Sophie Hannah (born 1971) is a British poet and novelist. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, and between 1999 and 2001 a junior research fellow of

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research a ...

. She lives with her husband and two children in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Biography

Sophie Hannah was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England; her father was the academic

Norman Geras Norman Geras (; 25 August 1943 – 18 October 2013) was a political theorist and Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Manchester. He contributed to an analysis of the works of Karl Marx in his book '' Marx and Human Nature'' and the ...

and her mother is the author

Adèle Geras Adèle Daphne Geras (née Weston; born 15 March 1944) is an English writer for young children, teens and adults. Early life Geras was born in Jerusalem, British Mandatory Palestine to British Jewish parents. Her father (later a lawyer and Hi ...

. She attended Beaver Road Primary School in Didsbury and the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

Publications

Hannah published her first book of poems, ''The Hero and the Girl Next Door'', at the age of 24. Her style is often compared to the

light verse Light poetry or light verse is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Light poems are usually brief, can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play including puns, adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration. Typically, light ...

Wendy Cope Wendy Cope (born 21 July 1945) is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire, with her husband, the poet Lachlan Mackinnon. Biography Cope was born in Erith in Kent (no ...

and the surrealism of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

. Her poems' subjects tend toward the personal, utilizing classic rhyme schemes with understated wit, humour, and warmth. She has published five previous collections of poetry with Carcanet Press. In 2004, she was named one of the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) was founded in 1953 by T. S. Eliot and friends, including Sir Basil Blackwell, "to propagate the art of poetry". Eric Walter White was secretary from December 1953 until 1971, and was subsequently the society's chai ...

Next Generation poets The Next Generation poets are a list of young and middle-aged figures from British poetry, mostly British, compiled by a panel for the Poetry Book Society in 2004. This is a promotional exercise, and a sequel to the New Generation poets (1994). The ...

. Her poems are studied at GCSE (including "Rubbish at Adultery" and "Your Dad Did What?"), A-level, and degree level across the UK. While Hannah has written a book for children, she is better known for her psychological crime novels. Her first novel, ''Little Face,'' was published in 2006 and has sold more than 100,000 copies. Her fifth crime novel, ''Lasting Damage,'' was published in the UK on 17 February 2011. ''Kind of Cruel'', her seventh psychological thriller to feature the characters Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer, was published in 2012. Her 2008 novel, ''The Point of Rescue'', was produced for TV as the two-part drama ''

Case Sensitive Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ...

'' and shown on 2 and 3 May 2011 on the UK's ITV network. It stars

Olivia Williams Olivia Haigh Williams (born 26 July 1968) is a British actress who has appeared in British and American films and television. After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years followed by three years at the Royal Shakesp ...

in the lead role of DS Charlie Zailer and

Darren Boyd Darren John Boyd (born 30 January 1971) is a British actor who starred in the Sky 1 series ''Spy'', for which he won a BAFTA Award. His work in television and film spans comedy and drama. Early life Boyd began acting at age 17 in amateur thea ...

as DC Simon Waterhouse. Its first showing had 5.4 million viewers. A second two-part story based on ''The Other Half Lives'' was shown on 12 and 13 July 2012. In addition to works entirely of her own devising, Hannah has written a series of novels based on Agatha Christie's

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...

. Hannah has referred to such works as " continuation novels," a subgenre of the crime novel. She has elaborated on the subgenre while reviewing examples by

Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of De ...

/ Stella Duffy and

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

Jill Paton Walsh Gillian Honorine Mary Herbert, Baroness Hemingford, (née Bliss; 29 April 1937 – 18 October 2020), known professionally as Jill Paton Walsh, was an English novelist and children's writer. She may be known best for her Booker Prize-nominated n ...

. Hannah has translated three children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

s from Swedish as well as writing a work of

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the ...

entitled ''How to Hold a Grudge: from resentment to contentment: the power of grudges to transform your life''.

Other professional activities

Hannah participated in the creation of a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Crime and Thriller Writing at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, for which she is the main teacher and course director.

Works

For young children

* ''Carrot the Goldfish'', illustrated by Jean Baylis (Hamish Hamilton, 1992) * ''The Box Room: poems for children'' (Orchard Books, 2001) ;Translations The Swedish-language

Moomin The Moomins ( sv, Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, and a comic strip by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of white ...

picture books were written and illustrated by

Tove Jansson Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Stockholm, Helsinki and ...

. * ''

The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My ''The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My'' was the first Moomin picture book by Finnish author Tove Jansson, published in 1952 in Swedish. It is the first Moomin book to be adapted into an iPad app. Plot Moomintroll is taking milk back home ...

