Anne
Perry, born in Britain in 1938, but emigrated to New Zealand as a
child, has been for decades one of the greatest names amongst authors of
crime and psycho thrillers and detective novels internationally. She was in Spain recently, to attend the annual conference of "Black Week" for international crime authors, and to promote her 2 latest books.
She was the creator of the famous series of Victorian detectives Thomas Pitt and William Monk. Her work is distinguished by her skill of in depth characterization of all her book characters, putting them in situations of high emotional charge to the limit. Many compared her with the other world known British authoress of detective stories, Agatha Christie, but she firmly denied any resemblance.
She was the creator of the famous series of Victorian detectives Thomas Pitt and William Monk. Her work is distinguished by her skill of in depth characterization of all her book characters, putting them in situations of high emotional charge to the limit. Many compared her with the other world known British authoress of detective stories, Agatha Christie, but she firmly denied any resemblance.
In her opinion, Agatha Christie's novels are clever and intriguing puzzles, but her characters didn't evolve or change. Hers do, emotionally, and develop with time and under trying circumstances.
During the interview by a reporter, she was asked about her secret past which, most likely, was why she was being interviewed in the first place, more to get her to talk about her past than her present, although she is now a celebrity, and her long kept secret had happened when she was only 15, just an ordinary teenager then, but had been condemned and served a prison sentence for a horrendous murder.
Back then, she was Juliet Hulme. She and another girl of the same age, Pauline Parker, befriended each other. Soon afterwards, The two of them had beaten Pauline's mother to death and were found guilty for assassination. Being under age they escaped the death penalty, and were in jail for 5 years.
She went to the United States upon leaving prison, and had changed her identity, adopting the surname of her stepfather, calling herself Anne Perry. She soon embarked on a literary career and became a famed novelist, with more than 50 books published and 20 million copies sold worldwide. The newest 2 are "Crime in Buckingham Palace", the 25th adventure of her detective Pitt, 900,000 copies on sale here in Spain. The other is "Entrenchment of Hate", the 4th of a series about the 1st World War.
In 1994, one of her books was made into a movie, " Heavenly Creatures ", about 2 teenage girls who committed a brutal murder. Somebody put 2 and 2 together plus some digging and tracing, confirming her to be Juliet Hulme.
Although she has always insisted that the book and movie story is totally fiction, she had no choice but to admit, albeit reluctantly, that she was Juliet Hulme.
She lamented, not without resentment, that the past is indeed passed, more than half a century ago. Yet she is still permanently judged, questioned, persecuted, not by people, as they do forget, but by the media, relentlessly, even 50 odd years later.
Ruefully, she asked her own question: " Doesn't everybody have something in their life he wishes not having done or happened? Are people valued purely on their errors?
The naked truth is often stranger than fiction. And most unfortunately, people do judge others, far too often, more by their mistakes than by their virtue or accomplishments.
Tags:CrimeAuthor,BlackWeek
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