Michael Robotham (born 9 November 1960) is an Australian

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

writer who has twice won the CWA

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 ...

award for best novel and twice been shortlisted for the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

for best novel. His eldest child is Alexandra Hope Robotham, professionally known as Alex Hope, an Australian producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Career

Robotham was born in

Casino, New South Wales Casino is a town in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia, with a population of 10,914 people at the . It lies on the banks of the Richmond River and is situated at the junction of the Bruxner Highway and the Summerland Way. ...

, and went to school in

Gundagai Gundagai is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town. Located along the Murrumbidgee River and Muniong, Honeys ...

and

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...

. In February 1979 he began a journalism cadetship on the Sydney afternoon newspaper '' The Sun'' and later worked for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' as a court reporter and police roundsman. In 1986, he went to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he worked as a reporter and sub-editor for various UK national newspapers before becoming a staff feature writer on ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the '' Daily Mail'', was first pu ...

'' in 1989. As a feature writer, Michael was among the first people to view the letters and diaries of

Tsar Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

and his wife Empress Alexandra, unearthed in the Moscow State Archives in 1991. He also gained access to

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

files, which had been missing for nearly fifty years until a cleaner stumbled upon a cardboard box that had been misplaced and misfiled. The archives also revealed secrets about

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...

and the nuclear accident at

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

. Robotham rose to become deputy features editor of ''The Mail on Sunday'' before resigning in May 1993 and accepting freelancing contracts with a number of British newspapers and magazines. In November 1993 he accepted his first

ghostwriting A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

commission, helping Nottingham social worker

Margaret Humphreys Margaret Humphreys, (born 1944) is a British social worker and author from Nottingham, England. She worked for Nottinghamshire County Council operating around Radford, Nottingham and Hyson Green in child protection and adoption services. In 19 ...

to pen her autobiography, ''Empty Cradles''. Published in 1994, it told the story of how she uncovered the truth behind Britain's Child Migrant Program, which saw more than 100,000 children sent abroad between 1850 and 1967, and established the Child Migrant Trust to reunite children with their families. In 2011 ''Empty Cradles'' became the basis of the film ''

Oranges and Sunshine ''Oranges and Sunshine'' is a 2010 Australian drama film directed by Jim Loach as his directorial debut. It stars Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, with a screenplay by Rona Munro, based on the 1994 book ''Empty Cradles'' by Margaret Hu ...

'' directed by Jim Loach and starring

Emily Watson Emily Margaret Watson (born 14 January 1967) is an English actress. She began her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. In 2002, she starred in productions of ''Twelfth Night'' and ''Uncle Vanya'' at the Donmar War ...

as Margaret Humphreys and

Hugo Weaving Hugo Wallace Weaving (born 4 April 1960) is an English actor. Born in Colonial Nigeria to English parents, he has resided in Australia for the entirety of his career. He is the recipient of six AACTA Awards, Australian Academy of Cinema and Tel ...

and

David Wenham David Wenham (born 21 September 1965) is an Australian actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. He is known for his roles as Faramir in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Friar Carl in ''Van Helsing'', Dilios in ''300'' and ...

as two of the child migrants. Robotham went on to collaborate on fifteen "autobiographies" for people in the arts, politics, the military and sport. Twelve of these titles became ''Sunday Times'' bestsellers and sold more than 2 million copies. These books included the autobiographies of Spice Girl

Geri Halliwell Geraldine Estelle Horner (née Halliwell; born 6 August 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, author, and actress. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls. With over 100 million records ...

, British comedy actor

Ricky Tomlinson Eric "Ricky" Tomlinson (born 26 September 1939) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Bobby Grant in ''Brookside'', DCI Charlie Wise in '' Cracker'' and Jim Royle in ''The Royle Family'', and playing the titular char ...

and sixties musical legend

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

. In 1996 Robotham returned to Australia with his family and continued writing full-time. In 2002, a partial manuscript of his first novel, ''The Suspect'', became the subject of a bidding war at the

London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and di ...