952 Year 952 ( CMLII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – At the Reichstag in Augsburg (assembled by King Otto I), joined by German nob ...

(

Sort of Books Sort of Books is an independent British publishing house started in 1999 by Mark Ellingham and Natania Jansz, founders of the Rough Guides travel series. The company publishes both original and classic fiction and non-fiction titles: "The sort of ...

, 2001) – new verse translation * '' Who Will Comfort Toffle?''

960 Year 960 ( CMLX) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Summer – Siege of Chandax: A Byzantine fleet with an expeditionary force (co ...

(Sort of, 2003) – new verse translation * '' The Dangerous Journey'' 977(Sort of, 2010) – "new verse translation of the third rhyming tale from Moomin Valley"

Poetry

* ''Early Bird Blues'' (1993) – limited edition pamphlet * ''Second Helping of Your Heart'' (1994) – limited edition pamphlet * ''The Hero and the Girl Next Door'' ( Carcanet Press,1995) * ''Hotels Like Houses'', (Carcanet, 1996) * ''Leaving and Leaving You'', (Carcanet, 1999) * ''Love Me Slender: Poems About Love'' (2000) * ''First of the Last Chances'', (Carcanet, 2003) * ''Selected Poems'', 2006 * ''Pessimism for Beginners'', (Carcanet, 2007) * ''Marrying the Ugly Millionaire: New and Collected Poems'', (Carcanet, 2015) * ''Postcard from a Travel Snob''

Fiction

*''Gripless'' (1999) *''Cordial and Corrosive: An Unfairy Tale'' (2000) *''The Superpower of Love'' (2002)

The Waterhouse and Zailer series

# ''Little Face'' ( Hodder & Stoughton, 2006) # ''Hurting Distance'' (Hodder, 2007); also published as ''The Truth-Teller's Lie'' (2010) # ''The Point of Rescue'' (Hodder, 2008); also as ''The Wrong Mother'' (2009) (adapted for the TV Series

starring

and

) # ''The Other Half Lives'' (Hodder, 2009) also as ''The Dead Lie Down'' (2009) (adapted for the TV Series

starring

and

) # ''A Room Swept White'' (Hodder, 2010) also as ''The Cradle in the Grave'' (2011) # ''Lasting Damage'' (Hodder, 2011) also as ''The Other Woman's House'' (2012) # ''Kind of Cruel'' (Hodder, 2012) # ''The Carrier'' (Hodder, 2013) # ''The Telling Error'' (Hodder, 2014) also as ''Woman with a Secret'' (2015) # ''Pictures Or It Didn’t Happen'' (Hodder, 2015) also as ''The Warning: A Short Story'' (2015) # ''The Narrow Bed'' (Hodder, 2016) also as ''The Next to Die'' (2019) # ''The Couple at the Table'' (Hodder, 2022)

Hercule Poirot

*''

The Monogram Murders ''The Monogram Murders'' is a mystery novel by British writer Sophie Hannah, based on characters created by Agatha Christie. It is the first in her series of Hercule Poirot novels, after being authorised by the estate of Agatha Christie to wr ...

'' (2014) *''

Closed Casket ''Closed Casket'' is the fourth studio album by Esham, released on November 22, 1994, and distributed by Reel Life Productions/ Warlock Records. Lyrics and music Because of the Satanic themes of his earlier work, Esham had been accused of ...

'' (2016) *'' The Mystery of Three Quarters'' (2018) *''The Killings at Kingfisher Hill'' (2020)

Short story collections

*''The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets'' (2008) *''Something Untoward: Six Tales of Domestic Terror'' (2012) *'' The Visitors Book'' (2015)

Novels

*''The Orphan Choir'' (Hammer, 2013) *''A Game for All the Family'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015) *''Did You See Melody?'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2017) also as ''Keep Her Safe'' (2017) *''Haven't They Grown'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2019) also known as ''Perfect Little Children'' (2019)

Non-fiction

*''How to Hold a Grudge'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2018) *''Happiness, a Mystery: And 66 Attempts to Solve It'' (Wellcome Collection, 2020)

References

External links

* *
Radio interview
(2009)
crimezone.nl
!-- huh? -->
Sophie Hannah
at Crimezone (hebban.nl) * * Archival material at {{DEFAULTSORT:Hannah, Sophie 1971 births Alumni of the University of Manchester English children's writers English Jews English translators English women poets Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford Jewish poets Living people Members of the Detection Club Swedish–English translators Women mystery writers Writers from Manchester