Frances Fyfield

Page Updated: 07/09/2004

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Frances Fyfield - Page 1

Looking Down

16 Sep 04

Seeking Sanctuary

Helen West Omnibus

The Nature of the Beast

Undercurrents

TV Series for 2002

by Frances Fyfield

About the Author (Photo (c) S.Lee)

Bibliography

Hardback
Little,Brown (2004)

Looking Down
Richard Beaumont hoped to see the rarest species of crow on the white cliffs of Dover. Instead, he saw a young woman jump to her death - `an angel leaping from the skies and merging with the landscape’. So that is the scene he painted. He would have painted the crow - an omen of hope. What he painted was an omen of something else entirely.
But who was the woman? No one recognises her; no one has reported her missing.
Back in London, in the grand block of flats where he lives with his young wife Lilian, Richard obsessively and garishly paints the scene of the woman’s broken body. Two floors below, lawyer Sarah Fortune is their uneasy neighbour. Uneasy because she and Richard were lovers many years ago; uneasy, too, because her own brother, a cat-burglar who `liberates’ beautiful paintings from their owners, has his eye on Richard and Lilian’s flat. Even so she finds herself inexorably involved in a mystery that extends back to the coast: to the strange Edwin, keeper of the coastline; and to Medical Examiner John Armstrong, a man who becomes part of Richard’s life and - intimately - Sarah’s.
The dead girl, too, becomes a part of their lives. For on top of the block of flats, in the penthouse eyrie, lies the glue that binds these people together: the clue to the mystery of the missing girl - and to a trade that is both breathtakingly lucrative and chillingly cruel.
Acclaimed as much for her detailed landscapes of the human spirit as for her mastery of the psychological thriller, Frances Fyfield demonstrates that she is at the zenith of her powers in Looking Down, a novel that displays her peerless talent for creating compassion, suspense and surprise.
Praise for Frances Fyfield:
‘Her knowledge of the workings of the human mind - or more correctly the soul - is second to none’ Ian Rankin
‘A new thriller by this brilliant author is always an event’ Publishing News
‘There are crime writers whom we think of primarily as novelists… there is no one higher on this list than Frances Fyfield’ P. D. James
‘Frances Fyfield is a fearless practitioner of the sort of writing which has made the crime novel equal and often superior to other brands of fiction. It’s a way of writing which is compelling ... irresistible’ John Mortimer
‘Undiluted brilliance’ The Times

First British Edition Little,Brown (2003)

Paperback - timewarner (2004)

Seeking Sanctuary
Theodore Calvert walked out on his wife and children Anna and Therese when they needed him most. Now, from beyond the grave, his carefully crafted will is set to unravel his daughters’ lives all over again . . .
It was Isabel Calvert’s pious Christianity that drove Theodore away. When he left, it was the Church that replaced him in his daughters’ upbringing. By the time Isabel died, it was the Blessed Sacrament Convent that the daughters were calling home. And while Anna rebelled and returned to the real world, Therese is still consumed by the life of duty and worship.
In the midst of all this arrives the mysterious Francis: a young, good-looking, goldenhaired gardener. Although the nuns are besotted by his charm and handiwork, Anna is less convinced by his motives: the killing of a magpie is a dark, eerie, ominous sign of what is to follow. As Anna tries to unpick Francis’ sinister plans, she realises that the answers lies in finding out the truth about her own family past. The question is, can she do it before it is too late?
By the author of Undercurrents and The Nature of the Beast, Seeking Sanctuary is another brilliant tale of enveloping, encapsulating suspense. Frances Fyfield’s latest novel is a deliciously unsettling story of religion, revenge and how the devil can conjure the most brilliant of disguises.
Dramatisations of Frances Fyfield's earlier novels with the lead character of Helen West, were recently broadcast on national television starring Amanda Burton.
'The best female crime writer in this country' Sunday Express
'Beautifully written, atmospheric' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'Undoubtedly confirms Fyfield as one of the best crime writers around' Woman and Home
'A wonderful tale of suspense, Compulsively readable' Tim Manderson

