Peter (Harmer) Lovesey (born 1936), also known by his pen name Peter Lear, is a British writer of

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath.

Early life

Lovesey was born in Middlesex, England, and attended Hampton Grammar School. He went to Reading University in 1955 but since he did not have the requisite Latin qualification, he chose a degree in Fine Art which included History and English as elective subjects. Two of his English tutors,

John Wain John Barrington Wain CBE (14 March 1925 – 24 May 1994) was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group known as "The Movement". He worked for most of his life as a freelance journalist and author, writing and revi ...

(1925–94) and

Frank Kermode Sir John Frank Kermode, FBA (29 November 1919 – 17 August 2010) was a British literary critic best known for his 1967 work '' The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction'' and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing. He was ...

(1919–2010), thought well enough of Lovesey's essays to get him into the English course after all. He graduated from Reading with an honours degree in 1958; he then did three years of National Service in the Royal Air Force. Signing up for the third year – National Service was ordinarily for two years – enabled him to train, and obtain better pay, as an Education Officer. When he left the Air Force it also gave him an edge in starting his teaching career. He married Jacqueline (Jax) Lewis, whom he had met at Reading, in 1959.

Teaching and writing career

Lovesey's career in education lasted fourteen years. He started as a Lecturer in English at Thurrock Technical College in Essex, 1961; he then became Head of the General Education Department at London’s Hammersmith College for Further Education (now West London College). He quit teaching to become a full-time writer in 1975. Lovesey has written that he entered into writing detective fiction by way of his interest in British sports history. His first detective novel, ''Wobble to Death'' (1970), was set within a historically accurate depiction of a 19th century foot race. Lovesey has also authored non-fiction works on the history of British athletics. His first novel was followed by seven others in the Sergeant Cribb series set in Victorian England with the stories often placed in sport or entertainment events such as boxing, rowing, and music hall. After the Cribb series concluded, Lovesey continued with standalone and series mysteries, mostly set in various historical periods. From 1991, he switched to contemporary crime fiction with the Peter Diamond series set in modern-day Bath and consisting of twenty titles as of 2022. Peter Lovesey lives near

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

. His son Phil Lovesey also writes crime novels. His son was born in 1963 and worked as an English teacher at

Wolverhampton Grammar School Wolverhampton Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in Wolverhampton, England. History Initially a grammar school for boys, WGS was founded in 1512 by Sir Stephen Jenyns, a master of the ancient guild of Merchant Taylors, who ...

until the end of the autumn 2012. His daughter, Kathy Lovesey, was born in 1960, and now lives with her family in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Awards

Peter Lovesey has won awards for his fiction, including Gold and Silver Daggers from the British Crime Writers' Association, the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, the French

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 first place in 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 ...

's 50th Anniversary Short Story Contest. In 2016, the UK's

Detection Club The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, Hugh Walpole, John Rhode, Jessie Rickard, Baroness Emma Orczy, R. ...

published ''Motives for Murder'' (US:

Crippen & Landru Crippen & Landru Publishers is a small publisher of mystery fiction collections, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1994 by husband and wife Sandi and Douglas G. Greene in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is named af ...

, UK:

Sphere A sphere () is a Geometry, geometrical object that is a solid geometry, three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

) to recognise Lovesey's 80th birthday. In 2019, he was recognised by the Bouchercon Convention in Dallas for Lifetime Achievement.

Bibliography

Lovesey's novels and stories mainly fall into the category of entertaining puzzlers in the "

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

" tradition of mystery writing. Most of Peter Lovesey's writing has been done under his own name. However, he did write three novels under the pen name Peter Lear.

Sergeant Cribb novels

Novels featuring Victorian era detective Sergeant Daniel Cribb and his assistant Constable Thackeray. *''Wobble to Death'' (1970), *''The Detective Wore Silk Drawers'' (1971), *''Abracadaver'' (1972), *''Mad Hatter's Holiday'' (1973), *''Invitation to a Dynamite Party'' (1974), (published in the US as ''The Tick of Death'') *''A Case of Spirits'' (1975), *''Swing, Swing Together'' (1976), *''Waxwork'' (1978), (Silver Dagger Award)

Adaptations

The novels were adapted into a

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

TV Series simply entitled ''

Cribb ''Cribb'' (''Sergeant Cribb'' in North America) is a television police drama, which debuted in 1979 as a 90-minute TV film from Granada Television in the United Kingdom. Later, thirteen 50-minute episodes were produced, which ran from 1980 to ...

'' (1979–81). The Series starred

Alan Dobie Alan Russell Dobie (born 2 June 1932) is an English stage, television and film actor and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Early life and career Dobie was born in Wombwell, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to George Russ ...

as Cribb, with

William Simons Clifford William Cumberbatch Simons (17 November 1940 – 21 June 2019) was a Welsh-born actor best known for his role as PC Alf Ventress in '' Heartbeat'', a role he played for 18 years, from 1992 to 2010. Early life Simons was born on 17 Novem ...

as Thackeray. The series is available on DVD in the UK, the US, and Canada.

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 ...

