David Peace
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David Peace is a British author born in Ossett, West Yorkshire in 1967.
His works include the "Red-Riding Quartet" (set against a backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, and GB84, set against the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). He now lives in Tokyo, Japan, with his family.
The Red-Riding Quartet features several recurring characters such as journalists Eddie Dunford and Jack Whitehead, senior Police officer George Oldman, and rent boy BJ.
His most recent novel, "The Damned Utd.", is another fact-based fictional piece, based on Brian Clough's 44-day spell as manager of Leeds United football team. He described it on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme as an "occult history of Leeds United". When Peace uses the word 'occult' he has explained in the past that he means the original definition of the word, ie "secret".
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[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Red Riding Quartet
"Nineteen Seventy Four" (Serpent's Tail,1999) - The first novel in the quartet deals with the murder and mutilation of several missing young girls. Crime journalist Eddie Dunford discovers what he believes is a link between the murders and corruption within the West Yorkshire Police Force.
"Nineteen Seventy Seven" (Serpent's Tail,2000) - Three years after the chilling end of Nineteen Seventy Four, the continuing murder of prostitutes is making the headlines. The stories of two characters from the previous novel intertwine as Jack Whitehead of the Yorkshire Post and policeman Bob Fraser get involved in something that threatens their very existence.
"Nineteen Eighty" (Serpent's Tail,2001) - With the Ripper seemingly unstoppable, the Home Office set up a special team to bring him to justice. However as Peter Hunter heads up the team, he starts to find out things he wishes he hadn't.
"Nineteen Eighty Three" (Serpent's Tail,2002) - Hazel Atkins, ten years old, goes missing in Morley. The circumstances, down to her primary school are identical to those of the abduction of Clare Kemplay in December 1974. Things become more complicated when Jimmy Ashworth, the boy who found Kemplay's body, hangs himself in police custody under suspicion of Atkins' abduction.
[edit] GB84
Published in 2004, GB84 presents the 1984 miner's strike in several conflicting and overlapping narratives. The stories of two of the strikers, written and printed in a kind of diary-of-consciousness form, are used to frame the rapidly alternating accounts of Terry Winters, the chief executive officer of the NUM; Neil Fontaine, a spook who is acting as chauffeur to Stephen Sweet, a millionaire strike-breaking businessman; and Dave Johnson, aka The Mechanic, who carries out the dirty work of the security services and the government. The characters of Winters and Sweet are evidently inspired by Roger Windsor and David Hart.
Stephen Sweet is referred to as "the Jew" for the vast majority of the book; in a B.B.C. radio 4 interview, Peace said that the publisher was very wary of this decision, but it was employed to emphasise the divisions amongst the right during the strike. Scargill appears close-up as The President. The narrative allows Thatcher to appear only at a distance - which mirrors her government's official line of non-involvement in the dispute.
[edit] The Damned Utd (Faber,2006)
The Damned Utd (Faber,2006), described as an "English Fairytale" is a fictionalised account of Brian Clough's brief (44 day) tenure as manager of Leeds United together with the story of how he got there - told through his own eyes. It addresses the decline of the great Leeds United team and highlights the corruption of football, and its corroding effects. It is a peculiar form of contemporary tragedy played out on the stage of football.
[edit] Tokyo Trilogy
Tokyo Year Zero (published September, 2007)
