Valarie McDermid (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill and his collaborators in the police department. Her work is considered to be part of a sub-genre known as Tartan Noir. This series was adapted for television, running from 2002 to 2008, and known as Wire in the Blood. The television series Karen Pirie (2022–present), was adapted from her books featuring the character of the same name.
McDermid comes from a working-class family in Fife. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford,[1] where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school.[2]
After graduation, she became a journalist and began her literary career as a dramatist. Her first success as a novelist, Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery, was published in 1987.[3]
McDermid was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 2000. In 2010 she won the CWA Diamond Dagger for her lifetime contribution to crime writing in the English language. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sunderland in 2011.[4]
McDermid was a lifelong fan of Raith Rovers football club, her father having worked as a scout for the club.[9][10][11] In 2010, she sponsored the McDermid Stand at Stark's Park, the club's ground in Kirkcaldy, in honour of her father.[11]
A year after sponsoring the stand, she became a board member of the club, and starting in 2014 her website became Raith's shirt sponsor.[12]
In February 2022, McDermid said she would be withdrawing her support and sponsorship from Raith Rovers after the club signed striker David Goodwillie, who had been ruled to have raped a woman and made to pay damages in a civil case in 2017.[13][14] Following the signing of Goodwillie, Raith Rovers women's team severed ties with the main club and renamed themselves McDermid Ladies, after the writer. McDermid moved her sponsorship to the new ladies' team.[15][16]
Ink attack
On 6 December 2012 a woman poured ink over McDermid during a book signing event at the University of Sunderland.[17][18][19][20] Sandra Botham, a 64-year-old woman from Sunderland was convicted of common assault, received a 12-month community order with supervision and was made to pay £50 compensation and a £60 victim surcharge.[20][21][22][23][24][25]
Personal life
McDermid lives in Fife and Edinburgh.[26] In 2010, she was living between Northumberland and Manchester with publisher Kelly Smith,[27] with whom she had entered into a civil partnership in 2006.[2]
On 23 October 2016 McDermid married her partner of two years, Jo Sharp, at the time a Professor of Geography at the University of Glasgow.[28][29] Sharp has been Geographer Royal for Scotland since 2022.[3]
Tony Hill (clinical psychologist) and DCI Carol Jordan
DCI Karen Pirie
Allie Burns (investigative reporter)
The Mermaids Singing, the first book in the Hill/Jordan series by Val McDermid, won the Crime Writers' AssociationGold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. The Hill/Jordan series has been adapted for television under the name Wire in the Blood, starring Robson Green and running from 2002 to 2008. Another series adapted from McDermid's books is the eponymous Karen Pirie.
McDermid has said that her character of Jacko Vance, a TV celebrity with a secret lust for torture, murder and under-age girls, who she featured in Wire in the Blood and two later books, is based on her direct personal experience of interviewing Jimmy Savile.[33]
In addition to writing novels, McDermid contributes to several British newspapers and often broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland.[9] Her novels, in particular the Tony Hill series, are known for their graphic depictions of violence and torture.
In 2010, McDermid received the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association for "outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing".[34]
McDermid considers her work to be part of the "Tartan Noir" Scottish crime fiction genre.[35]
In August 2022 McDermid reported that the estate of Agatha Christie had threatened her publishers with legal action if they referred to McDermid as "the Queen of Crime". They said that the term was copyrighted by the Christie estate.[36]
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