ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Peter Lovesey a classic crime writer

Updated on May 16, 2015

Profile of a Crime Writer

Peter Lovesey was born in 1936, Middlesex, Britain growing up during the second world war, his earliest childhood memory occurred during an air raid in 1944. After being picked up from a school air raid shelter, Lovesey discovered that a V1 bomb exploded at his parent’s home. Narrowly missing his brothers who had managed to find cover under a Morrison table. Their next door neighbours in the other half of the house were killed by the bomb. Lovesey and his brothers were evacuated to the West Country until the end of the war.

Returning after the war to London Lovesey’s father took him to white city the east side of London to try to see if they could get into an Athletics race. Disappointingly they didn’t manage to get in, Lovesey and his father watched the London Olympics. Lovesey was so inspired by cycling races he decided to take up competitive cycling himself.

Leaving Hampton Grammar School and enrolling at Reading University to study Fine Art, Lovesey decided early on to change courses and study of an English degree. After graduating from Reading University, he joined the RAF. In post-war Britain Lovesey was eligible for National Service; a Pilot Officer teaching young RAF entrants. When he completed his National Service he married his long-term partner Jackie Lewis in 1959.

In 1961 after leaving the RAF Lovesey started working as a Lecturer at Thurrock Technical College which has since changed its name to Hammersmith College in London. Outside of his main job as a Lecturer, Lovesey started writing his first book Kings of Distance. When it was published it won sports book of the year by Sports World. In 1969, Lovesey and his wife noticed a competition in the newspaper, the winning crime novel would win one thousand pounds. Four months of solid writing and Lovesey wrote his first crime novel Wobble to Death, a Victorian mystery based on Lovesey knowledge of Victorian Athletics featuring Sergeant Cribb. His novel won the competition, and after it was published he wrote another seven books before leaving Lecturing in 1975. Waxwork was Lovesey eighth published novel, which won the Dagger Awards in 1978. After television producer, Jane Wyndham-Davies noticed a review of Waxwork in Time Magazine. A television episode was screened based upon the novel which was aired at Christmas 1979. Casting actor Alan Dobbie as Sergeant Cribb and Karen Royal as the character in the book who is about to be executed. A further two series were produced for television, collaborating with his wife they both wrote another six stories for television again starring Alan Dobbie and William Simons playing Constable Thackeray. Lovesey now wrote The False Inspector Drew a new crime novel which was published in 1982.

Lovesey now writing under the pen name Peter Lear, Goldengirl was the story of a talented athlete entering the 1980 Moscow Olympics to compete for three gold medals. It was adapted into a film starring Susan Anton and James Coburn. However, when the film was released, America withdrew its athletes from the 1980 Olympics in protest of Russia invading Afghanistan.

In 1991, Lovesey returned to writing crime novels, he wrote a modern day detective novel The Last Detective starring Peter Diamond as a detective Superintendent. The book was nominated and won the Anthony Award for best mystery book of the year in America. The Summons was written in 1995 and the following year Bloodhound was published each novel winning a Silver Award. In 2000, Lovesey was awarded the Cartier Dagger Award for his career in writing crime fiction novels.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)