [4] Walters's third novel, The Scold's Bridle , then won the CWA Gold Dagger, giving her a unique treble.
Walters's themes include isolation, family dysfunction, rejection, marginalisation, justice and revenge. Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the 'reality' of what she is writing about. With no series character tying her to particular people, places or times, she moves freely around settings – a sink estate ( Acid Row ), a Dorset village ( Fox Evil ), a suburb of London ( The Shape of Snakes ) – although every setting is 'claustrophobic' to encourage the characters 'to turn on each other'.
Walters describes herself as an exploratory writer who never uses a plot scheme, begins with simple premises, has no idea 'whodunit' until halfway through a story, but who remains excited about each novel because she, along with her reader, wants to know what happens next.
As part of the British project 'Quick Reads', to encourage literacy amongst adults with reading difficulties, Walters wrote a 20,000-word novella called Chickenfeed . In competition with works by other best-selling authors, such as Ruth Rendell, Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope, Chickenfeed has won two awards as the best novella in the 'Quick Reads' genre. It has also been translated into several languages.
In September 2007, Walters released her fourteenth book, The Chameleon's Shadow , in the UK.
On 3–7 March 2008, BBC2 aired Murder Most Famous, [5] a five-part TV talent contest series, in which Walters tutors and judges six competing celebrity writers, with the winner having his or her crime fiction novel published by Pan Macmillan on World Book Day 2009. The contestants were Brendan Cole, Sherrie Hewson, Kelvin MacKenzie, Matt Allwright, Angela Griffin and Diarmuid Gavin. The series was won by the actress Sherrie Hewson, whose debut novel The Tannery was published in March 2009.
After a pause of 10 years in which she wrote two novellas, Walters has decided to write historical novels. [6] The first of these novels is The Last Hours, set during the Black Death, followed by a sequel, The Turn of Midnight. [7]
In 2019 Walters was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset. [8]
In addition to full-length novels, Walters has written feature articles for magazines and the broadsheets, some short stories including "English Autumn, American Fall", and five novellas, including The Tinder Box (1999) and Chickenfeed (2006). The latter was published for World Book Day 2006 as part of the 'Quick Reads' initiative. Minette has written another entry in the Quick Reads series entitled A Dreadful Murder for World Book Day 2013. The novella is based on the 1908 murder of Caroline Luard. [14]
Walters' first five books were adapted for television by the BBC and her eighth book, Acid Row , is currently[ when? ] under option with Company Pictures.[ citation needed ]
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park,, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.
Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer. She has written 24 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.
The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. The Association also promotes crime writing of fiction and non-fiction by holding annual competitions, publicising literary festivals and establishing links with libraries, booksellers and other writer organisations, both in the UK such as the Society of Authors, and overseas. The CWA enables members to network at its annual conference and through its regional chapters as well as through dedicated social media channels and private website. Members' events and general news items are published on the CWA website, which also features Find An Author, where CWA members are listed and information provided about themselves, their books and their awards.
Morag Joss is a British writer. She became a writer in 1996 after an early career in arts and museum management.
The Sculptress (1993) is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. She won an Edgar and a Macavity Award for the book. The novel was adapted as a BBC-TV series in 1996, starring Pauline Quirke as Olive Martin.
Stephen Booth is an English crime-writer. He is the author of the Derbyshire-set Cooper and Fry series.
The Scold's Bridle (1994) is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. The book, Walters' third, won a CWA Gold Dagger.
Chickenfeed (2006) is a crime novella by English writer Minette Walters, published as part of the "Quick Reads", designed to promote literacy through short, simply written and fast moving stories.
Margaret Murphy is a British crime writer.
The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association for best thriller of the year. The award is sponsored by the estate of Ian Fleming.
Ann Cleeves is a British mystery crime writer. She wrote the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez, and Matthew Venn series, all three of which have been adapted into TV shows. In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Raven Black, the first novel in the Jimmy Perez series.
Peter J. James is a British writer of crime. He was born in Brighton, the son of Cornelia James, the former glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II.
Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction, best known for his 2020 award-winning thriller, The Chain, and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. He is a winner of the Edgar Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Macavity Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award, the Audie Award, the Anthony Award and the International Thriller Writers Award. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.
The False Inspector Dew is a humorous crime novel by Peter Lovesey. It won the Gold Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association in 1982 and has featured on many "Best of" lists since.
The CWA New Blood Dagger is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association (CWA) for first books by previously unpublished writers. It is given in memory of CWA founder John Creasey and was previously known as The John Creasey Memorial Award. Publisher Chivers Press was the sponsor from the award's introduction in 1973 to 2002. BBC Audiobooks was the sponsor in 2003.
Shatter is a 2008 psychological thriller novel written by the Australian author Michael Robotham.
Bouchercon is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher; also the inspiration for the Anthony Awards, which have been issued at the convention since 1986. This page details Bouchercon XXV and the 9th Anthony Awards ceremony.
Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He is the author of the Slough House series, early novels of which have been adapted for the Slow Horses television series. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger award for Dead Lions.
The CWA Historical Dagger is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association to the author of the best historical crime novel of the year. Established in 1999, it is presented to a novel "with a crime theme and a historical background of any period up to 35 years before the current year".
– "Books" alone as of October 2018| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |