Minette Walters
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
crime writer.
Life and work
After her birth in Bishop’s Stortford to a serving army officer, Capt Samuel Jebb (Royal Signals) and his wife Colleen, the first 10 years of Minette’s life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England. Following the death of her father from kidney failure in 1960, Minette spent a year at the Abbey School in Reading, BerkshireReading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, before being granted a free Foundation Scholarship at the Godolphin boarding school
Godolphin School
The Godolphin School is an independent boarding school for girls at Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, founded in 1726. The school educates some 430 girls between the ages of eleven and eighteen.-History:...
in Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
.
During a gap year between school and Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
, 1968, she went to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
as a volunteer with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
and in a delinquent boys’ home in Jerusalem. She graduated from Trevelyan College
Trevelyan College
Trevelyan College, often abbreviated to Trevs, is a college of the University of Durham in North Eastern England. Founded in 1966, the college takes its name from social historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, Chancellor of the University from 1950 to 1957. Originally an all-female college , the...
, Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in 1971 with a BA in French. Minette met her husband Alec Walters (University College) while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. They have two sons, Roland and Philip.
Walters joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in 1972 and became an editor of Woman’s Weekly Library the following year. She supplemented her salary by writing romantic novelettes, short stories and serials in her spare time. She turned freelance in 1977 but continued to write for magazines to cover her bills.
Her first full-length novel, The Ice House
The Ice House (novel)
The Ice House is the first crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. The story was the recipient of a John Creasey award for best debut.-Synopsis:...
, was published in 1992. It took two and a half years to write and was rejected by numerous publishing houses until Maria Rejt, Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, bought it for £1250. Within four months, it had won the Crime Writers' Association
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
John Creasey award for best first novel and had been snapped up by 11 foreign publishers. With her next two books, The Sculptress
The Sculptress
The Sculptress is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. She won an Edgar and a Macavity Award for the book. The novel was adapted as a BBC-TV series in 1996, starring Pauline Quirke as Olive Martin.-Synopsis:...
and The Scold's Bridle
The Scold's Bridle
The Scold's Bridle is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. The book, Walters' third, won a CWA Gold Dagger.-Synopsis:Mathilda Gillespie, an eccentric recluse known for her incredible meanness of nature, is found dead in her bathtub, her wrists slashed and her head locked inside a...
, Walters won the Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
and the CWA Gold Dagger
Gold Dagger
The Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....
respectively, giving her a unique treble. She was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books.
Walter’s themes include isolation, family dysfunction, rejection, marginalisation, justice and revenge. Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the ‘reality’ of what she is writing about. With no series character tying her to particular people, places or times, she moves freely around settings – a sink estate (Acid Row
Acid Row
Acid Row is a 2001 novel by crime-writer Minette Walters. The novel examines contemporary reactions to paedophilia and resulting urban rioting, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger.-External links:**...
), a Dorset village (Fox Evil
Fox Evil
Fox Evil is a novel by British crime-writer Minette Walters. It won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger in 2003, making her one of the few writers to win the award more than once.- External links :**...
), a suburb of London (The Shape of Snakes
The Shape of Snakes
The Shape of Snakes is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. The story won Denmark's Pelle Rosencrantz Award.-Synopsis:In 1978, a black woman known as 'Mad Annie' by her neighbours was found dead in a west London gutter, her body discovered by Mrs...
) – although every setting is ‘claustrophobic’ to encourage the characters ‘to turn on each other’.
Walters describes herself as an exploratory writer who never uses a plot scheme, begins with simple premises, has no idea ‘whodunit’ until half-way through a story, but who remains excited about each novel because she, along with her reader, wants to know what happens next.
As part of the British project ‘Quick Reads’, to encourage literacy amongst adults with reading difficulties, Walters wrote a 20,000-word novella called Chickenfeed
Chickenfeed
Chickenfeed is a crime novella by English writer Minette Walters, published as part of the "Quick Reads", designed to promote literacy through short, simply written and fast moving stories.-Synopsis:...
. In competition with works by other best-selling authors, such as Ruth Rendell
Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
, Maeve Binchy
Maeve Binchy
Maeve Binchy is an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker. Educated at University College Dublin, she worked as a teacher then a journalist at The Irish Times and later became a writer of novels and short stories.Many of her novels are set in Ireland, dealing with the tensions between...
and Joanna Trollope
Joanna Trollope
Joanna Trollope OBE , is an English novelist.-Life:Joanna Trollope was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office...
, Chickenfeed has won two awards as the best novella in the ‘Quick Reads’ genre. It has also been translated into several languages.
