Minette walters author biography page

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    Minette Walters

    Minette Walters is one of the most successful crime fiction writers in the world. Her first full-length novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992, and won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey award for best first novel. Her second novel, The Sculptress, which was inspired in part by an encounter she had as a volunteer prison visitor, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. Her third novel, The Scold's Bridle, then won the CWA Gold Dagger, giving her a unique treble.

    The Last Hours (2017) saw Minette moving in a different direction with a historical novel set in 1348, the year the Black Death came to England. The story is brought to a thrilling conclusion in The Turn of Midnight (2018). Set three centuries later, The Swift and the Harrier, is her latest book and was published in November. You can find Minette's books on our catalogue.

    Who were your heroes as you were growing up and when did you first start writing?

    Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Nina Simone, The Rolling Stones, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, Daphne du Maurier and, a decade later, Queen. (Freddie Mercury remains my hero to this day).

    At university, I studied French and loved the works of Samuel Becket

  • minette walters author biography page

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    Biography

    Minette Walters was born in Bishop’s Stortford in1949 to Samuel Jebb and Colleen Jebb. As her father was a serving army officer, the first 10 years of her life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England. Her father died in 1960, following years of ill health from his desert service during World War II. Minette was educated through a generous Foundation Scholarship at the Godolphin School in Salisbury.

    During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Minette volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys’ home in Jerusalem. She graduated from Trevelyan College, Durham in 1971 with a BA in French.

    Minette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. They have two sons: Roland, who is married to Charlotte, and Philip, who is married to Sarah: and three granddaughters: Madeleine, Martha and Hermione.

    Minette 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

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    Minette Walters

    The Sculptress
    3.92 avg rating — 11,573 ratings — publicised 1993 — 126 editions
    The Ice House
    3.83 avg rating — 10,511 ratings — in print 1992 — 117 editions
    The Scold's Bridle
    3.91 avg rating — 10,031 ratings — publicised 1994 — 109 editions
    The Last Hours (Black Inattentive, #1)
    3.91 avg rank — 8,090 ratings — published 2017 — 39 editions
    The Unlighted Room
    3.74 avg cavern — 5,134 ratings — published 1995 — 103 editions
    The Convulsion of Snakes
    3.76 avg rating — 4,665 ratings — publicised 2000 — 80 editions
    The Turn dead weight Midnight (Black Death, #2)
    3.99 avg rating — 4,342 ratings — publicized 2018 — 33 editions
    Acid Row
    3.74 avg evaluation — 4,588 ratings — published 2001 — 74 editions
    The Echo
    3.62 avg rating — 4,278 ratings — promulgated 1997 — 88 editions
    The Breaker
    3.62 avg great — 4,264 ratings — published 1998 — 91 editions