British Pbk Original - Warner (2002)

Helen West Omnibus
Frances Fyfield’s best selling novels Deep Shadow, Shadow Play, and A Clear Conscience, have been adapted into a series of three ninety minute dramas to be shown on ITV, featuring Amanda Burton as the crown prosecutor Helen West
Deep Sleep
The death of a respected pharmacist’s wife is accepted by all except Helen West, a prosecuting solicitor. Her suspicions are only shared by a confused child and a drug addict, and are dismissed by her awkward and pragmatic partner, Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey. Then an unexploded wartime bomb causes an evacuation and in the dark streets one lone man prepares to murder again.
Shadow Play Mr Logo is a familiar figure in the courts, frequently accused of indecent assault, but invariably acquitted due to lack of evidence. He is frustratingly familiar to the Crown Prosecutor Helen West, who again has just failed to convict him. This isn’t the only setback in her life: her long term relationship with Geoffrey Bailey is even more brittle, and she has to deal with the insubordination of her office clerk, which unwittingly sets in motion events which push Mr Logo’s rage and dark passion to lethal extremes.
A Clear Conscience
Helen West’s personal life is in need of repair, and she decides the first move is to tidy up her home, helped by her cleaning lady, Cath, who is trapped in a miserable marriage. Working by day with domestic violence cases, Helen finds it too easy to turn a blind eye to Cath’s unhappiness, but then her personal and professional lives collide as she witnesses the destructive forces of love and guilt, and finds herself applying her own version of justice.

The Nature of the Beast

`A compelling story . . . as always, her portrayal of the human psyche is to the point, often witty, but rarely comfortable’ . Minette Walters, Daily Mail
’As ever, the writing is graceful, witty and elegant, and Fyfield’s cool eye misses nothing and spares nobody’ Donna Leon, Sunday Times
`Fyfield has the extraordinary ability to draw slightly surreal characters who perform with great subtlety and believability . . . a moving tale: wonderfully written and full of original moments’ Marcel Berlins, The Times
`A gripping tale… brilliantly written’ Marie Claire
`Frances Fyfield has the same ability as Ruth Rendell to show the dark side of ordinary people . . . a book that grips from the beginning’ Sunday Telegraph

Paperback - Little,Brown (2001)

First British Edition Little,Brown (2000)

Undercurrents

Sometimes the answer isn’t in the facts. Sometimes it’s in the emotions

Twenty years ago, Henry Evans met Francesca Chisholm whilst backpacking around India. He loved her, but when her father died, his refusal to change his travel plans caused her to leave without him. It is a decision that has haunted his adult life and why he has travelled to the English coastal town of Warbling to find her.
What he discovers is not what he expects. Henry receives a welcome as warm as the unforgiving February weather: his hotel is flooded, and he is forced to stay at the foreboding House of Enchantment; the solicitor he asks for information about tracing Francesca advises him to regard Francesca as dead. And when Henry finally hears the truth, he understands why.
Francesca is in prison for murdering her five-year-old son.
The verdict was never in doubt. Francesca confessed to the killing, to pushing her son off the pier to drown in the dark undercurrents of the sea. Henry can't believe it, and so he decides to stay to discover the truth, even if it is only to understand why she did it, even if it aggravates those who have only just come to terms with the atrocity ...
’Fyfield at her best - compelling - disturbing - but always elegant’ Minette Walters
'Fyfields's books are among the most unsettling in the crime canon, precisely because they are so grounded in the here and now. Her knowledge of the workings of the human mind - or more correctly the soul - is second to none' Ian Rankin
'Frances Fyfield is a fearless practitioner of the sort of writing which has made the crime novel equal and often, because it has to tell a story, superior to other brands of fiction. Her most ambitious book...Once you're in its grip, it is irresistible.' John Mortimer, Mail on Sunday
'No one can match Fyfield's extraordinary ability to portray the atmosphere of quirky, dangerous places. A truly memorable novel, worthy only of superlatives… undiluted brilliance.' Marcel Berlins, The Times

About The Author
In her own words…
Frances Fyfield and how she works, (or doesn't.)
...Get up in the morning, earlyish, depending on the season. I find getting out of bed one of the most difficult things to do. I love the place: I can lie there for hours, postponing decisions until the need for caffeine drives me out, or some dumb politician on the radio irritates me so much I have to move. Slowly. I live in London, but most of my writing is done in another place, overlooking the English channel. The morning goes ok, provided I can think of anything and don't spend too much time either staring out of the window at ships crossing to France, or at the screen saver which drives me mad, but I have to admit I don't know how to change it. Two hours of this, and I'll find an excuse to move. There's always a place to get coffee, read the paper, shop for some necessity, and besides, I'm the sort of shopper who goes out for a slice of bread, never mind a loaf. If really desperate, I'll even go to the gym. Or go back to bed with a pen and notebook. Or do bugger all. All interruptions are gratefully accepted.
Writing for a living is a bizarre occupation. It requires a person who needs solitude like oxygen, but also craves human company like a junkie, because how else do you learn anything ? No wonder someone said it was a suitable job for a woman.
I have a very dark imagination, but would still like to write a romance, with jokes...That would be the sort of thing best written in the evening, after dark, with a bottle of wine..
(Frances Fyfield)
BIOGRAPHY
As a practising criminal lawyer, who has worked as a prosecutor for the Metropolitan Police and the Crime Prosecution Service, Frances Fyfield has had direct experience of the worst excesses of human behaviour. What she has witnessed has not hardened her, but rather has helped develop a style of writing that is coolly analytical while retaining a sympathetic understanding of human frailty.
The division between good and evil, hero and villain, is subtly drawn in a Fyfield novel, because as she says 'working in the law has taught me that, for the most part, mindlessly wicked people do not exist. But there are a lot of inconsiderate and brutal people locked into disappointing lives who are in a way just as dangerous.'
Born and brought up in Derbyshire, Frances Fyfield is one of four children, who longed to be an only child so she could have some peace and quiet in which to read. Her father was a consultant anaesthetist and one of her most enduring memories was his use of chloroform to kill cats humanely. 'On occasions we'd be overrun with kittens', she recalls. 'My father would put a cloth soaked with chloroform over the box where they were sweetly sleeping. They just didn't wake up. But it was a terrible thing for me as a small child. I remember that smell and my feeling of indescribable distress.'
With many of her books, Frances draws on her own memories and experiences and the use of chloroform was to form the basis of her fourth novel, Deep Sleep.
After reading English at Newcastle University, she did various odd jobs before enrolling in a law course in the Midlands 'to postpone having to look for a real job.' But it didn't interest her enough to continue and she moved to London where she did jobs as diverse as shop assistant at Fenwicks and theatre dresser at the Coliseum. She eventually did finish her law qualifications and answered an advertisement asking for solicitors to work with the Metropolitan Police. One of few women working in this area of the law, she felt freakish, but became fascinated by crime. She started with relatively minor cases of indecency and gambling debts and eventually moved on to more grisly crimes - brutal rapes, battered and murdered wives and prostitutes. She later moved to the Crown Prosecution Service and more recently she has restricted her work to corruption within the police force.
Frances had always wanted to write and had had some short stories published in magazines over the years. But it was the end of a short-lived marriage which made her question what she had achieved over the last decade or two and spurred her into tackling something she had always wanted to do - write a novel.
Her first attempt was a family saga but she quickly became aware that it wasn't working and decided to write about what she knew.
The result was A Question of Guilt, her first novel to feature Crown Prosecutor Helen West and Detective Superintendant Geoffrey Bailey, which was published in 1988. Despite the demands of their dual careers and the conflict that often exists between the police and the law, this personal and professional relationship continued through five more books: Trial by Fire (published in 1990 and currently being filmed for ITV starring Juliet Stevenson); Deep Sleep (published in 1991, serialised on Radio 4's Woman's Hour and winner of the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award), Shadow Play (published in 1993), A Clear Conscience (published in 1994 and shortlisted for the CWA's Gold Dagger Award and Without Consent (published in 1996).
Fyfield was quickly hailed as an outstanding new talent in the field of crime writing. In The Observer, Christopher Wordsworth called Deep Sleep 'The complete thriller, ingenious and engrossing.. .handling human relationships with the depth and sensitivity of a first rate novel.' In The Sunday Times, John Coleman said 'Fyfield goes from strength to strength, generating spooky thrills while examining the difficulties and misprisions of human intercourse with extraordinary naturalness' while reviewing Shadow Play.
A Question of Guilt was filmed for the BBC in 1993, starring Cherie Lunghi and Derrick O'Connor. Reviewing this adaptation for The Sunday Telegraph, A.N. Wilson said 'Frances Fyfield is much the best crime writer alive in Britain. In a handful of brilliantly crafted, wholly realistic novels, she has already outsoared P.D. James and Ruth Rendell.
Interviewers have often commented on whether Helen West is Frances Fyfield's alter-ego. Both are crown-prosecutors, both divorced and both protective of their space and privacy. 'I'm not her and she's not me,' Frances insists. 'But we definitely have some attitudes in common: to justice, towards shopping - we are both keen shoppers - and towards domesticity and cooking (not so keen) but I am good deal tidier than she is.'
A very different character is the beguiling, amoral, red-headed solicitor Sarah Fortune, who has featured in three novels, Shadows on the Mirror (1989), Perfectly Pure and Good (1994) and Staring at the Light (1999). Again, the free-spirited Sarah reflects certain aspects of Frances' personality. 'I dread being locked into a situation, physically or mentally, voluntarily or otherwise. In fact, I think a lot of writing comes from confronting personal fears. In my case, it's a fear of my life becoming restrained or constricted.'
Frances Fyfield is also the author of Blind Date (published in 1998) and three novels of psychological suspense under the name of Frances Hegarty, The Playroom (1991), Half Light (1992) and Let's Dance (1995).
Frances Fyfield lives in Islington where her house is decorated with an impressive collection of modern prints and paintings. Effectively a fill-time writer, she does still work one day a week for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Looking Down (Little,Brown, 2004) Sep 04

Seeking Sanctuary (Little,Brown, 2003) timewarner Pbk Jan 04

Helen West Omnibus (Warner Pbk, 2002) (Helen West)

The Nature of the Beast (Little,Brown, 2001) Pbk Oct 02

Undercurrents (Little,Brown, 2000) Little,Brown Pbk Jul 01

Staring at the Light (Bantam, 1999) nominated for the Gold Dagger Award Corgi Pbk Mar 00 (Sarah Fortune)

Blind Date (Bantam, 1998) Corgi Pbk Feb 99

Let's Dance (Hamilton, 1997) as Frances Hegarty

Without Consent (Bantam, 1996)

A Clear Conscience (Bantam, 1994) nominated for the Gold Dagger Award Corgi Pbk 1995

Perfectly Pure and Good ( 1994) (Sarah Fortune)

Shadow Play (Bantam, 1993) winner of the Grand Prix de Literature Policiere in 1998 Corgi Pbk 1997 (Helen West)

Half Light (Hamilton, 1992) as Frances Hegarty

The Playroom (Hamilton, 1991) as Frances Hegarty

Deep Sleep (Heinemann, 1991) winner of the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award (Helen West)

Trial by Fire (Heinemann, 1990) (Helen West)

Shadows on the Mirror (Heinemann, 1989) (Sarah Fortune)

A Question of Guilt (Heinemann, 1988) nominated for an Edgar Award (Helen West)