Sophia Bennett

Last updated

Sophia Bennett (born 1966) is a British crime novelist and children's writer. She was first published at the age of 42, and her novels have been published in more than 20 languages. [1]

Contents

Writing as SJ Bennett, she published the first in a series of adult mysteries featuring Queen Elizabeth II as a secret amateur detective, assisted by a fictional assistant private secretary of Nigerian heritage, Captain Rozie Oshodi. [2] Bennett was given a pre-emptive five-book deal by Bonnier Books UK, [3] with further multi-book deals in the US, Italy, France and Germany, brokered by Charlie Campbell of Greyhound Literary agents. The Windsor Knot formed part of the resurgence of ‘cosy crime’ in 2020, referring to mystery novels without significant on-the-page sex and violence. [4] [5] [6] It has sold 250,000 copies in the UK.

Bennett is the author of several books for young adults. Her children’s novels have also been published around the world. [7] She is the winner of the Times/Chicken House competition in 2009 [8] for her debut novel, Threads, and the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year 2017 for Love Song. [9] . In 2019 she published The Bigger Picture, an illustrated guide for teens on contemporary and historical women artists with Tate Publishing. [10]

Biography

Bennett was born in Yorkshire and educated at London University. She has a PhD in Modern Italian Literature from Cambridge University. [11] She ‘has taught creative writing as a visiting lecturer for young adults at City Lit and City University in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. [12]

She created a podcast for aspiring writers called Prepublished, in which she spoke to bestselling and prizewinning authors including Sophie Hannah, Jenny Colgan, Justine Picardie, Robert Muchamore, Anthony McGowan and Phil Earle about their journey to publication and their advice for fellow authors. [13]

Bibliography

Novels

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agatha Christie</span> English mystery and detective writer (1890–1976)

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephine Tey</span> Scottish author (1896–1952)

Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth MacKintosh, a Scottish author. Her novel The Daughter of Time was a detective work investigating the role of Richard III of England in the death of the Princes in the Tower, and named as the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellery Queen</span> Writer of detective fiction (joint pseudonym)

Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murder mysteries. Dannay and Lee wrote most of the novels and short story collections in which Ellery Queen appears as a character, and these books were among the most popular American mysteries published between 1929 and 1971. Under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, they also edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime. Dannay founded, and for many years edited, the crime fiction magazine Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961 onwards, Dannay and Lee commissioned other authors to write thrillers using the pseudonym Ellery Queen, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; some such novels were juvenile and were credited to Ellery Queen Jr. They also wrote four mysteries under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross, which featured the detective Drury Lane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. D. James</span> English crime writer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Alice Burford</span> English author (1906-1993)

Eleanor Alice Hibbert was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen name: Jean Plaidy for fictionalized history of European royalty, Victoria Holt for gothic romances, and Philippa Carr for a multi-generational family saga. She also wrote light romances, crime novels, murder mysteries and thrillers under pseudonyms Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival, and Ellalice Tate.

Genre fiction, also known as formula fiction or popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Redhill</span> Canadian poet, playwright and novelist

Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist. He also writes under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe.

Barbara Louise Mertz was an American author who wrote under her own name as well as under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. In 1952, she received a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. She was best known for her mystery and suspense novels, including the Amelia Peabody book series.

Katherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."

Jan Burke is an American author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Agatha for Best Short Story, the Macavity, and Ellery Queen Readers Award.

Maxim Jakubowski is a crime, erotic, science fiction and rock music writer and critic.

Kate Summerscale is an English writer and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tatiana Garmash-Roffe</span>

Tatiana Garmash-Roffe born November 4, 1959 in Moscow, Russia, is an author of detective stories, who also published under the pseudonym "Tatiana Svetlova".

Beth Bernobich is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She also goes by the pen name Claire O'Dell. She was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1959. Her first novel, Passion Play was published by Tor Books in October 2010, and won the Romantic Times 2010 Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy. Her novel, A Study in Honor was published by Harper Voyager in July 2018 and won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery.

Evelyn Rose Strange "Evie" Wyld is an Anglo-Australian author. Her first novel, After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 2009, and her second novel, All the Birds, Singing, won the Encore Award in 2013 and the Miles Franklin Award in 2014. Her third novel, The Bass Rock, won the Stella Prize in 2021.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave FRSL is a British poet, playwright and novelist. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Janice Law, also known as Janice Law Trecker, is an American mystery novelist and short story writer. She has written for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Midwest Quarterly, The American Scholar, and the American Quarterly. She is best known for her Anna Peters series of novels, which was one of the first to feature a female detective.

<i>Beetle Boy</i> 2016 middle grade novel by M. G. Leonard

Beetle Boy is a 2016 middle grade novel written by M. G. Leonard, illustrated by Júlia Sardà, and published by The Chicken House and Scholastic.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an American author most known for her novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & the Six, One True Loves,Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto is Back.

<i>The Mystery of Henri Pick</i> 2019 film

The Mystery of Henri Pick is a 2019 French comedy film directed by Rémi Bezançon.

References

  1. ↑ "2022: A round-up of the year at Greyhound from Charlie Campbell". December 20, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Queen Elizabeth II, Amateur Detective". The New York Times . March 5, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Zaffre Pre-Empts Queen Elizabeth II Mystery Series". March 5, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Top Cosy Crime". October 22, 2023.
  5. ↑ Karl Anderson, Eric (October 26, 2022). "50 Books To Read If You're An Armchair Detective".
  6. ↑ Journal, Library (August 1, 2023). "Murder Most Royal".
  7. ↑ Books, Chicken House. "Chicken House Books website". www.chickenhousebooks.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  8. 1 2 "Interview: Sophia Bennett, the winner of the 2009 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition" . Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  9. 1 2 "Sophia Bennett's Love Song wins The Goldsboro Books Romantic Novel of the Year 2017 | News | The Romantic Novelists' Association". www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  10. ↑ "The Bigger Picture: Women Who Changed the Art World".
  11. ↑ "Childrens Fiction Workshop". www.city.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  12. ↑ "The Royal Literary Fund". The Royal Literary Fund. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  13. ↑ "Prepublished Episodes".
  14. ↑ "Sophia Bennett - The Booktrust Best Book Awards". The Booktrust Best Book Awards. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  15. ↑ "Schoolchildren choose the top stories of the year". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
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.