Frances Fyfield (born 18 November 1948) is the pseudonym of Frances Hegarty, an English lawyer and crime-writer.

Biography

Born and brought up in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, Hegarty was mostly educated in

convent school Catholic schools are parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school system. In 201 ...

s before reading English at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

. After graduating, she took a course in

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...

. She worked initially for the Metropolitan Police and later the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

. She claims "After a long diet of criminal law, including dangerous dogs, rape, mayhem and much, much murder, the indigestion of pity and fury provoked me to write. I wanted to write romance, but the domestically macabre always got in the way."SkyARTS website
retrieved 5 May 2009 She has won several awards, including the

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...

Duncan Lawrie Dagger for ''Blood From Stone'' in 2008 and the Silver Dagger for ''Deep Sleep''. In addition, her novel, ''Safer than Houses'' was nominated for the Duncan Lawrie Dagger in 2006. She also writes psychological thrillers under the name of Frances Hegarty, among them, ''The Playroom'', ''Half Light'' and ''Let's Dance'', which was published in 1995. Her novels have been translated into 14 languages. Several have been adapted for television. Fyfield's Helen West series has twice been adapted for television.

Juliet Stevenson Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, (born 30 October 1956) is an English actress of stage and screen. She is known for her role in the film '' Truly, Madly, Deeply'' (1991), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Le ...

played Helen West in ''Trial by Fire'' (1999) and

Amanda Burton Amanda Burton (born 10 October 1956) is a Northern Irish actress. Her notable credits include Heather Haversham in the Channel 4 soap opera '' Brookside'' (1982–1986), Beth Glover in the ITV drama series ''Peak Practice'' (1993–1995), Sa ...

later took on the role in a successful British television series in 2002. Fyfield hosted the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme Tales from the Stave until 2018. The programme looked at important music works using original scores and libretto.

Bibliography

Helen West novels * ''A Question of Guilt'' (1988) – nominated for an Edgar Award * ''Trial by Fire'' (1990) S Title: ''Not That Kind of Place''– Rumpole Award * ''Deep Sleep'' (1991) – Silver Dagger Award * ''Shadow Play'' (1993) -

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière The (or the Police Literature Grand Prize) is a French literary award, literary prize founded in 1948 by author and literary critic Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. It is the most prestigious award for crime fiction, crime and detective fiction in Franc ...

* ''A Clear Conscience'' (1994) * ''Without Consent'' (1996) Sarah Fortune novels * ''Shadows on the Mirror'' (1989) * ''Perfectly Pure and Good'' (1994) * ''Staring at the Light'' (1999) * ''Looking Down'' (2004) * ''Safer Than Houses'' (2005) * ''Cold to the Touch'' (2009,

Sphere A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

) Diana Porteous novels * ''Gold Digger (2012)'' * ''Casting the First Stone (2013)'' * ''Painted Smile (2015)'' * ''Welcome The Stranger'' (2017) Other novels * ''Blind Date'' (1998) * ''Undercurrents'' (2000) * ''The Nature of the Beast'' (2001) * ''Seeking Sanctuary'' (2003) * ''The Art of Drowning'' (2006) * ''Blood From Stone'' (2008,

) – Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award Novels as Frances Hegarty * ''The Playroom'' (1991) * ''Half Light'' (1992) * ''Let's Dance'' (1995)

Filmography

*''

Helen West ''Helen West'' is a British television crime drama series, based upon the novels of Frances Fyfield, a former crown prosecutor, whom the character is loosely based upon, that first broadcast on 15 December 1999 on ITV. The pilot episode, ''Tri ...

'' (2002; television series) *''The Blind Date'' (2000) *''Trial by Fire'' (1999; TV)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fyfield, Frances 1948 births Living people English people of Irish descent English crime fiction writers English thriller writers Writers from Derbyshire Alumni of Newcastle University 20th-century English novelists 21st-century British novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers English women novelists English women mystery writers Women thriller writers