Peter Temple | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Peter Temple at Oslo Bokfestival in 2011 | |
| Born | (1946-03-10)10 March 1946 South Africa |
| Died | 8 March 2018(2018-03-08) (aged 71) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Murder mystery,thriller,crime fiction |
| Notable works | Jack Irish series |
| Spouse | Anita |
| Children | 1 |
Peter Temple (10 March 1946 – 8 March 2018) was an Australiancrime fiction writer, mainly known for hisJack Irish novel series. He won several awards for his writing, including theGold Dagger in 2007, the first for an Australian. He was also an international magazine and newspaper journalist and editor.
Peter Temple was born inSouth Africa in 1946 of Dutch and British/Irish ancestry.[1] He grew up in a small town near South Africa’s border withBotswana.[2] While English was spoken in the family home, he lived in a largelyAfrikaans-speaking district and his early schooling was in both English and Afrikaans.[1] At the age of 15 he was sent to school inEast London,[1] an area of stronger British heritage.
After school, Temple served a year of national service in the army, stationed atCape Town.[3] Following that year of service he commenced a cadetship with the major afternoon daily in Cape Town, theCape Argus,[4] a prominent voice of opposition against the dominant National Party during the apartheid years. During his years with the newspaper, particularly while doing police rounds in the courts of Cape Town, he saw at first hand the degrading effect of apartheid on people of colour and felt the experience changed him.[1]
During his mid-twenties he married his wife, Anita, and moved toGrahamstown (nowMakhanda) in theEastern Cape province to study history and politics atRhodes University with the intention of becoming an historian.[1] However, he returned to newspapers until he was recruited to teach journalism in the earliest days of that course atRhodes University.[4]
Temple eventually came to consider himself as "complicit" in the apartheid regime,[5] and after the death ofSteve Biko in 1977 he resolved that he had to leave South Africa.[1] With the reluctance ofCommonwealth countries to take white South African migrants, he moved instead toGermany that year.[2] Temple managed to secure a job with an English-language news digest inHamburg, falsely claiming that he could speakGerman.[6]
Having obtained permanent residence in Germany, he successfully applied to emigrate toAustralia and in 1980 he and his wife moved toSydney, where he worked at theSydney Morning Herald as education editor, before moving to teach at what is nowCharles Sturt University inBathurst.[2]
In 1982 Temple moved toMelbourne to become the founding editor ofAustralian Society, a magazine of social issues, where he stayed until 1985. He then returned to teaching, playing a significant role in establishing the prestigious Professional Writing and Editing course atRMIT, Melbourne.[7]
In 1995 Temple retired from teaching to become a self-employed editor and full-time writer.[8] HisJack Irish novels (see below) are set inMelbourne, and feature an unusual lawyer-gambler protagonist. In 2012, the AustralianABC Television and the GermanZDF produced the first two as feature-length films withGuy Pearce in the title role under the series titleJack Irish.[9] Temple also wrote three stand-alone novels:An Iron Rose,Shooting Star andIn the Evil Day (Identity Theory in the US), as well asThe Broken Shore and its semi-sequel,Truth. In 2015 he published "Ithaca in My Mind" in the Allen and Unwin Shorts series. His novels have been published in 20 countries.[10]
He wrote the screenplay for the 2007 TV filmValentine's Day.[11]
Peter Temple wrote four books under theJack Irish franchise, three of which were awarded theNed Kelly Award for Crime Writing and Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction.
Bad Debts is the first of the four novels, and the first of Temple's crime writing career. It won him the highly prestigious Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing (under Best True Crime) in 1997.[4][12] The book has a total of 297 pages and was published byHarperCollins in 1996.Bad Debts follows former lawyer Jack Irish as he returns to the criminal world, as Irish receives an unfamiliar phone call from ex-client Danny McKillop, whom he defended on a hit-and-run charge when he worked as an attorney.[13] When Danny is found dead soon after he is released from prison, Irish must find out why.[13]
Black Tide is the second book in Temple's series, and the only book to have not been nominated for a Ned Kelly Award. It was written in 1999 and has been published into multiple languages, including Dutch. The book has a total of 311 pages, and was published byBantam Books. InBlack Tide, Jack Irish reenters the criminal world when he agrees to search for Des Connors’ missing son, Gary Connors, who also happens to be Irish's last surviving connection to his father.[14] Irish attempts to uncover the truth, as well as any secrets Gary may have been hiding.[14]
Dead Point is the thirdJack Irish novel. LikeBad Debts,Dead Point was the recipient of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing, in 2001.[12] The book has a total of 275 pages, and was published by Bantam Books in 2000. InDead Point, Jack Irish is tasked with locating the missing Robbie Colbourne, who later shows up dead in the local morgue.[15] Irish must solve the various mysteries which occur along the way, including the circumstances which led the occasional barman to disappear.[15]
White Dog is Temple's final book in theJack Irish series, and the third book in the series to be awarded a Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction. Published in 2003 byText Publishing, the book has a total of 337 pages. InWhite Dog, a property developer in Irish's hometown of Melbourne is murdered.[16] His ex-girlfriend becomes one of the main suspects as Irish attempts to solve the murder mystery, unveiling secrets and even more complications along the way.[17] Irish must investigate whether she is as guilty as she seems.[17]
In 2019 a 20,000 word fragment of an unfinished Jack Irish novel, provisionally titledHigh Art, appeared in a posthumus collection of Temple’s writing,The Red Hand.[18]
In 2010, Peter Temple won theMiles Franklin Award for his novelTruth. He has also won fiveNed Kelly Awards for crime fiction, the latest in 2006 forThe Broken Shore, which also won theColin Roderick Award for best Australian book and the Australian Book Publishers' Award for best general fiction.The Broken Shore also won theCrime Writers' AssociationDuncan Lawrie Dagger (Gold Dagger) in 2007.[19] Temple is the first Australian to win a Gold Dagger.[20]
ABC Television broadcast an adapted telemovie ofThe Broken Shore on 2 February 2014.[21]
Temple was married to Anita and had a son, Nicholas. He died inBallarat, Victoria, Australia, on 8 March 2018 at the age of 71 after a brief battle withcancer.[22]
| H. R. F. Keating Award, CrimeFest Awards | 2021 | The Red Hand: Stories, Reflections and the Last Appearance of Jack Irish (shortlisted)[23] |
| Miles Franklin Award | 2010 | Truth (winner)[24] |
| Australian Book Industry Awards Australian General Fiction Book of the Year | 2006 | The Broken Shore (winner) |
| Colin Roderick Award | 2006 | The Broken Shore (winner)[25] |
| Duncan Lawrie Dagger | 2007 | The Broken Shore (winner)[19] |
| Miles Franklin Award | 2006 | The Broken Shore (longlisted)[26] |
| Ned Kelly Awards Best Novel | 2006 | The Broken Shore (joint winner)[27] |
| 2003 | White Dog (winner)[28] | |
| 2001 | Dead Point (joint winner)[29] | |
| 2000 | Shooting Star (winner)[30] | |
| Ned Kelly Awards Best First Novel | 1997 | Bad Debts (joint winner)[31] |
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