's Saturday Night Theatre adapted six of the novels: * ''Abracadaver'' (1975), with

Frank Windsor Frank Windsor Higgins (12 July 1928 – 30 September 2020), known professionally as Frank Windsor, was an English actor, primarily known for his roles on television, especially policeman John Watt in ''Z-Cars'' and its spin-offs. Biography Win ...

as Cribb &

John Hollis John Hollis (12 November 1927 – 18 October 2005) was a British actor of TV and film. He is known for his uncredited appearance as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the ''James Bond'' film '' For Your Eyes Only'', as well as for his appearances in the ...

as Thackeray. * ''Wobble to Death'' (1975), with

Timothy Bateson Timothy Dingwall Bateson (3 April 1926 – 15 September 2009) was an English actor. Life and career Born in London, the son of solicitor Dingwall Latham Bateson and the great-nephew of rugby player Harold Dingwall Bateson, he was educated at U ...

as Cribb & William Eedle as Thackeray. * ''The Detective Wore Silk Drawers'' (1977), with John Rye as Cribb &

as Thackeray. * ''A Case of Spirits'' (1985), with Barry Foster as Cribb &

John Cater John Edward Cater (17 January 1932 – 21 March 2009) was an English actor. His television credits include: ''Danger Man''; ''Z-Cars''; '' The Avengers''; '' The Baron''; ''Doctor Who'' (in the serial ''The War Machines''); ''Follyfoot''; '' ...

as Thackeray. * ''Swing, Swing Together'' (1987), with Barry Foster as Cribb &

as Thackeray. * ''Waxwork'' (1987), with Brian Cox as Cribb &

as Thackeray.

Peter Diamond novels

*''

The Last Detective ''The Last Detective'' is a British TV comedy drama series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV between 7 February 2003 and 31 May 2007, starring Peter Davison as the title character, Detective Constable "Dangerous Davies". The series is based o ...

'' (1991), (

Anthony Award The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Among the m ...

) *''Diamond Solitaire'' (1992), *''The Summons'' (1995), (Silver Dagger Awar

*''Bloodhounds'' (1996), (Silver Dagger Awar

Macavity Awards, Macavity Award, Barry Award) *''Upon a Dark Night'' (1997), *''The Vault'' (1999), *''Diamond Dust'' (2002), *''The House Sitter'' (2003), (with Inspector Henrietta Mallin) (Macavity Award) *''The Secret Hangman'' (2007), *''Skeleton Hill'' (2009), *''Stagestruck'' (2011), *''Cop to Corpse'' (2012), *''The Tooth Tattoo'' (2013), *''The Stone Wife'' (2014), *''Down Among the Dead Men'' (2015), *''Another One Goes Tonight'' (2016), *''Beau Death'' (2017), *''Killing With Confetti'' (2019), *''The Finisher'' (2020), *''Diamond and the Eye'' (2021), *''Showstopper'' (2022),

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales novels

*''Bertie and the Tinman'' (1987), *''Bertie and the Seven Bodies'' (1990), *''Bertie and the Crime of Passion'' (1993),

Novels as Peter Lear

*''Goldengirl'' (1977), *''Spider Girl'' (1980), (republished as ''In Suspense'') *''The Secret of Spandau'' (1986),

Other novels

*''

The False Inspector Dew ''The False Inspector Dew'' is a humorous crime novel by Peter Lovesey. It won the Gold Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association in 1982 and has featured on many "Best of" lists since. Plot introduction It is 1921, and Alma Webster, a re ...

'' (1982), (

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 ...

Awar

*''Keystone'' (1983), *''Rough Cider'' (1986), *''On the Edge'' (1989), (adapted for television as ''Dead Gorgeous'' in 2002) *''The Reaper'' (2000), *''The Circle'' (2005), (Inspector Hen Mallin, appearance by Peter Diamond) *''The Headhunters'' (2008), (Inspector Hen Mallin)

Short story collections

*''Butchers'' (1985), *''The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown'' (1994), *''Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose'' (

,1998), *''The Sedgemoor Strangler'' (

, 2001), *''Murder on the Short List'' (

, 2008), *"Showman" in ''

Past Poisons ''Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime'' is a 1998 British anthology of historical mystery short stories and novellas, edited by Maxim Jakubowski. The collection is named for novelist Ellis Peters, whose '' Cadfae ...

'' (1998) *"Lovesey's New Shorts" to be published in 2021Revealed by the author in an online event organised by Bracknell Forest Library on 25 March 2021.

Anthology

*''The Black Cabinet'' (1989), (ed.) *''The Verdict of Us All'' (2006), (ed.)

Non-fiction

*''The Kings of Distance'' (1968) *''The Guide to British Track and Field Literature, 1275–1968'' (1969), (with Tom McNab) *''The Official Centenary History of the Amateur Athletic Association'' (1979), *''An Athletics Compendium'' (2001), (with Tom McNab and Andrew Huxtable)

References

External links

*
SOHO Press Author PageInterview with Peter Lovesey
''Speaking of Mysteries TV Series'' (2001) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lovesey, Peter 1936 births Living people People educated at Hampton School English crime fiction writers English short story writers Cartier Diamond Dagger winners Members of the Detection Club People from Whitton, London Anthony Award winners Macavity Award winners Barry Award winners 20th-century English novelists 21st-century British novelists Writers of historical mysteries English male short story writers English male novelists 20th-century British short story writers 21st-century British short story writers 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers