Literary Birthday – 10 September – Peter Lovesey

Peter Lovesey was born on 10 September 1936 and died on 10 April 2025.

Peter Lovesey Quotes

1. Someone wrote to my publisher saying she assumed I died many years ago because I wrote Victorian mysteries, but her husband thought I might still be alive, and they wanted the matter cleared up. She enclosed a stamped addressed envelope. After checking my pulse, I wrote a reply and then reflected on why I was so rooted in the past. It took a big effort making the change to modern settings, up-to-date forensic science and lively dialogue, but the change has been good for me. (PW)
2. My contemporary books actually need more research because modern techniques of investigation are constantly moving on. If I write a book set in 1880, I know which books to use, which papers to read. In 2005, I’m forever buying textbooks, cutting things out of magazines and papers, and going to conferences on police procedures and watching documentaries to get the latest. (PW)
3. When I started I would plan meticulously and write the synopsis before beginning Chapter One. (Valerie Holmes)
4. I don’t write in drafts. The pages I write each day aren’t altered, except in minor ways, so it’s a slow process. If I tell you how few words I manage in a day you won’t believe me. It has to be right before I can move on. (Valerie Holmes)
5. These days I carry much more of the plot in my head, but it’s basically all there. It’s not a method I would recommend to anyone. (Valerie Holmes)
6. Short stories are such fun to write because you can take risks and experiment with the form, so, yes, if I could make a living, I’d concentrate on them. I’ve been a full-time writer since 1975, and I can make a living with a novel about once a year, but it would take a heap of short stories to keep the wolf from the door. (At Scene Of Crime)
7. The initial idea can come from anywhere. It might be something I’ve heard in a teashop. It might be something I’ve read. It might be two things that coalesce. But then I begin to sort of think it through and look at it from many points of view. For about six weeks before I write a word, I’ll be working out plotlines and writing things down on bits of paper and throwing them away and trying to devise a plot that I think will work to my satisfaction before I start Chapter One. (Strand Magazine)
8. I’m a plotter. I’m not one of those who likes to have the excitement of not knowing what’s coming from day to day. I’d rather have worked out the essentials of the plot well ahead of time and put in my surprises at that stage. I may think of one or two better things as I’m going along, but essentially all the work is done before I begin to write the first chapter. And then I can enjoy the process of writing even more. (Strand Magazine)
9. That’s one of the compulsions on us as crime writers or mystery writers, that the reader expects you to explain everything and reach a satisfying conclusion, whereas in mainstream novels that isn’t always necessary… But we really have to draw all the threads together by the end of the book and when it’s done, it may be a challenge, but that’s rather satisfying. (Strand Magazine)

Peter Lovesey was a British writer of historical and contemporary detective fiction. He wrote more than 50 books, including the police procedural Peter Diamond and Sergeant Cribb investigations. His first detective novel, Wobble to Death, introduced Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian detective. The novel is set during a 19th-century foot race and combines a carefully researched historical setting with a murder mystery. Lovesey later wrote two other series. One featured Bertie, the Prince of Wales, as an inept amateur sleuth. The other followed Hen Mallin, a female Chief Inspector. Lovesey was also an accomplished short story writer. He continually experimented with structure and plot. His six-decade career earned him many international awards. These included the two highest honours in mystery fiction: the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers’ Association. He also served as Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association from 1991 to 1992.

Source for photograph: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson
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