Peter Temple (10 March 1946 – 8 March 2018) was 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, mainly known for his ''

Jack Irish ''Jack Irish'' is an Australian television drama series first broadcast on ABC TV on 14 October 2012. The series stars Guy Pearce as the title character, a former criminal lawyer turned private investigator and debt collector. Much of the acti ...

'' novel series. He won several awards for his writing, including 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 ...

in 2007, the first for an Australian. He was also an international magazine and newspaper journalist and editor.

Life

Peter Temple was born in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1946 of Dutch and British/Irish ancestry. He grew up in a small town near South Africa’s border with

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

. While English was spoken in the family home, he lived in a largely

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

-speaking district and his early schooling was in both English and Afrikaans. At the age of 15 he was sent to school in

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

, an area of stronger British heritage. After school, Temple served a year of national service in the army, stationed at

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. Following that year of service he commenced a cadetship with the major afternoon daily in Cape Town, the ''

Cape Argus The ''Cape Argus'' is a daily newspaper co-founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon and published by Sekunjalo in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to as ''The Argus''. Although not the first English-language newspaper in South Africa ...

'', a prominent voice of opposition against the dominant National Party during the apartheid years. During his years with the newspaper, particularly while doing police rounds in the courts of Cape Town, he saw at first hand the degrading effect of apartheid on people of colour and felt the experience changed him. During his mid-twenties he married his wife, Anita, and moved to

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

(now Makhanda) in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

province to study history and politics at

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

with the intention of becoming an historian. However, he returned to newspapers until he was recruited to teach journalism in the earliest days of that course at

. Temple eventually came to consider himself as "complicit" in the apartheid regime, and after the death of

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known ...

in 1977 he resolved that he had to leave South Africa. With the reluctance of

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

countries to take white South African migrants, he moved instead to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

that year. Temple managed to secure a job with an English-language news digest in

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

, falsely claiming that he could speak

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. Having obtained permanent residence in Germany, he successfully applied to emigrate to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and in 1980 he and his wife moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where he worked at the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' as education editor, before moving to teach at what is now

Charles Sturt University Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus public university located in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Established in 1989, it was named in honour of Captain Charles Napier Sturt, a British explorer w ...

in Bathurst. In 1982 Temple moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

to become the founding editor of ''Australian Society'', a magazine of social issues, where he stayed until 1985. He then returned to teaching, playing a significant role in establishing the prestigious Professional Writing and Editing course at

RMIT RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

, Melbourne.

Author

In 1995 Temple retired from teaching to become a self-employed editor and full-time writer. His

novels (''Bad Debts'', ''Black Tide'', ''Dead Point'', and ''White Dog'') are set in

, and feature an unusual lawyer-gambler protagonist. In 2012, the Australian

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

and the German

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

produced the first two as feature-length films with

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...

in the title role under the series title ''

''. Temple also wrote three stand-alone novels: ''An Iron Rose'', ''Shooting Star'' and ''In the Evil Day'' (''Identity Theory'' in the US), as well as ''The Broken Shore'' and its semi-sequel, ''Truth''. In 2015 he published "Ithaca in My Mind" in the Allen and Unwin Shorts series. His novels have been published in 20 countries. He wrote the screenplay for the 2007 TV film

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

Awards

In 2010, Peter Temple won the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

for his novel ''Truth''. He has also won five

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 fiction, the latest in 2006 for ''The Broken Shore'', which also won the

Colin Roderick Award The Colin Roderick Award is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at Queensland's James Cook University for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life". It was first presented ...

for best Australian book and the Australian Book Publishers' Award for best general fiction. ''The Broken Shore'' also won 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 ...

Duncan Lawrie 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. Fro ...

(Gold Dagger) in 2007. Temple is the first Australian to win a Gold Dagger. ABC Television broadcast an adapted telemovie of ''The Broken Shore'' on 2 February 2014.

Personal life

Temple was married to Anita and had a son, Nicholas. He died after a brief battle with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

, Victoria, Australia, on 8 March 2018 at the age of 71.

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

''
Jack Irish ''Jack Irish'' is an Australian television drama series first broadcast on ABC TV on 14 October 2012. The series stars Guy Pearce as the title character, a former criminal lawyer turned private investigator and debt collector. Much of the acti ...
'' novels

*''

Bad Debts ''Bad Debts'' (1996) is a Ned Kelly Award-winning novel by Australian author Peter Temple. This is the first novel in the author's Jack Irish series. Dedication "For Anita and Nicholas : true believers." Awards *Ned Kelly Awards The Ned Ke ...

'' (1996) *''

Black Tide Black Tide was an American heavy metal band from Kendall, Florida. Formed in 2004, the band last consisted of Gabriel Garcia (lead guitar, lead vocals), Austin Diaz (rhythm guitar) and Cody Paige (drums). They released their debut album, ''Lig ...

'' (1999) *'' Dead Point'' (2000) *'' White Dog'' (2003)

Other novels

*''

An Iron Rose ''An Iron Rose'' (1998) is a novel by Australian author 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 writin ...

'' (1998) *'' Shooting Star'' (1999) *''In the Evil Day'' (2002) aka ''Identity Theory'' *''

The Broken Shore ''The Broken Shore'' (2005) is a Duncan Lawrie Dagger award-winning novel by Australian author Peter Temple. Synopsis The novel's central character is Joe Cashin, a Melbourne homicide detective. Following serious physical injuries he is posted ...

'' (2005) *''

Truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...

'' (2009)

References

Notes Sources
Harrison, Dan (2007) "Australian wins top crime-writing prize" in ''The Age'', 6 July 2007
Accessed 6 July 2007
Peter Temple biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple, Peter 1946 births 2018 deaths Australian crime writers Australian crime fiction writers Australian mystery writers South African emigrants to Australia Miles Franklin Award winners Ned Kelly Award winners RMIT University faculty Deaths from cancer in Victoria (Australia) 20th-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists