Initially a teacher of English and Drama, the novelist John Harvey began writing in 1975, and now has over 100 published books to his credit, the most recent being the novel Far Cry, and a collection of short stories titled A Darker Shade of Blue.
The first of his celebrated Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, was named by The Times as one of the 100 most notable crime novels of the last century. Flesh and Blood, the first of three Frank Elder novels, was awarded both the British Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger and the US Barry Award in 2004. His books have won two major prizes in France, and in 2007 he received the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for Sustained Excellence in Crime Writing.
Harvey has written many scripts for television and radio, including dramatisations of two Graham Greene novels, A.S. Byatt’s Frederica Quartet and (with Shelley Silas) The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott.
A published poet, who ran Slow Dancer Press for nearly twenty years, he reads his work with the jazz group Second Nature.
In 2009 he was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Nottingham.