William Brodrick (born 31 January 1960) is a British novelist, famous in particular for his first novel ''The Sixth Lamentation'', which was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. He 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 ...

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 in 2009 for his novel '' A Whispered Name''.

Life and career

Brodrick joined the order of the Augustinians after obtaining his A-levels and then, following the Order's advice, attended

Heythrop College, University of London Heythrop College, University of London, was a constituent college of the University of London between 1971 and 2018, last located in Kensington Square, London. It comprised the university's specialist faculties of philosophy and theology with soc ...

where he read philosophy and theology. He subsequently left the Order and completed the Common Professional Examination (Law) course in Manchester. After passing his Bar Finals, Brodrick moved to

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

where he practised as a barrister for ten years. In his tenth year of practice, Brodrick had a change of vocation and wrote his first novel, ''The Sixth Lamentation'', in his spare time. The international success of this first stride into the world of writing allowed Brodrick to leave his chambers and move to Normandy, France where he became a novelist full-time. He wrote six novels in the ''Father Anselm'' series and, subsequently, three under the pen name John Fairfax (''Summary Justice'', ''Blind Defence'' and ''Forced Confessions''). He still lives in the Normandy village he originally moved to with his wife and three children.

Works

Father Anselm series

# ''The Sixth Lamentation'' (1999) # ''The Gardens of the Dead'' (2006) # ''A Whispered Name'' (2008) # ''The Day of the Lie'' (2012) # ''The Discourtesy of Death'' (2013) # ''The Silent Ones'' (2015)

Benson and de Vere series (as John Fairfax)

# ''Summary Justice'' (2017) # ''Blind Defence'' (2018) # ''Forced Confessions'' (2020)

Interviews

Book Browse Interview

References

Living people 1960 births British writers {{RC-bio-stub