Andrew Taylor (born 14 October 1951) is a British author best known for his crime and historical novels, which include the Lydmouth series, the Roth Trilogy and historical novels such as the number-one best-selling ''The American Boy'' and ''The Ashes of London''. His accolades include the Diamond Dagger, Britain's top crime-writing award.

Biography

Andrew Taylor grew up in East Anglia. He read English at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

, and has an MA in Library, Archive and Information Science from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. His first novel, ''Caroline Minuscule'' (1982), won the John Creasey Memorial Award of the

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors’ organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its Dagger awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. T ...

of Great Britain. He is the only author to have won the CWA's Historical Dagger three times, with ''The Office of the Dead'', ''The American Boy'' and ''The Scent of Death''. He has also won the

Cartier Diamond Dagger The Diamond Dagger is an award given by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom to authors who have made an outstanding lifetime's contribution to the genre. Winners * 1986 – Eric Ambler * 1987 – P. D. James * 1988 – John le Car ...

, for sustained excellence in crime writing and has been shortlisted for the

Gold Dagger The Gold Dagger is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom since 1960 for the best crime novel of the year. From 1955 to 1959, the organization named their top honor as the Crossed Red Herring Award. From ...

, the Theakston's Old Peculiar (twice), and the Edgar award. ''Bleeding Heart Square'' won Sweden's Martin Beck Award, the Golden Crowbar, in 2009. He was inducted into The Detection Club in 1995. ''The American Boy'', a gothic mystery linked to Edgar Allan Poe's boyhood years in England, was one of the ten titles featured in Channel 4's Richard and Judy Book Club 2005 and was also selected for The Times Top Ten Crime Novels of the Decade. The Roth Trilogy (now also available in an omnibus edition as ''Requiem for an Angel'') was shown on ITV in March 2007. It was a three-part drama series under the title of ''

Fallen Angel In the Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" never appears in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven"Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said R ...

'', starring Charles Dance and Emilia Fox. The series was broadcast on three consecutive nights, beginning 11 March 2007. His most recent books are historical novels as well as crime fiction. They explore different historical eras: ''Bleeding Heart Square'', is set in the 1930s mainly in London (2008); ''The Anatomy of Ghosts'' (2010), set in eighteenth-century Cambridge; ''The Scent of Death'', set in British New York, 1778–80; and its sequel, ''The Silent Boy'' (2014), during the French Revolution. ''The Ashes of London'' (2016) is set during and just after the

Great Fire of 1666 The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

. It is the first of a series set in Restoration England. The paperback edition was made Waterstone's thriller of the month for two consecutive months through January and February 2017 and was the number one bestseller for eight weeks in The Times/Waterstones chart. In 2018 he published a sequel- ''The Fire Court'', and the third of the series, ''The King's Evil'', was released in March 2019. The fourth and fifth in the series are The Last Protector (2020) and The Royal Secret (2021). Andrew Taylor has also written a number of novellas with ghostly or other-worldly themes, originally as Kindle Singles. The first three have now been published in print form under the title ''Fireside Gothic''. He reviews in several publications, in particular the ''

Spectator ''Spectator'' or ''The Spectator'' may refer to: *Spectator sport, a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches *Audience Publications Canada * ''The Hamilton Spectator'', a Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, ...

'' (whose crime fiction reviewer he was for ten years) and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. He has also written short stories and articles on crime fiction. He has contributed the Grub Street column to ''The Author'', the journal of the Society of Authors, since 2003. He also teaches fiction courses. He is married with two children. He and his family have lived for many years in Coleford in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...

on the borders of England and Wales.

Bibliography

Dougal series

*''

Caroline Minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one r ...

'' (1982) *'' Waiting for the End of the World'' (1984) *'' Our Fathers' Lies'' (1985) *'' An Old School Tie'' (1986) *'' Freelance Death'' (1987) *'' Blood Relation'' (1990) *''

The Sleeping Policeman ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1992) *''

Odd Man Out ''Odd Man Out'' is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade polic ...

