Philip Ballantyne Kerr (22 February 1956 – 23 March 2018) was a British author, best known for his Bernie Gunther series of historical detective thrillers.
Early life
Kerr was born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, Scotland, where his father was an engineer and his mother worked as a secretary. He was educated at a grammar school in
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
. He studied at the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
from 1974 to 1980, gaining a master's degree in law and philosophy.
[ Kerr worked as an advertising copywriter for ]Saatchi & Saatchi
Saatchi and Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency ...
[
]
Career
A writer of both adult fiction and non-fiction, he is known for the Bernhard "Bernie" Gunther series of 14 historical thrillers set in Germany and elsewhere during the 1930s, the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. He also wrote children's books under the name P. B. Kerr, including the '' Children of the Lamp'' series. Kerr wrote for ''The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'', the ''Evening Standard
The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...
'', and the ''New Statesman
''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
''. He was married to fellow novelist Jane Thynne
Jane Thynne (born 5 April 1961) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster.
Biography
Jane Thynne was born in Venezuela on 5 April 1961. She attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in London. She read English at St Anne's College, Oxford, ...
; they lived in Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon () is a suburb of southwest London, England, southwest of Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,189 in 2011 which includes the electoral wards of Abbey, Wimb ...
, and had three children. Just before he died, he finished a 14th Bernie Gunther novel, ''Metropolis,'' which was published posthumously, in 2019.
Awards and honours
In 1993, Kerr was named in Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...
's list of Best Young British Novelists.[ In 2009, ''If the Dead Rise Not'' won the world's most lucrative crime fiction award, the RBA Prize for Crime Writing worth €125,000.]
Death
Kerr died at age 62 from bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is the abnormal growth of cells in the bladder. These cells can grow to form a tumor, which eventually spreads, damaging the bladder and other organs. Most people with bladder cancer are diagnosed after noticing blood in thei ...
on 23 March 2018.
Publications
Novels
Bernie Gunther
* "Berlin Noir" "Bernie Gunther" trilogy, republished 1993 by Penguin Books in one volume. .
**'' March Violets''. London: Viking, 1989. , set in 1936
**'' The Pale Criminal''. London: Viking, 1990. , set in 1938
**'' A German Requiem''. London: Viking, 1991. , set in 1947–48
* Later "Bernie Gunther" novels
**''The One from the Other''. New York: Putnam, 2006. , set in 1949 (intro set in 1937)
**''A Quiet Flame''. London: Quercus, 2008. , set in 1950 and 1932-33
**'' If the Dead Rise Not''. London: Quercus, 2009. , set in 1934 and 1954
**''Field Grey''. (Field Gray in USA) London: Quercus, 2010. , set in 1954 with flashbacks from 1941, 1931, 1940, & 1945/46.
**''Prague Fatale''. London: Quercus, 2011 , set in 1941
**''A Man Without Breath''. London: Quercus, 2013. , set in 1943
**''The Lady from Zagreb''. London: Quercus, 2015. , set in 1942–3, with framing scenes in 1956.
**''The Other Side of Silence''. London: Quercus, 2016. , set in 1956
**''Prussian Blue.'' London: Quercus, 2017. , set in 1939, with framing scenes in 1956
**''Greeks Bearing Gifts.'' London: Quercus, 2018. , set in 1957
**''Metropolis.'' London: Quercus, 2019. , set in 1928
Scott Manson novels
* ''January Window''. London: Head of Zeus, 23 October 2014.
* ''Hand of God''. London: Head of Zeus, 4 June 2015.
Stand alone novels
*'' A Philosophical Investigation''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1992.
*''Dead Meat''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1993.
*'' Gridiron'' (vt US ''The Grid''). London: Chatto & Windus, 1995.
*''Esau''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1996.
*''A Five Year Plan''. London: Hutchinson, 1997.
*'' The Second Angel''. London: Orion, 1998.
*''The Shot''. London: Orion, 1999.
*''Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton''. New York: Crown, 2002.
*''Hitler's Peace''. New York: Marian Wood, 2005.
*''Prayer''. London: Quercus, 2013.
*''The Winter Horses''. New York: Knopf, 2014.
* ''Research''. London: Quercus, 2014.
* ''1984.4''. Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 2021.
Non fiction
*''The Penguin Book of Lies''. 1991;1996
*''The Penguin Book of Fights, Feuds and Heartfelt Hatreds: An Anthology of Antipathy''. 1992;1993
Children's fiction (as P. B. Kerr)
'' Children of the Lamp''
*'' The Akhenaten Adventure''. London: Scholastic Press, 2004.
*'' The Blue Djinn of Babylon''. London: Scholastic Press, 2005.
*'' The Cobra King of Kathmandu''. London: Scholastic Press, 2006.
*'' The Day of the Djinn Warriors''. London: Scholastic Press, 2007.
*'' The Eye of the Forest''. London: Scholastic Press, 2009.
*'' The Five Fakirs of Faizabad''. London: Scholastic Press, 2010.
*'' The Grave Robbers of Genghis Khan''. London: Scholastic Press, 2011.
Stand alone fiction
*''One Small Step''. London: Simon & Schuster, 2008 (paper).
* ''The Most Frightening Story Ever Told''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.
* ''Friedrich der Große Detektiv (Frederick the Great Detective)''.[As of 2023, published only in a German translation.] Rowohlt Verlag, 2017.
Notes
External links
Official Philip Kerr website
Bernie Gunther fansite
Interview in Shotsmag Ezine 2011
Interview with Philip Kerr
about Kerr's relationship with Berlin.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Philip
1956 births
2018 deaths
Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Barry Award winners
Writers from Edinburgh
People educated at Stewart's Melville College
Scottish science fiction writers
Scottish crime fiction writers
Techno-thriller writers
Writers of historical mysteries