Nicolas Freeling (born Nicolas Davidson; 3 March 1927 – 20 July 2003), was a British
crime novel
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, ...
ist, best known as the author of the "Van der Valk" series of detective novels. A television series
based on the character was produced for the British
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network by
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
during the 1970s, and revived in 1991–92 and again in 2020.
Biography
Freeling was born in
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 ...
, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at
Grandfontaine to the west of
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of taking home some veal from a restaurant where he worked, though that was common practice in the restaurant trade.
Freeling got bored with writing about his Amsterdam detective Van der Valk and killed him off in 1972, when he was shot while following up a rather unpromising lead. Freeling refused to bring the detective back to life and wrote two novels in which his widow Arlette is the detective. Then he started his second detective series, about a French police inspector, Henri Castang to revive his failing income. Some have considered Castang superior to Van der Valk.
Freeling's ''The King of the Rainy Country'' received a 1967
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 ...
, from the
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City.
The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday.
It presents the Edgar Award ...
, for Best Novel.
''Gun Before Butter'' won France's
Grand Prix de Littérature Policière The Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (or the Police Literature Grand Prize) is a French literary prize founded in 1948 by author and literary critic Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. It is the most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in ...
and was a runner up for the UK Crime Writers' Association's 1963
Gold Dagger Award.
In 1968 Freeling's novel ''Love in Amsterdam'' was adapted as the film ''
Amsterdam Affair
''Amsterdam Affair'' is a 1968 British crime film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Wolfgang Kieling, William Marlowe, Catherine Schell and Pamela Ann Davy. The plot is about Dutch policeman Van Der Valk, who investigates a novelist who is ...
'' directed by
Gerry O'Hara
Gerald O'Hara (born October 1924, Boston, Lincolnshire) is an English film and television director.
O'Hara was an assistant director on Laurence Olivier's film,
'' Richard III''; the Carol Reed film, '' Our Man in Havana'' and the Academy Award ...
and starring
Wolfgang Kieling
Wolfgang Kieling (16 March 1924 – 7 October 1985) was a German actor.
Biography
In films since childhood in his native Germany, Kieling appeared in a few American films, notably in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Torn Curtain'' (1966), where he play ...
as Van Der Valk.
A radio drama of his Henri Castang novel "The Night Lords" adapted by
Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell (born 1931) is a British television producer.
Bakewell was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire in England.
He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC, after Sydney Newman divid ...
was made in 1990 starring
Keith Barron
Keith Barron (8 August 1934 – 15 November 2017) was an English actor and television presenter who appeared in films and on television from 1961 until 2017. His television roles included the police drama ''The Odd Man'', the sitcom ''Duty Free ...
,
Richard Vernon
Richard Evelyn Vernon (7 March 1925 – 4 December 1997) was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled into playi ...
, and
Edita Brychta
Edita Brychta is a British actress.
Early life
Brychta began acting as a young child in the Czech film Kinoautomat, the world's first interactive movie, which was presented at Expo 67 in Montreal. At the age of 16, she joined London's Nationa ...
as part of the BBC Radio 4
Saturday Night Theatre
''Saturday Night Theatre'' was a long-running radio drama strand on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken ...
series.
Works
Novels
Van der Valk series
* ''Love in Amsterdam'' (1962), ''Death in Amsterdam''
:In an eccentric piece of police procedure, Van der Valk involves narrator Martin Roy in investigating the death of his ex-lover Elsa de Charmoy, a promiscuous and manipulative potter. The novel features the on Amsterdam's Weteringschans, the remand centre where Freeling was held for taking home some food when he was working as a hotel cook.
* ''Because of the Cats'' (1963)
* ''Gun Before Butter'' (1963), a.k.a. ''Question of Loyalty''
* ''Double-Barrel'' (1964)
* ''Criminal Conversation'' (1965)
* ''The King of the Rainy Country'' (1966)
:Van der Valk is asked to discreetly trace Jean-Claude Marschal, the disappeared heir to a business fortune, and follows him to Innsbruck, Strasbourg and a village in the Vosges, benefitting from the cooperation of German, Austrian and French police colleagues. He discovers Marschal dead in a suicide pact reminiscent of the
Mayerling incident. He then tracks Marschal's wife Anne-Marie to Biarritz and the Spanish border, where, despite having previously tried to seduce him, she shoots him.
* ''Strike Out Where Not Applicable'' (1967)
* ''Tsing-Boum!'' (1969)
* ''Over the High Side'' (1971), a.k.a. ''The Lovely Ladies''
* ''A Long Silence'' (1972), a.k.a. ''Auprès de ma Blonde''
* ''Sand Castles'' (1989)
=Adaptations
=
Television
Created by Freeling, the British television crime drama series ''
Van der Valk
''Van der Valk'' is a British television crime drama series produced for the ITV (TV network), ITV network. The first series ran from 1972 to 1992; followed by a remake in 2020. Created by Nicolas Freeling and based on his novels about a dete ...
'' is an adaptation of the novels. It first ran from 1972 to 1992, followed by the remake in 2020–present.
Film
* ''
Amsterdam Affair
''Amsterdam Affair'' is a 1968 British crime film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Wolfgang Kieling, William Marlowe, Catherine Schell and Pamela Ann Davy. The plot is about Dutch policeman Van Der Valk, who investigates a novelist who is ...
'' (1968), a lesser-known British film, with German actor
Wolfgang Kieling
Wolfgang Kieling (16 March 1924 – 7 October 1985) was a German actor.
Biography
In films since childhood in his native Germany, Kieling appeared in a few American films, notably in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Torn Curtain'' (1966), where he play ...
in the title role.
* ''Pas de frontières pour l'inspecteur'' (''Van der Valk''), three French-West German co-produced TV films, starring
Frank Finlay
Francis Finlay, (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016) was an English stage, film and television actor, Oscar-nominated for a supporting role as Iago in Laurence Olivier's 1965 film adaptation of ''Othello''.
In 1983, Finlay was directed by Ital ...
in the title role:
** ''Van der Valk und das Mädchen'' (''Le milieu n'est pas tendre'') (1972), based on the novel ''Gun Before Butter'', directed by
Peter Zadek
Peter Zadek (; 19 May 1926 – 30 July 2009) was a German director of theatre, opera and film, a translator and a screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater.
Biography
Peter Zadek was born on 19 May ...
.
** ' (''Discrétion absolue'') (1973), directed by
Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film '' Das Boot'' (1981). His other films include '' The ...
.
** ''Van der Valk und die Toten'' (''Le bouc émissaire'') (1975), directed by Marcel Cravenne.
* ''
Because of the Cats
''Because of the Cats'', released theatrically in the UK as ''The Rape'', is a 1973 Dutch-Belgian drama film directed by Fons Rademakers and starring Bryan Marshall, Alexandra Stewart, Sylvia Kristel and Sebastian Graham Jones.
The film's Dut ...
'' (1973), a Dutch/Belgian co-production, starring British actor
Bryan Marshall in the title role.
Radio
Adapted for
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
:
* ''Gun Before Butter'' (1993) - Starring
Ian Hogg as Van der Valk and
Sophie Thompson
Sophie Thompson (born 20 January 1962) is a British actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. A six-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the London revival of ''Into the Woods' ...
as Lucienne.
* ''King of the Rainy Country'' (1994) - Starring
Martin Jarvis as Van der Valk.
* ''Arlette'' and ''The Widow'' (1999) - Starring
Stella Gonet
Stella Gonet (born 8 May 1960) is a Scottish theatre, film and television actress. She is known for her roles in the BBC dramas '' The House of Eliott'' (1991–94) and ''Holby City'' (2007–09). Her stage credits include playing Ophelia in t ...
as Arlette Van der Valk and
Nigel Anthony
Nigel Anthony (born December 23, 1941) is a theatre, television, and radio actor. His theatre work includes ''Twelfth Night'', '' Dutch Uncle'', '' Happy End'', ''The Taming of the Shrew'' for the Royal Shakespeare Company and seasons at Scarbo ...
as Piet Van der Valk.
=Featuring Arlette Van der Valk
=
* ''The Widow'' (1979)
* ''One Damn Thing After Another'' (1981), a.k.a. ''Arlette''
Henri Castang series
* ''Dressing of Diamond'' (1974)
* ''What are the Bugles Blowing For?'' (1975), a.k.a. ''The Bugles Blowing''
* ''Lake Isle'' (1976), a.k.a. ''Sabine''
* ''The Night Lords'' (1978)
* ''Castang's City'' (1980)
* ''Wolfnight'' (1982)
* ''The Back of the North Wind'' (1983)
* ''No Part in Your Death'' (1984)
* ''Cold Iron'' (1986)
* ''Lady Macbeth'' (1988)
* ''Not as Far as Velma'' (1989)
* ''Those in Peril'' (1990)
* ''Flanders Sky'' (1992), a.k.a. ''The Pretty How Town''
* ''You Who Know'' (1994)
* ''The Seacoast of Bohemia'' (1994)
* ''A Dwarf Kingdom'' (1996)
In 1990 ''Not as Far as Velma'' was adapted as a six-part BBC Radio serial starring
Keith Barron
Keith Barron (8 August 1934 – 15 November 2017) was an English actor and television presenter who appeared in films and on television from 1961 until 2017. His television roles included the police drama ''The Odd Man'', the sitcom ''Duty Free ...
as Castang.
Other novels
* ''Valparaiso'' (1964, 1. edition as by F. R. E. Nicolas
)
* ''The Dresden Green'' (1966)
* ''This is the Castle'' (1968)
* ''Gadget'' (1977)
* ''A City Solitary'' (1984)
* ''One More River'' (1998)
* ''Some Day Tomorrow'' (1999)
* ''The Janeites'' (2002)
Non-fiction
* ''The Kitchen'' (1970)
* ''Cook Book'' (1972)
* ''Criminal Convictions'' (1994)
* ''The Village Book'' (2001)
* ''The Kitchen and the Cook'' (2002)
References
External links
Freeling's obituary in ''The Daily Telegraph''Freeling's obituary in ''The Guardian''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeling, Nicolas
1927 births
2003 deaths
English crime fiction writers
Edgar Award winners
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English male writers