Biography

Elizabeth George was born in Warren, Ohio, to Robert Edwin and Anne (née Rivelle) George, their second child—she has an older brother, author Robert Rivelle George. Her mother was a nurse, and her father a manager for a conveyor company. The family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was eighteen months old. Her father wanted to get away from the Midwestern weather.

She was a student of English, having received a teaching certificate from the University of California, Riverside. While teaching English in the public school system, she completed a master's degree in counseling and psychology. She received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Cal State University Fullerton in 2004 and was awarded an honorary Masters in Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in 2010. She also established the Elizabeth George Foundation in 1997.

George married Ira Jay Toibin in 1971 and they divorced in 1995.

George is currently married to Tom McCabe (see acknowledgments in 2015 novel A Banquet of Consequences)

Career

Her first published novel was A Great Deliverance (1988). It introduces Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, actually Lord Asherton, privately educated (Eton College and Oxford University), and his partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, secondary modern educated and from a working-class background - both from Scotland Yard. Also, Lady Helen Clyde, Lynley's girlfriend, and Lynley's former school friend, Simon St. James.

Quote

Art can't be taught; passion can't be taught; discipline can't be taught; but craft can be taught. And writing is both an art and a craft.

— Elizabeth George, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/elizabethg677960.html

Published books

Fiction: Inspector Lynley

• 1988: A Great Deliverance — (ISBN 9780553278026)
• 1989: Payment in Blood — (ISBN 9780553284362)
• 1990: Well-Schooled in Murder — (ISBN 9780553287349)
• 1991: A Suitable Vengeance — (ISBN 9780553295603)
• 1992: For the Sake of Elena — (ISBN 9780553561272)
• 1992: Missing Joseph — (ISBN 9780553566048)
• 1993: Playing for the Ashes — (ISBN 9780553092622)
• 1996: In the Presence of the Enemy — (ISBN 9780553092653)
• 1997: Deception on His Mind — (ISBN 9780553102345)
• 1999: In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner — (ISBN 9780553102352)
• 2001: A Traitor to Memory— (ISBN 9780553801279)
• 2003: A Place of Hiding — (ISBN 9780553801309)
• 2005: With No One as Witness — (ISBN 9780060798451)
• 2006: What Came Before He Shot Her — (ISBN 9780060545628)
• 2008: Careless in Red — (ISBN 9780061160875)
• 2010: This Body of Death — (ISBN 9780061160882)
• 2012: Believing The Lie — (ISBN 9780525952589)
• 2013: Just One Evil Act — (ISBN 9781444706000)
• 2015: A Banquet of Consequences — (ISBN 9780525954330)

Fiction: other

• 2001: The Evidence Exposed — (ISBN 9780340750636; Short story collection UK)
• 2002: I, Richard — (ISBN 9780553802580; short story collection)
• 2004: A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women — (editor; ISBN 978-0-06-058821-2)
• 2012: The Edge of Nowhere — (ISBN 9781444719956)
• 2013: The Edge of the Water — (ISBN 9780670012978)
• 2016: The Edge of the Shadows
• 2016: The Edge of the Light

Non-fiction

• 2004: Write Away — (ISBN 9780060560423)

Awards

George's first novel, A Great Deliverance, was favorably received by the mystery fiction community.

It won the Agatha Award for "Best First Novel" in 1988 and the 1989 Anthony Award in the same category. It was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1988.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]