Philip Ballantyne Kerr (22 February 1956 – 23 March 2018) was a British author, best known for his Bernie Gunther series of historical detective thrillers.

Early life

Kerr was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, Scotland, where his father was an engineer and his mother worked as a secretary. He was educated at a grammar school in Northampton. He studied at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

from 1974 to 1980, gaining a master's degree in law and philosophy. Kerr worked as an advertising copywriter for

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...

before becoming a full-time writer in 1989. In a 2012 interview, Kerr noted that he began his literary career at the age of twelve by writing pornographic stories and lending them to classmates for a fee.

Career

A writer of both adult fiction and non-fiction, he is known for the Bernhard "Bernie" Gunther series of 14 historical thrillers set in Germany and elsewhere during the 1930s, the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the Cold War. He also wrote children's books under the name P. B. Kerr, including the ''Children of the Lamp'' series. Kerr wrote for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'', the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', and the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

''. He was married to fellow novelist Jane Thynne; they lived in

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

, and had three children. He died from cancer on 23 March 2018, aged 62. Just before he died, he finished a 14th Bernie Gunther novel, ''Metropolis,'' which was published posthumously, in 2019.

Awards and honours

In 1993, Kerr was named in

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

's list of Best Young British Novelists. In 2009, ''If the Dead Rise Not'' won the world's most lucrative crime fiction award, the

RBA Prize for Crime Writing RBA Prize for Crime Writing (Spanish: ''Premio RBA de Novela Policiaca'') was a Spanish literary award said to be the world's most lucrative crime fiction prize at €125,000. It is funded by Barcelona-based multimedia publishing company . Winners ...

worth €125,000. The book also won the British Crime Writers' Association's Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award that same year. His novel, ''Prussian Blue'', was longlisted for the 2018 Walter Scott Prize.

Death

Kerr died at age 62 from

bladder cancer Bladder cancer is any of several types of cancer arising from the tissues of the urinary bladder. Symptoms include blood in the urine, pain with urination, and low back pain. It is caused when epithelial cells that line the bladder become ma ...

on 23 March 2018.

Publications

Novels

Bernie Gunther

* "Berlin Noir" "Bernie Gunther" trilogy, republished 1993 by Penguin Books in one volume. . **''

March Violets ''March Violets'' is a historical detective novel and the first written by Philip Kerr featuring detective Bernhard "Bernie" Gunther. ''March Violets'' is the first of the trilogy by Kerr called ''Berlin Noir''. The second, '' The Pale Crimina ...

''. London: Viking, 1989. , set in 1936 **''

The Pale Criminal ''The Pale Criminal'' is a historical detective novel and the second in the Berlin Noir trilogy of Bernhard Gunther novels written by Philip Kerr. Plot Set in 1938, two years after the events of March Violets, Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther has tak ...

''. London: Viking, 1990. , set in 1938 **'' A German Requiem''. London: Viking, 1991. , set in 1947–48 * Later "Bernie Gunther" novels **''The One from the Other''. New York: Putnam, 2006. , set in 1949 (intro set in 1937) **''A Quiet Flame''. London: Quercus, 2008. , set in 1950 and 1932-33 **'' If the Dead Rise Not''. London: Quercus, 2009. , set in 1934 and 1954 **''Field Grey''. (Field Gray in USA) London: Quercus, 2010. , set in 1954 with flashbacks from 1941, 1931, 1940, & 1945/46. **''Prague Fatale''. London: Quercus, 2011 , set in 1941 **''A Man Without Breath''. London: Quercus, 2013. , set in 1943 **''The Lady from Zagreb''. London: Quercus, 2015. , set in 1942–3, with framing scenes in 1956. **''The Other Side of Silence''. London: Quercus, 2016. , set in 1956 **''Prussian Blue.'' London: Quercus, 2017. , set in 1939, with framing scenes in 1956 **''Greeks Bearing Gifts.'' London: Quercus, 2018. , set in 1957 **''Metropolis.'' London: Quercus, 2019. , set in 1928

Scott Manson novels

* ''January Window''. London: Head of Zeus, 23 October 2014. * ''Hand of God''. London: Head of Zeus, 4 June 2015. * ''False Nine''. London: Head of Zeus, 5 November 2015.

Stand alone novels

*''

A Philosophical Investigation ''A Philosophical Investigation'' is a 1992 techno-thriller by Philip Kerr. Plot summary In a near-future, a British neuroscientist named Professor Burgess Phelan has discovered a portion of the brain, the VMN, that is typically twice the size ...

''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1992. *''Dead Meat''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1993. *'' Gridiron'' (vt US ''The Grid''). London: Chatto & Windus, 1995. *''Esau''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1996. *''A Five Year Plan''. London: Hutchinson, 1997. *'' The Second Angel''. London: Orion, 1998. *''The Shot''. London: Orion, 1999. *''Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton''. New York: Crown, 2002. *''Hitler's Peace''. New York: Marian Wood, 2005. *''Prayer''. London: Quercus, 2013. *''The Winter Horses''. New York: Knopf, 2014. * ''Research''. London: Quercus, 2014. * ''1984.4''. Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 2021.

Non fiction

*''The Penguin Book of Lies''. 1991;1996 *''The Penguin Book of Fights, Feuds and Heartfelt Hatreds: An Anthology of Antipathy''. 1992;1993

Children's fiction (as P. B. Kerr)

'' Children of the Lamp''

*'' The Akhenaten Adventure''. London: Scholastic Press, 2004. *'' The Blue Djinn of Babylon''. London: Scholastic Press, 2005. *'' The Cobra King of Kathmandu''. London: Scholastic Press, 2006. *'' The Day of the Djinn Warriors''. London: Scholastic Press, 2007. *'' The Eye of the Forest''. London: Scholastic Press, 2009. *'' The Five Fakirs of Faizabad''. London: Scholastic Press, 2010. *'' The Grave Robbers of Genghis Khan''. London: Scholastic Press, 2011.

Stand alone fiction

*''One Small Step''. London: Simon & Schuster, 2008 (paper). * ''The Most Frightening Story Ever Told''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. * ''Friedrich der Große Detektiv (Frederick the Great Detective)''.As of 2021, published only in a German translation. Rowohlt Verlag, 2017.

Notes

External links

Official Philip Kerr website

Bernie Gunther fansite

Interview in Shotsmag Ezine 2011

Interview with Philip Kerr
about Kerr's relationship with Berlin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Philip 1956 births 2018 deaths Alumni of the University of Birmingham Barry Award winners Writers from Edinburgh People educated at Stewart's Melville College Scottish science fiction writers Scottish crime fiction writers Techno-thriller writers Writers of historical mysteries