In September 2007, Walters released her fourteenth book, The Chameleon's Shadow
The Chameleon's Shadow
The Chameleon's Shadow is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters.- Plot summary:When Lieutenant Charles Acland is flown home from Iraq with serious head injuries, he faces not only permanent disfigurement but also an apparent change to his previously outgoing personality...
, in the UK.
On 3–7 March 2008, BBC2 aired Murder Most Famous, a five-part TV talent contest series, in which Walters tutors and judges six competing celebrity writers, with the winner having his or her crime fiction novel published by Pan Macmillan on World Book Day 2009. The series was won by the actress Sherrie Hewson
Sherrie Hewson
Sherrie Lynn Hutchinson is an English actor, broadcaster and novelist.-Early life:Born in Nottinghamshire, Hewson was brought up in a showbusiness family; her father was a singer and her mother a model. She began performing at the age of six, touring the UK's theatres in revues with her own...
, whose debut novel The Tannery
The Tannery
The Tannery is the debut novel by British actress Sherrie Hewson. The novel was written as part of a BBC TV series called Murder Most Famous of which she won the chance for her competing work to be published. The series was hosted by Minette Walters. The book was released in March 2009.-External...
was published in March 2009.
TV adaptations
Walters' first five books were adapted for television by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and her eighth book, Acid Row
Acid Row
Acid Row is a 2001 novel by crime-writer Minette Walters. The novel examines contemporary reactions to paedophilia and resulting urban rioting, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger.-External links:**...
, is currently under option with Company Pictures
Company Pictures
Company Pictures is an independent British television production company which has produced drama programming for many broadcasters. Their productions have included:*drama series Wild at Heart for ITV1, written by Ashley Pharoah....
.
- The Sculptress - adapted 1996; starred Pauline QuirkePauline QuirkePauline Perpetua Quirke is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Sharon in the comedy series Birds of a Feather, alongside her lifelong friend and frequent acting partner Linda Robson...
and Caroline GoodallCaroline GoodallCaroline Cruice Goodall is a British actress and screenwriter.-Biography:Goodall was born in London, England to a journalist mother and a publisher father...
. - The Ice House - adapted 1997; starred Daniel CraigDaniel CraigDaniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
, Frances BarberFrances BarberFrances Barber is an Olivier Award-nominated English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also appeared in numerous television productions...
and Corin RedgraveCorin RedgraveCorin William Redgrave was an English actor and political activist.-Early life:Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
. - The Scold's Bridle – adapted 1998; starred Miranda RichardsonMiranda RichardsonMiranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....
, Siân PhillipsSiân PhillipsJane Elizabeth Ailwên "Siân" Phillips, CBE, is a Welsh actress.-Early life:Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally , a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman...
, Virginia McKennaVirginia McKennaVirginia A. McKenna OBE is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner.-Early career:McKenna trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama then worked on stage in London's West End theatres before making her motion picture debut in 1952...
and Trudie StylerTrudie StylerTrudie Styler is an English actress and producer. She is the second wife of the musician Sting.-Life and career:Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. She attended North Bromsgrove High School, where one of her teachers was Clifford T. Ward...
. - The Echo – adapted 1998; starred Clive OwenClive OwenClive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
and Joely RichardsonJoely RichardsonJoely Kim Richardson is an English actress, most known recently for her role as Queen Catherine Parr in the Showtime television show The Tudors and Julia McNamara in the television drama Nip/Tuck...
. - The Dark Room - adapted 1999; starred Dervla KirwanDervla KirwanDervla Kirwan is an Irish actress famous for roles in British television shows such as Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart...
and James WilbyJames WilbyJames Jonathon Wilby is an English film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father...
.
Awards and nominations
- 1992 - The Crime Writers' AssociationCrime Writers' AssociationThe Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
John Creasey Award: The Ice House - 1994 – The Edgar Allan Poe Award in AmericaUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Macavity AwardMacavity AwardsThe Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The award is given in four categories -- best novel,...
: The Sculptress - 1994 – The CWA Gold Dagger Award: The Scold's Bridle
- 1995 - The CWA Gold Dagger Award (shortlist): The Dark Room
- 2000 - The Pelle Rosenkrantz prize DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
: The Shape of Snakes - 2001 – The CWA Gold Dagger Award (shortlist): Acid Row
- 2002 – The CWA Gold Dagger Award: Fox Evil
- 2006 – Quick Reads Learners' Favourite award: Chickenfeed
- 2007 – Coventry Inspiration Book Award: Chickenfeed