Martina Cole

Martina Cole (born Eilidh Martina Cole, on 30 March 1959)^[3] is a British crime writer, businesswoman^[4] and occasional television presenter.^[5]

Cole was brought up in Aveley, Essex. As of 2009 she has released seventeen novels about crime, some of which examine London's gangster underworld. Four of her novels, Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. She has achieved sales of over ten million in the UK alone and her tenth novel, The Know, spent seven weeks on The Sunday Times's hardback best-sellers list.

Personal life

Cole was born in Essex to Irish Catholic parents. Her mother was from Glasnevin, County Dublin and her father was from Cork City. Her cousin is Cork politician Denis Cregan. She left her convent school at 15 and had her first child, Christopher, at the age of 19. .^[6]

Career

Most of her novels feature a female protagonist or antihero, and some take place within the Irish community in and around London.

The Take was serialised on British television on Sky1, on 17 June 2009 – starring Tom Hardy as Freddie. In 2008 she authored a drama documentary series on ITV called Martina Cole's Lady Killers, which broke audience records for ITV3 and transferred to ITV1 in 2009. In 2009 she established her own production entity, "2Queens TV" to explore new avenues in broadcasting for her and her interests.

In 2009 an investigative documentary, Martina Cole Girl Gangs: Los Angeles was filmed. This focused on the role of girls in these gangs, which have been responsible for drug dealing and car theft, to robbery and murder.^[7]

In 2010 the novel Two Women was adapted for the stage. This is the first time one of Martina Cole's novels has been adapted for the theatre. The play opened in February at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London.

In 2011, the brand new series, The Runaway, was shown on Sky1 and Sky1 HD. It began on Thursday 31 March. It is based on her 1997 novel of the same name.

Cole's new novel, The Faithless, was released on 20 October 2011 and it has already appeared on the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

In December 2011, readers using madaboutbooks.co.uk voted their favourite Martina Cole book. The Take won by 780 votes and was put at the top of the list of Martina Cole novels. Goodnight Lady came second, followed in third by Maura's Game.

Cole's newest book, Revenge, was released on 24 October 2013 and introduces Michael Flynn, a new gangster character whom is taught a very dangerous lesson in the criminal underworld.

Books

• Dangerous Lady (1992)
• The Ladykiller (1993)
• Goodnight Lady (1994)
• The Jump (1995)
• The Runaway (1997)
• Two Women (1999)
• Broken (2000)
• Faceless (2001)
• Maura's Game (2002)
• The Know (2003)
• The Graft (2004)
• The Take (2005)
• Close (2006)
• Faces (2007)
• The Business (2008)
• Hard Girls (2009)
• The Family (2010)
• The Faithless (2011)
• The Life (2012)
• Revenge (2013)
• The Good Life (2014)

Videograph

• Martina Cole's Double Bill: The Jump & Dangerous Lady (2006)
• The Take (2009)
• The Runaway (2011)

References

External links

• Official Martina Cole website
• The Take at sky.com
• The Runaway at Sky.com