Jake Arnott
Jake Arnott (born 1961) is a British novelist, author of The Long Firm and other novels. Most of his works are crime novels, and include homosexual characters. In 2005 Arnott was ranked one of Britain's 100 most influential gay and lesbian people;[1] but since 2005 he has been in a heterosexual relationship with the formerly lesbian writer and novelist, Stephanie Theobald.
Life
Arnott was born in Buckinghamshire. Having left Aylesbury Grammar School at 17, he drifted through various jobs including a labourer, mortuary technician, artist's model and theatrical agency assistant - he finally became an actor with the Red Ladder Company in Leeds and appeared as a mummy in the film The Mummy. He came out as bisexual in his twenties.[2] His sister, Deborah Arnott, is Chief Executive of the campaigning charity Action on Smoking and Health, ASH.
Works
Arnott's hardboiled crime novels are similar to those of Nicholas Blincoe, Thomas Kelly and David Peace.
- The Long Firm (1999) tells of Harry Starks, a homosexual East End gangster in the 1960s based on the Kray twins. A notable feature is that the story is told from five different points of view. It was later serialised on BBC television starring Derek Jacobi, Phil Daniels and Mark Strong, and broadcast in July 2004.
- He Kills Coppers (2001) tells of a criminal on the run, based on real life cop killer Harry Roberts, the tale starting in 1966, the year of England's World Cup triumph, through to the Margaret Thatcher era, the Greenham Common protests of the 1980s and the Poll Tax Riots. It was later adapted for television, appearing on ITV1 in the UK in March and April 2008.
- truecrime (2003) takes up the story of a gangster found dead at Starks' Spanish villa at the end of The Long Firm. The dead man's daughter wants to flush out Harry Starks, whom she suspects of the murder (she is an actress and uses the making of a film about old time British gangsters as a means of tempting his appearance).
- Johnny Come Home (2006) shifts from a focus on the criminal underworld to the early 1970s with a plot involving The Angry Brigade and a glam rock star inspired by Gary Glitter. Johnny Come Home had been withdrawn from sale in the UK due to the presence of a villainous former bandleader named Tony Rocco; there is a real former bandleader of that name, who objected to the character's name. The book has now been reissued with the character's name changed to Timothy Royal.[3]
- The Devil's Paintbrush (2009) is set in Paris in 1903, and deals with an encounter between disgraced homosexual former British Army officer Sir Hector Macdonald and the occultist Aleister Crowley.
References
- ^ Rainbownetwork.com, (June 29, 2005), The Pink List 2005. Retrieved June 25, 2007.
- ^ The Guardian "Jake's progress", The Guardian, interview by Tim Adams, from April 22, 2001, retrieved May 18, 2008
- ^ Tony Rocco and Hodder & Stoughton - Press Release
External links
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Arnott, Jake |
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1961 |
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