. It was later translated into 24 languages and sold over a million copies around the world. His books have since won, or been shortlisted for numerous awards including the UK and US Six of his 'Joe O'Loughlin novels' have been turned into TV movies in Germany (situated in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

), and an English-language TV series based on the first Joe O'Loughlin novel, ''The Suspect'', began filming in October 2021 in London and Liverpool with

Aidan Turner Aidan Turner (born 19 June 1983) is an Irish actor. He played the roles of Ross Poldark in the 2015–2019 BBC adaptation of ''The Poldark Novels'' by Winston Graham, Dante Gabriel Rossetti in ''Desperate Romantics'', Ruairí McGowan in '' Th ...

in the lead role, produced b
World Production
His stand-alone novel ''

The Secrets She Keeps ''The Secrets She Keeps'' is an Australian psychological thriller drama television series that officially premiered on Network 10 on 22 April 2020 at 8:45 pm. The series is written by Sarah Walker and Jonathan Gavin, based on the psycholo ...

'' was turned into a six-part TV series by Network 10 in Australia and became one of the most watched TV shows on BBC1 in 2020. A second series of ''The Secrets She Keeps'' began filming in Sydney in December 2021. Another standalone, ''Life or Death'' has been optioned for film in the US.

Awards and nominations

Ned Kelly Awards The Ned Kelly Awards (named for bushranger Ned Kelly) are Australia's leading literary awards for crime writing in both the crime fiction and true crime genres. They were established in 1996 by the Crime Writers Association of Australia to reward ...

for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2005: winner for ''

Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

'' *Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2007: shortlisted for '' The Night Ferry'' *Crime Writers' Association (UK),

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association for best thriller of the year. The award is sponsored by the estate of Ian Fleming. It is given to a title that fits the broadest definition of ...

, 2007: shortlisted for ''The Night Ferry'' *Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2008: winner for '' Shatter'' *Crime Writers' Association (UK), The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, Best Thriller, 2008: shortlisted for '' Shatter'' *ITV Thriller Awards (UK), Breakthrough Novelist 2008: shortlisted for ''Shatter'' *Crime Writers' Association (UK), The CWA

, Best Crime Novel, 2013: shortlisted for ''Say You're Sorry'' *Crime Writers' Association (UK), The CWA Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel, 2015: winner for '' Life or Death'' *

for Best Novel, 2020: finalist for ''Good Girl, Bad Girl'' *Crime Writers' Association (UK), The CWA Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel, 2020: winner for ''Good Girl Bad Girl'' *Crime Writers Association (UK), Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, 2021: winner for ''When She Was Good''

Personal

His eldest child is the

ARIA In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

- and

APRA Award The APRA Music Awards in Australia are annual awards to celebrate excellence in contemporary music, which honour the skills of member composers, songwriters, and music publisher (popular music), publishers who have achieved outstanding succes ...

-winning songwriter, producer and musician Alex Hope.

Bibliography

Joseph O'Loughlin series

*
The Suspect
' (2004) *''

'' (2005) (aka ''The Drowning Man'') *'' Shatter'' (2008) *''Bleed For Me'' (2010) *''The Wreckage'' (2011) *''Say You're Sorry'' (2012) *''Watching You'' (2013) *''Close Your Eyes'' (2015) *''The Other Wife'' (2018)

Cyrus Haven series

*''Good Girl, Bad Girl'' (2019) *''When She Was Good'' (2020) *''Lying Beside You'' (2022)

Stand-alone novels

*'' The Night Ferry'' (2007) *''Bombproof'' (2008) *'' Life or Death'' (2014) *''The Secrets She Keeps'' (2017) *''When You are Mine'' (2021)

Interviews

"Shots ezine"
2003

June 26, 2007

August 19, 2007

Undated, possibly end 2007

- discussion with

Peter Temple Peter Temple (10 March 1946 – 8 March 2018) was an Australian crime fiction writer, mainly known for his ''Jack Irish'' novel series. He won several awards for his writing, including the Gold Dagger in 2007, the first for an Australian. He w ...

, July 25, 2008
"Conversation with Richard Fidler" ABC July 17, 2017

''Neben der Spur'' - Television film series Germany, ZDF

*''Adrenalin'' (''The Suspect'') 2014 *''Amnesie'' (''Drowned'') 2015

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robotham, Michael 1960 births Living people 21st-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Ned Kelly Award winners 21st-century Australian male writers People from the Northern Rivers Australian crime fiction writers