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British novelist (born 1954) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ann Cleeves OBE (born 24 October 1954) is a British mystery crime writer. She wrote the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez, and Matthew Venn series, all three of which have been adapted into TV shows. In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Raven Black,[1] the first novel in the Jimmy Perez series.
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Ann Cleeves | |
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![]() Cleeves in 2017 | |
Born | Herefordshire, England | 24 October 1954
Genre | Crime |
Notable awards | Duncan Lawrie Dagger 2006 |
Children | 2 |
Cleeves was born in Herefordshire and brought up in north Devon where she attended Barnstaple Grammar School;[2] she studied English at the University of Sussex but dropped out and then took up various jobs, including cook at the Fair Isle bird observatory, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer.[3]
Cleeves' work was first optioned for television after producer Elaine Collins discovered a copy of one of the Vera novels, The Crow Trap, while searching for holiday reading in an Oxfam shop in North London, where she lived. Collins was the books executive for ITV Studios, which was looking for a new female detective to fill its Sunday night drama slot. [4][5] Collins subsequently went on to buy the rights to Cleeves' Jimmy Perez novels for the BBC, which turned them into Shetland.
She lives in Whitley Bay,[1] and is widowed with two daughters.[6]
In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Raven Black,[1] and in 2008 she was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. In 2014 Cleeves was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Sunderland.[7] In 2015, Cleeves was the Programming Chair for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival & the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. In 2015, she was shortlisted for the Dagger in the Library UK Crime Writers' Association award for an author's body of work in British libraries (UK).[8]
Cleeves was chosen as the 2017 recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association for "sustained excellence" in crime fiction.[9] In February 2019 Ann Cleeves appeared on Desert Island Discs.[10] Cleeves was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to reading and libraries.[11][12]
In July 2022, Cleeves was awarded an honorary D.Litt. from Newcastle University for services to reading and libraries.[13]
These novels, except for The Glass Room, have been dramatized in the television series Vera on ITV, which stars Brenda Blethyn in the title role. The programme premiered in May 2011.
In 2013, Red Bones was dramatised by David Kane for BBC television as the first episode of the series Shetland, which stars Douglas Henshall as Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez. Episodes broadcast in 2014 were based on Raven Black, Dead Water, and Blue Lightning.[14]
The first book is the adaptive basis for The Long Call ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as DI Matthew Venn.
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The Vera Stanhope novels have been dramatised as the TV detective series Vera beginning in 2011; the Jimmy Perez novels as the TV series Shetland; and the Matthew Venn novel The Long Call (from Cleeves' Two Rivers book series) as the TV series The Long Call (premiered autumn 2021). Some of the later episodes in the Vera and Shetland series were original scripts based on Cleeves's characters.
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