Val McDermid

**Val McDermid** FRSE, FRSL (born the 4 Juin 1955) is a Scots crime writer, best kent fur her suspense novelles featurin Dr. Tony Hill.

## Biographie
McDermid wis born intae a wirkin-cless family in Fife. She studied Inglis at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, whaur she wis the furst scholart tae come frae a Scots state schuil.

Efter graduatin she becam a jurnalist an began her leeterar career as a dramatist. She furthset her furst novelle, *Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery* in 1987.

She wis gien an honorary doctorate frae the Varsity o Sunderland in 2011. She cofoondit the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival an the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, pairt o the Harrogate International Festivals. In 2016 she led a team o St. Hilda's alumnae tae win the *Christmas University Challenge*.

In 2017, McDermid wis electit as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh an a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature forby.

As o 2009, she sponsors the McDermid Stand in Stark's Pairk, the groonds o Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy. This wis tae honour her faither that wis a scoot fur the club. A year efterhaund, she jynt the bourd o the club, an in 2014 her wabsteid became the team's sark sponsor.

## Wirk
McDermid's scrievins faas intae fower series: Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan, Tony Hill an Carol Jordan, an Inspector Karen Pirie. *The Mermaids Singing*, the furst beuk o the Hill/Jordan series, wan the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger awaird fur Best Crime Novel of the Year. The Hill/Jordan series haes been adaptit intae a telly series, kent as *Wire in the Blood*. Her novelles, particularly the Tony Hill beuks, is kenned fur thair graphic depictions o violence an tortur.

McDermid haes sayed Jacko Vance, a TV celebrity wi a saicret cravin fur tortur, murther an unnerage quines, that appeart in *Wire in the Blood* an twa later beuks, is based on her ain experience o spierin Jimmy Saville.

McDermid considers her wirk tae be pairt o the tartain noir subgenre o Scots crime fiction. As weel as scrievin novelles, McDermid contributes tae a wheen o British newspapers an aften braidcasts on BBC Radio 4 an BBC Radio Scotland.

## Ink atteck
On 6 December 2012 a wumman flang ink ower McDermid durin a event at the Varsity o Sunderland. McDermid wis pittin her name tae beuks, an a wumman askit her tae pit her name tae a *Top of the Pops* annual wi Jimmy Saville on the cover. Tho laith, McDermid pit her name tae the annual, efter that the wumman pulled oot a bottle o ink an flang it at her afore rinnin frae the room. Nanetheless, McDermid vowed tae haud gaun wi her witterins.

Sandra Botham, a 64-year-auld wumman frae the Hedon area o Sunderland, wis arreistit on suspicion o assaut. Botham wis chairged wi common assaut on the 10 Julie 2013,  gat a 12-month community sentence wi owerins an wis gart pey £50 assythment an a £60 victim surchairge. She wis gien a restrainin order baurin her frae contactin McDermid fur a undefined time period. The *Northern Echo* reportit that Botham actit acause o McDermid's 1994 non-fiction book, *A Suitable Job for a Woman*, that Botham claimed mirkit her an her faimily.

## Personal life
In 2010 McDermid, that is gay, wis bidin atween Northumberland an Manchester wi furthsetter Kelly Smith, that she haed entered a civil pairtnership wi in 2006. She foregane bade in Stockport an Northumberland wi three cats and a border terrier dug. Syne early 2014 she haes bade in Stockport and Edinburgh.

On 23 October 2016, McDermid waddit Jo Sharp, a professor o geographie at the Varsity o Glesga an McDermid's pairtner o twa year.

In 2016, McDermid led a team o crime writers on quiz shaw *Eggheads*, beatin the Eggheads an winnin £14,000.

McDermid is a radical feminist an socialist. She haes pitten feminism intae some o her novelles.

## Bibliographie
### Lindsay Gordon series
**Report for Murder* (1987)
**Common Murder* (1989)
**Final Edition* (1991) US Titles: *Open and Shut*, *Deadline for Murder*
**Union Jack *(1993), US Title: *Conferences Are Murder*
**Booked for Murder* (1996)
**Hostage to Murder* (2003)

### Kate Brannigan series
**Dead Beat* (1992)
**Kick Back* (1993)
**Crack Down* (1994)
**Clean Break* (1995)
**Blue Genes* (1996)
**Star Struck* (1998) (awairded Grand Prix des Romans d’Aventure in 1998)

### Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series
**The Mermaids Singing* (1995) (Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year in 1995)
**The Wire in the Blood* (1997)
**The Last Temptation* (2002)
**The Torment of Others* (2004)
**Beneath the Bleeding* (2007)
**Fever of the Bone* (2009)
**The Retribution* (2011)
**Cross and Burn* (2013)
**Splinter the Silence *(2015)
**Insidious Intent* (2017)
**How the Dead Speak* (2019)

### Inspector Karen Pirie series
**The Distant Echo* (2003)
**A Darker Domain* (2008)
**The Skeleton Road* (2014)
**Out of Bounds* (2016)
**Broken Ground* (2018)
**Still Life* (2020)

### The Austen Project
**Northanger Abbey* (2014)

### Ither books
**The Writing on the Wall* (1997); short stories, limited edition o 200 copies
**A Place of Execution* (1999)
**Killing the Shadows* (2000)
**Stranded* (2005); short stories
**Cleanskin* (2006)
**The Grave Tattoo* (2006)
**Trick of the Dark* (2010) dedicated tae Mary Bennett (1913-2003) & Kathy Vaughan Wilkes (1946-2003)
**The Vanishing Point* (2012)

### Bairns's buiks
**My Granny is a Pirate* (2012)
**The High Heid Yin's New Claes* furthsetten in *The Itchy Coo Book o Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales in Scots* (2020)

### Non-fiction
**A Suitable Job for a Woman* (1995)
**Bodies of Evidence* (2014)
**Forensics – The Anatomy of Crime* (2014)
**Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime* (2015)

## References