Valarie McDermid (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottishcrime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologistDr. Tony Hill and his collaborators in the police department. Her work is considered to be part of a sub-genre known asTartan Noir. This series was adapted for television, running from 2002 to 2008, and known asWire in the Blood.
She also had a second series, known asKaren Pirie, adapted from her several books featuring that character.
McDermid comes from a working-class family inFife. She studied English atSt Hilda's College, Oxford,[1] where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school.[2]
After graduation, she became ajournalist and began her literary career as adramatist. Her first success as anovelist,Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery, was published in 1987.[3]
McDermid was inducted into the prestigiousDetection Club in 2000. In 2010 she won theCWA Diamond Dagger for her lifetime contribution to crime writing in the English language. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by theUniversity of Sunderland in 2011.[4]
McDermid has said that her character of Jacko Vance, a TV celebrity with a secret lust for torture, murder and under-age girls, who she featured inWire in the Blood and two later books, is based on her direct personal experience of interviewingJimmy Savile.[8]
In addition to writing novels, McDermid contributes to several British newspapers and often broadcasts onBBC Radio 4 andBBC Radio Scotland.[9] Her novels, in particular the Tony Hill series, are known for their graphic depictions of violence andtorture.
In 2010, McDermid received theCartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association for "outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing".[10]
McDermid considers her work to be part of the "Tartan Noir" Scottish crime fiction genre.[11]
In August 2022 McDermid reported that theestate ofAgatha Christie had threatened her publishers with legal action if they referred to McDermid as "the Queen of Crime". They said that the term was copyrighted by the Christie estate.[12]
McDermid was a lifelong fan ofRaith Rovers football club, her father having worked as ascout for the club.[9][13][14] In 2010, she sponsored the McDermid Stand atStark's Park, the club's ground in Kirkcaldy, in honour of her father.[14]
A year after sponsoring the stand, she became a board member of the club, and starting in 2014 her website became Raith's shirt sponsor.[15]
In February 2022, McDermid said she would be withdrawing her support and sponsorship from Raith Rovers after the club signed strikerDavid Goodwillie, who had been ruled to have raped a woman and made to pay damages in a civil case in 2017.[16][17] Following the signing of Goodwillie, Raith Rovers women's team severed ties with the main club and renamed themselves McDermid Ladies, after the writer. McDermid moved her sponsorship to the new ladies' team.[18][19]
On 6 December 2012 a woman poured ink over McDermid during an event at theUniversity of Sunderland.[20] McDermid was signing books, and a woman asked her to autograph aTop of the Pops annual which contained a picture of the disgraced late TV presenterJimmy Savile. After McDermid reluctantly agreed the woman threw ink at her and ran out of the room.[21] McDermid said the incident would not stop her from doing signings.[22][23]
Northumbria Police arrested Sandra Botham, a 64-year-old woman from theHendon area ofSunderland, on suspicion of assault.[23][24] Botham was convicted of common assault on 10 July 2013,[25] received a 12-month community order with supervision and was made to pay £50 compensation and a £60victim surcharge.[26] She was also given a restraining order forbidding her from contacting McDermid for an undefined period of time.[27]The Northern Echo reported that Botham's actions were motivated by McDermid's 1994 non-fiction bookA Suitable Job for a Woman, as Botham said the book contained a passage that besmirched her and her family.[28]
McDermid formerly lived in bothStockport and nearAlnmouth inNorthumberland[29] with three cats[30] and a border terrier dog. Since early 2014 she has lived in Stockport and Edinburgh.[31][32]
In 2016, McDermid captained a team of crime writer challengers on the TV quizEggheads, beating the Eggheads and winning £14,000.
In 2010, she was living between Northumberland and Manchester with publisher Kelly Smith,[33] with whom she had entered into a civil partnership in 2006.[2]
On 23 October 2016 McDermid married her partner of two years, Jo Sharp, at the time a Professor of Geography at theUniversity of Glasgow.[34][35]
