The Search for Anne Perry - Softcover

Joanne Drayton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1869508882 ISBN 13: 9781869508883

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia, 2012

Synopsis

Can you really reinvent yourself? This enthralling biography of crime writer Anne Perry reveals more than her identity as teenage killer Juliet Hulme - it also peels back the layers of Anne's carefully constructed life to show us the woman beneath. In 1994, director Peter Jackson released the film HEAVENLY CREAtURES, based on a famous 1950s matricide committed in New Zealand by two teenage girls embroiled in an obsessive relationship. this film launched Jackson's international career. It also forever changed the life of Anne Perry, an award-winning, bestselling crime writer, who at the time of the film's release was publicly outed as Juliet Hulme, one of the murderers. A new light was now cast, not only on Anne's life, but also her novels, which feature gruesome and violent deaths, and confronting, dark issues including infanticide and incest. Acclaimed literary biographer Joanne Drayton intersperses the story of Anne's life with an examination of her writing, drawing parallels between Anne's own experiences and her characters and storylines. Anne's books deal with miscarriages of justice, family secrets exposed, punishment, redemption and forgiveness, themes made all the more poignant in light of her past. Anne has sold 25 million books worldwide and published in 15 different languages, yet she will now forever be known as a murderer who became a writer of murder stories. Drayton was been given unparalleled access to Anne, her friends, relatives, colleagues and archives to complete the book. the result is a compelling read which provides an understanding of the girl Anne was, the adult she became, her compulsion to write and her view of the world.

About this title

About the Author:

Joanne Drayton is Associate Professor in the Department of Design at UNITEC, Auckland. Her critically acclaimed 2008 NGAIO MARSH: A LIFE IN CRIME was a Christmas pick of the UK Guardian in 2008. This is her fifth biography.

Review:

"A pleasure for Perry's loyal fans and a book that is likely to win her some new ones as well . . . Drayton tells a beguiling story of an author's climb to the best-seller lists and how a secret she would rather keep hidden was publicly made known." Kirkus Reviews
"A solid, well-documented literary biography. Drayton . . . examines Perry’s many novels in light of her earlier life, showing how some of her books’ themes reflect the turmoil and violence of her younger years and, in effect, showing how, though Perry might have left Hulme’s identity behind, the environment that shaped her younger life has also shaped her literary life." Booklist
The Search for Anne Perry is a terrific biography and absolutely ingeniously structured.” Terry Castle, cultural commentator and author of The Professor and Other Writings
Important . . . revelatory, insightful, wonderfully researched, and powerfully written.” Weekend Herald (New Zealand)
A deeper and more important story than it’s ever seemed before.” Toronto Star
Builds a complex picture of the world of past crime, public success, work and private pain. . . . Drayton makes her case with insight and compassion.” New Zealand Listener
A fascinating book.” Herald on Sunday
Daring . . . Drayton is allowed an unprecedented level of access into the world of Anne Perry, and weaves in both her life and the lives in her crime novels to illustrate the story of a truly fascinating character.” Time Out
As riveting as the best of acclaimed author Anne Perry’s own fiction . . . [Drayton] opens windows.” Vancouver Sun

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1869508882
• ISBN 13: 9781869508883
• Binding: Paperback