Val McDermid

Val McDermid
Born	(1955-06-04) 4 June 1955 Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Genre	Crime fiction
Website
www.valmcdermid.com

Val McDermid (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels featuring Dr. Tony Hill.

Biography

McDermid comes from Kirkcaldy, Fife, and was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she was the first student from a state school in Scotland^[1] (Kirkcaldy High School), and became President of the Junior Common Room. After graduation she became a journalist and worked briefly as a dramatist. Her first success as a novelist, Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery occurred in 1987.

McDermid was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Sunderland in 2011.^[2]

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.

Work

McDermid's works fall into three series: Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan, and the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series. Her characters include a journalist, Lindsay Gordon; a private investigator, Kate Brannigan; and a clinical psychologist, Tony Hill. 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 featured in the Wire in the Blood and two later books, is based on her direct personal experience of interviewing Jimmy Savile.^[3]

McDermid considers her work to be part of the "Tartan Noir" Scottish crime fiction genre.^[4] In addition to writing novels, McDermid contributes to several British newspapers and often broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland.^[5] Her novels, in particular the Tony Hill series, are known for their graphic depictions of violence and torture.

The McDermid Stand

Starks Park, the McDermid stand visible to the left.

She sponsors the McDermid Stand in Stark's Park, Raith Rovers ground in Kirkcaldy. This endeavour was in honour of her father, a scout for the club.^[6] 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.

Ink attack

On 6 December 2012 McDermid was attacked by an assailant who poured ink over her during an event at the University of Sunderland.^[7] McDermid was holding a book-signing event when a woman asked McDermid to sign a Top of the Pops annual which contained a picture of the disgraced late TV presenter Jimmy Savile.^[8] After McDermid reluctantly signed the annual, the woman threw ink at her and ran out of the room.^[8] McDermid stated that the incident would not stop her from doing future signing events.^[9][10]

Northumbria Police arrested Sandra Botham, a 64-year-old woman from the Hendon area of Sunderland, on suspicion of assault.^[10][11] Botham was convicted of common assault on 10 July 2013,^[12] received a 12-month community order with supervision and was made to pay £50 compensation and a £60 victim surcharge.^[13] She was also given a restraining order forbidding her from contacting McDermid for an undefined period of time.^[14] 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 claimed that the book contained a passage that besmirched her and her family.^[15]

Personal life

McDermid is a lesbian. She and her former spouse share custody of their son, who was conceived by McDermid's ex via donor insemination. She stated her intention to marry her civil partner in 2013 when the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill came into force.^[16]

She is a Raith Rovers supporter.^[5][17] She lives in Stockport and Northumberland with three cats^[18] and border terrier dog. She has called the Northumberland coast "one of the most beautiful places in the world."^[19]

Works

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)

Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series

• The Mermaids Singing (1995)
• The Wire in the Blood (1997)
• The Last Temptation (2002)
• The Torment of Others (2004)
• Beneath the Bleeding (2007)^[20]
• Fever of the Bone (2009)
• The Retribution (2011)
• Cross and Burn (2013)
• Splinter the Silence (2015)

The Austen Project

• Northanger Abbey (2014)

Other books

• A Suitable Job for a Woman (1994); non-fiction
• The Writing on the Wall (1997); short stories, limited edition of 200 copies
• A Place of Execution (1999)
• Killing the Shadows (2000)
• The Distant Echo (2003)
• Stranded (2005); short stories
• Crime in the Skin (2006)
• The Grave Tattoo (2006)
• A Darker Domain (2008)
• Trick of the Dark (2010)
• The Vanishing Point (2012)
• The Skeleton Road (2014)

Children's books

• My Granny is a Pirate (2012)^[21]

Non-fiction

• Bodies of Evidence (2014)
• Forensics - The Anatomy of Crime (2014) ^[22]

References

External links

• Official website
• Val McDermid at British Council: Literature
• Val McDermid talks about the novels that have influenced her in the Guardian bookshop challenge