'' (1993)

Sergeant Jim Bergerac series (written as Andrew Saville)

*'' Bergerac: Crimes of the Season'' (1985) (in hardback published as ''Bergerac is Back'') *'' Bergerac and the Fatal Weakness'' (1988) *'' Bergerac and the Traitor's Child'' (1988) *'' Bergerac and the Jersey Rose'' (1988) *'' Bergerac and the Moving Fever'' (1988)

Blaines novels

*'' The Second Midnight'' (1987 - reissued 2019) *''

Blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

'' (1988) *'' Toyshop'' (1990)

Lydmouth series (Richard Thornhill & Jill Francis)

*''

An Air That Kills An, AN, aN, or an may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Airlinair (IATA airline code AN) * Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy * AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey * Anime North, a Canadian an ...

'' (1994) *''

The Mortal Sickness ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1995) *''

The Lover of the Grave ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1997) *''

The Suffocating Night ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1998) *'' Where Roses Fade'' (2000) *'' Death's Own Door'' (2001) *'' Call The Dying'' (2004) *'' Naked to the Hangman'' (2006)

Roth trilogy

*'' Requiem for an Angel'' (2002) (Omnibus edition) (reissued as ''Fallen Angel'' in 2007) **'' The Four Last Things'' (1997) **'' The Judgment of Strangers'' (1998) **''

The Office of the Dead The Office of the Dead or Office for the Dead (in Latin, Officium Defunctorum) is a prayer cycle of the Canonical Hours in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, said for the repose of the soul of a decedent. It is the proper r ...

'' (2000)

Children's novels

*'' Hairline Cracks'' (1988) *'' Private Nose'' (1989) *''

Snapshot Snapshot, snapshots or snap shot may refer to: * Snapshot (photography), a photograph taken without preparation Computing * Snapshot (computer storage), the state of a system at a particular point in time * Snapshot (file format) or SNP, a file ...

'' (1989) *''

Double Exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...

'' (1990) *''

Negative Image In photography, a negative is an Photograph, image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occur ...

'' (1992) *'' The Invader'' (1994)

Psychological thrillers

*'' The Raven on the Water'' (1991) *'' The Barred Window'' (1993) *''

A Stain on the Silence A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

'' (2006)

Historical novels

*''

The American Boy ''The American Boy'' was a monthly magazine published by The Sprague Publishing Co. of Detroit, Michigan from November 1899 to August 1941. At the time it was the largest magazine for boys, with a circulation of 300,000, and it featured action sto ...

'' (2003) (US title: ''An Unpardonable Crime'') *'' Bleeding Heart Square'' (2008) *'' The Anatomy of Ghosts'' (2010) *''

The Scent of Death The Scent of Death is the sixth novel by Simon Beckett to feature Dr David Hunter, a forensic anthropologist. It was first published in hardback in the United Kingdom in April 2019. It was published in Germany in February 2019 as Die ewigen Tote ...

'' (2013) *'' The Silent Boy'' (2014)

Marwood and Lovett series

*''The Ashes of London'' (2016) *''The Fire Court'' (2018) *''The King's Evil'' (2019) *''The Last Protector'' (2020) *''The Royal Secret'' (2021)

Other

*'' Fireside Gothic'' (2016)

Journalism

Essays

* *

References

Sources

Toronto Public Library – ''Fallen Angel: The Roth Trilogy''www.andrew-taylor.co.uk/
– author's official website

External links

* – copyright 2013 Andrew Taylor * – copyright 2004–2009

– copyright 2019
interview on the HarperCollins website

Andrew Taylor, 1951 October 14–
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Authorities – with 31 catalogue records
Andrew Saville
at LC Authorities
Story Behind The Scent of Death – Essay By Andrew Taylor
at Upcoming4.me {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Andrew 1951 births Living people Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge British mystery writers British historical novelists Members of the Detection Club People from Coleford, Gloucestershire People educated at King's Ely People educated at Woodbridge School Place of birth missing (living people) Cartier Diamond Dagger winners