Val McDermid | |
|---|---|
 McDermid in 2007 | |
| Born | 4 June 1955 Kirkcaldy, Scotland |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | St Hilda's College, Oxford |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Spouse | Jo Sharp (m. 2016) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Valarie McDermid, FRSE , FRSL (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill, in a grim sub-genre known as Tartan Noir.
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 occurred in 1987. [3]
McDermid was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 2000, and won the CWA Diamond Dagger for her lifetime contribution to crime writing in the English language in 2010. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sunderland in 2011. [4] She is co-founder of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, part of the Harrogate International Festivals. In 2016 she captained a team of St Hilda's alumnæ to win the Christmas University Challenge . [5] In 2017, McDermid was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, [6] as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [7]
McDermid's works fall into five series: Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, Inspector Karen Pirie, and Allie Burns. Her characters include a journalist, Lindsay Gordon; a private investigator, Kate Brannigan; a clinical psychologist, Tony Hill; DCI Karen Pirie working out of Fife, Scotland; and Allie Burns, an investigative reporter whose stories start in 1979 with a planned set of sequels a decade apart. The Mermaids Singing, the first book in the Hill/Jordan series, won the Crime Writers' Association Gold 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.
McDermid has stated that Jacko Vance, a TV celebrity with a secret lust for torture, murder and under-age girls, who was featured in the Wire in the Blood and two later books, is based on her direct personal experience of interviewing Jimmy Savile. [8] In 2010, McDermid received the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association for "outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing". [9]
McDermid considers her work to be part of the "Tartan Noir" Scottish crime fiction genre. [10] In addition to writing novels, McDermid contributes to several British newspapers and often broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland. [11] Her novels, in particular the Tony Hill series, are known for their graphic depictions of violence and torture.
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", stating that the term was copyrighted by the Christie estate. [12]
McDermid was a lifelong fan of Raith Rovers football club, her father having worked as a scout for the club. [11] [13] [14] In 2010, she sponsored the McDermid Stand at Stark's Park, the club's ground in Kirkcaldy, in honour of her father. [14]
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. [15]
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. [16] [17] 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. [18] [19]
On 6 December 2012 a woman poured ink over McDermid during an event at the University of Sunderland. [20] McDermid was signing books, and a woman asked her to autograph a Top of the Pops annual which contained a picture of the disgraced late TV presenter Jimmy Savile. After McDermid reluctantly agreed the woman threw ink at her and ran out of the room. [21] McDermid said the incident would not stop her from doing signings. [22] [23]
Northumbria Police arrested Sandra Botham, a 64-year-old woman from the Hendon area of Sunderland, on suspicion of assault. [23] [24] Botham was convicted of common assault on 10 July 2013, [25] received a 12-month community order with supervision and was made to pay £50 compensation and a £60 victim surcharge. [26] She was also given a restraining order forbidding her from contacting McDermid for an undefined period of time. [27] The Northern Echo reported that Botham's actions were motivated by McDermid's 1994 non-fiction book A Suitable Job for a Woman, as Botham said the book contained a passage that besmirched her and her family. [28]
McDermid formerly lived in both Stockport and near Alnmouth in Northumberland [29] with three cats [30] and a border terrier dog. Since early 2014 she has lived in Stockport and Edinburgh. [31] [32]
In 2016, McDermid captained a team of crime writer challengers on the TV quiz Eggheads , beating the Eggheads and winning £14,000.
In 2010, she was living between Northumberland and Manchester with publisher Kelly Smith, [33] 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, a professor of geography at the University of Glasgow. [34] [35]
McDermid is a radical feminist and socialist. [36] [29] She has incorporated feminism into some of her novels. [37]
Elizabeth MacKintosh, known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. Her novel The Daughter of Time, a detective work investigating the death of the Princes in the Tower, was chosen by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run.
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.
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Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League.
Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish novelist whose novels, generally in a crime or police procedural frame, mix comedy, politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author. His debut novel was Quite Ugly One Morning; subsequent works have included All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye (2005), Black Widow (2016) and Bedlam (2013), which was written in parallel with the development of a first-person shooter videogame, also called Bedlam. He also writes historical fiction with his wife, Dr Marisa Haetzman, under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry.
Denise Mina is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia "Paddy" Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also written for comic books, including 13 issues of Hellblazer.
The Silkworm is a 2014 crime fiction novel written by J. K. Rowling, and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is the second novel in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels and was followed by Career of Evil in 2015, Lethal White in 2018,Troubled Blood in 2020 and The Ink Black Heart in 2022.
David John Hugh Goodwillie is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Glasgow United.
Tartan Noir is a form of crime fiction particular to Scotland and Scottish writers. William McIlvanney, who wrote three crime novels, the first being Laidlaw in 1977, is considered the father of the genre.
Shelley Silas is a British playwright of Sephardi Jewish heritage. She grew up in Golders Green, North London. She is married to Stella Duffy, writer, campaigner, co-director of Fun Palaces.
Jill McGown was a British writer of mystery novels. She was best known for her mystery series featuring Inspector Lloyd and Judy Hill, one of which was made into a television drama in 2001 starring Philip Glenister and Michelle Collins. McGown wrote her first mystery novel after being laid off from the British Steel Corporation in 1980. She is sometimes credited as Elizabeth Chaplin.
The Torment of Others is a crime novel by Scottish author Val McDermid, and is the fourth entry in her popular Carol Jordan and Dr. Tony Hill series, which has been successfully adapted into the television series Wire in the Blood. The novel was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, and won the 2006 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. As with her other novels in the Tony Hill series, the title is an extract from a poem by T. S. Eliot.
The Mermaids Singing (1995) is a crime novel by Scottish author Val McDermid. The first featuring her recurring protagonist, Dr. Tony Hill, it was adapted into the pilot episode of ITV1's television series based on McDermid's work, Wire in the Blood, starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris.
Sara Sheridan is a Scottish activist and writer who works in a variety of genres, though predominantly in historical fiction. She is the creator of the Mirabelle Bevan mysteries.
The 2014–15 season was Raith Rovers' sixth consecutive season in the second tier of Scottish football having been promoted from the Scottish Second Division at the end of the 2008–09 season. Raith Rovers also competed in the Challenge Cup, League Cup and the Scottish Cup.
Out of Bounds is a 2016 crime drama novel by Scottish crime writer Val McDermid. The novel is set during 2016 but because the main detective is in the Historic Case Unit (HCU) the crimes being investigated were actually committed in 1994 and 1996.
Rosie Garland FRSL is a British novelist, poet and singer with post-punk band The March Violets. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Mary Paulson-Ellis is a Scottish writer and novelist. She writes across the genres of literary, crime and historical fiction. Her work has appeared in the Guardian and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her books have received a number of awards. Paulson-Ellis’ first novel, The Other Mrs Walker (2016) became a Times bestseller and was named Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year in 2017.
Karen Pirie is a British crime drama television series based on the Inspector Karen Pirie series of novels by Val McDermid. The first series began on ITV on 25 September 2022 and concluded on 9 October 2022. A second series has been commissioned.
