Val McDermid

Val McDermid
Born	(1955-06-04) 4 Juin 1955 Kirkcaudy, Fife, Scotland
Naitionality	Scots
Genre	Crime fiction
Wabsteid
www.valmcdermid.com

Val McDermid FRSE, FRSL (born the 4 Juin 1955) is a Scots crime writer, best kent fur her suspense novelles featurin Dr. Tony Hill.

Biographie

McDermid wis born intae a wirkin-cless family in Fife. She studied Inglis at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, whaur she wis the furst scholart tae come frae a Scots state schuil.

Efter graduatin she becam a jurnalist an began her leeterar career as a dramatist. She furthset her furst novelle, Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery in 1987.

She wis gien an honorary doctorate frae the Varsity o Sunderland in 2011. She cofoondit the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival an the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, pairt o the Harrogate International Festivals. In 2016 she led a team o St. Hilda's alumnae tae win the Christmas University Challenge.

In 2017, McDermid wis electit as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh an a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature forby.

As o 2009, she sponsors the McDermid Stand in Stark's Pairk, the groonds o Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy. This wis tae honour her faither that wis a scoot fur the club. A year efterhaund, she jynt the bourd o the club, an in 2014 her wabsteid became the team's sark sponsor.

Wirk

McDermid's scrievins faas intae fower series: Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan, Tony Hill an Carol Jordan, an Inspector Karen Pirie. The Mermaids Singing, the furst beuk o the Hill/Jordan series, wan the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger awaird fur Best Crime Novel of the Year. The Hill/Jordan series haes been adaptit intae a telly series, kent as Wire in the Blood. Her novelles, particularly the Tony Hill beuks, is kenned fur thair graphic depictions o violence an tortur.

McDermid haes sayed Jacko Vance, a TV celebrity wi a saicret cravin fur tortur, murther an unnerage quines, that appeart in Wire in the Blood an twa later beuks, is based on her ain experience o spierin Jimmy Saville.

McDermid considers her wirk tae be pairt o the tartain noir subgenre o Scots crime fiction. As weel as scrievin novelles, McDermid contributes tae a wheen o British newspapers an aften braidcasts on BBC Radio 4 an BBC Radio Scotland.

Ink atteck

On 6 December 2012 a wumman flang ink ower McDermid durin a event at the Varsity o Sunderland. McDermid wis pittin her name tae beuks, an a wumman askit her tae pit her name tae a Top of the Pops annual wi Jimmy Saville on the cover. Tho laith, McDermid pit her name tae the annual, efter that the wumman pulled oot a bottle o ink an flang it at her afore rinnin frae the room. Nanetheless, McDermid vowed tae haud gaun wi her witterins.

Sandra Botham, a 64-year-auld wumman frae the Hedon area o Sunderland, wis arreistit on suspicion o assaut. Botham wis chairged wi common assaut on the 10 Julie 2013, gat a 12-month community sentence wi owerins an wis gart pey £50 assythment an a £60 victim surchairge. She wis gien a restrainin order baurin her frae contactin McDermid fur a undefined time period. The Northern Echo reportit that Botham actit acause o McDermid's 1994 non-fiction book, A Suitable Job for a Woman, that Botham claimed mirkit her an her faimily.

Personal life

In 2010 McDermid, that is gay, wis bidin atween Northumberland an Manchester wi furthsetter Kelly Smith, that she haed entered a civil pairtnership wi in 2006. She foregane bade in Stockport an Northumberland wi three cats and a border terrier dug. Syne early 2014 she haes bade in Stockport and Edinburgh.

On 23 October 2016, McDermid waddit Jo Sharp, a professor o geographie at the Varsity o Glesga an McDermid's pairtner o twa year.

In 2016, McDermid led a team o crime writers on quiz shaw Eggheads, beatin the Eggheads an winnin £14,000.

McDermid is a radical feminist an socialist. She haes pitten feminism intae some o her novelles.

Bibliographie

Lindsay Gordon series

• Report for Murder (1987)
• Common Murder (1989)
• Final Edition (1991) US Titles: Open and Shut, Deadline for Murder
• Union Jack (1993), US Title: Conferences Are Murder
• Booked for Murder (1996)
• Hostage to Murder (2003)

Kate Brannigan series

• Dead Beat (1992)
• Kick Back (1993)
• Crack Down (1994)
• Clean Break (1995)
• Blue Genes (1996)
• Star Struck (1998) (awairded Grand Prix des Romans d’Aventure in 1998)

Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series

• The Mermaids Singing (1995) (Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year in 1995)
• The Wire in the Blood (1997)
• The Last Temptation (2002)
• The Torment of Others (2004)
• Beneath the Bleeding (2007)
• Fever of the Bone (2009)
• The Retribution (2011)
• Cross and Burn (2013)
• Splinter the Silence (2015)
• Insidious Intent (2017)
• How the Dead Speak (2019)

Inspector Karen Pirie series

• The Distant Echo (2003)
• A Darker Domain (2008)
• The Skeleton Road (2014)
• Out of Bounds (2016)
• Broken Ground (2018)
• Still Life (2020)

The Austen Project

• Northanger Abbey (2014)

Ither books

• The Writing on the Wall (1997); short stories, limited edition o 200 copies
• A Place of Execution (1999)
• Killing the Shadows (2000)
• Stranded (2005); short stories
• Cleanskin (2006)
• The Grave Tattoo (2006)
• Trick of the Dark (2010) dedicated tae Mary Bennett (1913-2003) & Kathy Vaughan Wilkes (1946-2003)
• The Vanishing Point (2012)

Bairns's buiks

• My Granny is a Pirate (2012)
• The High Heid Yin's New Claes furthsetten in The Itchy Coo Book o Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales in Scots (2020)

Non-fiction

• A Suitable Job for a Woman (1995)
• Bodies of Evidence (2014)
• Forensics – The Anatomy of Crime (2014)
• Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime (2015)