Peter May (writer)

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For other people named Peter May, see Peter May.
Peter May
File:Peter May wins French Cezam Prize.jpg
Peter May
Born (1951-12-20) 20 December 1951 (age 72)
Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation Crime writer, screenwriter, novelist
Nationality Scottish
Period 1971 – present
Genre Television drama, Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction
Subject China, France
Notable works The China Thrillers, The Enzo Files
Notable awards Fraser Award
1973 Scottish Young Journalist of the Year

Prix Intramuros
2007 Snakehead

Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE
2011 The Blackhouse
Spouse Janice Hally
Website
petermay.co.uk

Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer.[1] He is the recipient of writing awards in Europe and America. The Blackhouse won the U.S. Barry Award for Crime Novel of the Year and the national literature award in France, the CEZAM Prix Litteraire. The Lewis Man won the French daily newspaper Le Télégramme’s 10,000-euro Grand Prix des Lecteurs.[2] In 2014, Entry Island won both the Deanston’s Scottish Crime Novel of the Year[3] and the UK’s ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year Award.[4] May’s books have sold more than two million copies in the UK and several million internationally.[5]

Early life

Peter May was born in Glasgow. From an early age he was intent on becoming a novelist, but took up a career as a journalist as a way to start earning a living by writing. At the age of 21, he won the Fraser Award and was named Scotland's Young Journalist of the Year. He went on to write for The Scotsman and the Glasgow Evening Times.[6] At the age of 26, May's first novel, The Reporter, was published. May was asked to adapt the book as a television series for the British television network the BBC, and left journalism in 1978 to begin to write full-time for television.[6]

Television career

May's novel, The Reporter became the prime-time 13-part television series entitled The Standard in 1978. May went on to create another major TV series for the BBC – Squadron – a drama involving a RAF rapid deployment squadron.[7] In the following fifteen years, May earned more than 1,000 TV credits. He created and wrote major drama serials for both BBC and the Independent Television Network in the UK[8] including Machair[9] which he co-created with Janice Hally for Scottish Television. The long-running serial was the first major television drama to be made in the Gaelic language and was shot entirely on the Isle of Lewis location in the Outer Hebrides.[9] The show, which May also produced, achieved a 33% audience share and made it regularly into the top ten in the ratings in Scotland, in spite of the fact that it had to be broadcast with English subtitles as only 2% of the population of Scotland are Gaelic speakers.[8] During his time working in television, May wrote the novels Hidden Faces (1981) and The Noble Path (1992),[7] and in 1996 May quit television to devote his time to writing novels.[8]

Chinese connections

Returning to novels, his "China Thrillers" series of books have been published around the world. To research the series, Peter May made annual trips to China and built up a network of contacts including forensic pathologists and homicide detectives. He gained access to the homicide and forensic science sections of Beijing and Shanghai police forces and has made a study of the methodology of Chinese police and forensic pathology systems.[8]

As a mark of their respect for his work, The Chinese Crime Writers' Association made him an honorary member of their Beijing Chapter. He is the only Westerner to receive such an honour.[6] He has also contributed a monthly column to the Chinese Police Magazine Contemporary World Police.[6]

French connections

Peter May lives in France and his China Thrillers have received several nominations for awards in that country. In 2007 he won the Prix Intramuros.[10] This prize is unique in France as it is awarded by juries of readers made up of prisoners in French penitentiaries. The books under consideration are reduced to a shortlist of 6 finalists and the authors of the shortlisted books then have to travel to various French prisons to be interviewed by panels of detainees.[10] In 2007, May was the only non-French author in the shortlist. He received the prize at the annual Polar&Co literary festival in Cognac.[1]

"The Enzo Files", is set in France and is centred on the work of half-Italian, half-Scottish Enzo Macleod. This former forensic scientist, now working as a biology professor at a French university becomes involved in applying the latest scientific methods to solve cold cases.[11]

May continues to ensure authenticity in the details of his books by researching in France just as he did in China. When writing "The Critic" – which involves the wine industry and is set in Gaillac, France – May took a course in wine-tasting, picked grapes by hand, and was invited by the winemakers of the region to be inducted as a Chevalier de la Dive Bouteille de Gaillac in December 2007.[12][13]

Second Life

While working on his standalone thriller 'Virtually Dead', May researched the book by creating an avatar in the online world of Second Life and opening the Flick Faulds private detective agency. He spent a year in Second Life, working as a private detective, and was hired by clients for cases ranging from protection from harassment by stalkers to surveillance and infidelity investigations. He claims to have had a 100% success rate.[14]

The Lewis Trilogy

After being turned down by all the major British publishers, The Blackhouse – the first book in 'The Lewis Trilogy' – was published first in May's adopted home of France in French translation at the end of 2009. The book was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French daily newspaper L'Humanité[15][16] and was immediately nominated for several literary awards in France. It won the Prix des Lecteurs at Le Havre's Ancres Noires Festival in 2010[17] and won the French national literature award, the Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE[18] at an award ceremony in Strasbourg in October 2011.[19] The Blackhouse went on to be published all over Europe and was bought by British publishers Quercus who brought it out in February 2011. It is the first of three books to be set in the Outer Hebrides, an archipelago off the North West coast of Scotland.[20]

'The Blackhouse' was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club autumn 2011 list.[21]

The second book in the trilogy, 'The Lewis Man' was published in January 2012, and spent 18 weeks in the UK hardbacks best sellers' list. It has won two French literature awards, the Prix des Lecteurs at Le Havre's Ancres Noires Festival, 2012 and the Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme, readers prize of France's Le Télégramme newspaper – the 10,000 euro award was presented to May at a ceremony in Brest in May 2012.[22]

'The Lewis Man' won the 2012 Prix International at the Cognac Festival.[23]

The third book in the trilogy, 'The Chessmen' was published in January 2013. It was shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Book of the Year 2014.[24] The Lewis Trilogy has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.[25]

Entry Island

'Entry Island' Peter May's first book after the Lewis Trilogy, won the Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2014,[26] the UK national prize, the Specsavers ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year 2014[27] and the French Trophée 813 for the Best Foreign Crime Novel of the year 2015.[28]

The book is partly set on a remote island in modern-day Canada and partly set on the Isle of Lewis 150 years earlier, during the Highland Clearances.

Runaway

'Runaway' is a crime novel based on Peter May's real experiences of running away from home in Glasgow seeking fame and fortune in London with members of a musical group that he was part of in the 1960s. The story is told through two storylines, one in 1965 where the teenagers embark on a trip that ends with tragic consequences, and the other in 2015, where the men retrace their steps from Scotland to London fifty years later in order to solve a murder.[29]

Books, television and film writing credits

The Lewis Trilogy

The Enzo Files

The China Thrillers

Standalone novels

Photo books

  • Hebrides (Quercus 2013) Photo companion to The Lewis Trilogy, with photographs by David Wilson.

Television drama

Film

  • The Killing Room (Les Disparues) movie to be produced by French production company, French Connection in partnership with Korean Dream Capture Studios[30] Action to be transferred from Shanghai, China to Seoul, South Korea.

Awards

Author Peter May with the 2013 Barry Award for Best Novel, for his book, "The Blackhouse".
  • Fraser Award (1973) winner of Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award[7]
  • 17th International Celtic Film and Television Festival (1996) Machair nominated for Best Drama Serial Award[7]
  • Elle Magazine, Grand Prix de Littérature (2006) The Firemaker runner up in category Best Crime Novel[7]
  • 2007 Prix Intramuros (France)[31] Snakehead winner at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac[10]
  • 2007 Prix International (France) Snakehead shortlisted at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac[7]
  • 2008 Prix International (France) Chinese Whispers shortlisted at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac[7]
  • 2010 Prix Ancres Noires[32] L'Île des chasseurs d'oiseaux (The Blackhouse) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre
  • 2011 Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE[18] L'Île des chasseurs d'oiseaux (The Blackhouse) winner of the CEZAM Prix Litteraire Inter CE national French Literature Prize.[19]
  • 2012 Prix Ancres Noires[33] (2012) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre
  • 2012 Grand Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme[34] (2012) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme, 10,000 Euro Readers' Prize of French daily newspaper.[35]
  • 2012 Prix International, Cognac Festival[23]L'Homme de Lewis won the 2012 Prix International at the Cognac Festival.
  • 2013 Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel (USA)[36] The Blackhouse shortlisted
  • 2013 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK)[37] The Lewis Man shortlisted
  • 2013 Barry Award for Best Crime Novel (USA)[38] The Blackhouse won the Barry Award for Best Novel of the Year at a ceremony at Bouchercon, Albany NY.[39]
  • 2014 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK)[24] The Chessmen shortlisted
  • 2014 Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year[26] Entry Island won the Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in Stirling September 2014.
  • 2014 Specsavers ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year[27] Entry Island won the Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year Award at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony in London, October 2014.
  • 2015 Dagger in the Library UK Crime Writers' Association award for an author's body of work in British libraries (UK)[40] shortlisted
  • 2015 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK)[41] Entry Island shortlisted
  • 2015 Trophée 813 (France)[28] Entry Island (L'Île du Serment) won the Trophée 813 for "Best Foreign Crime Novel" awarded by the French magazine Review 813.

References

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External links

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  • Peter May at the Internet Movie Database
  • The story behind Extraordinary People – Online Essay by Peter May at Upcoming4.me
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