Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Isabelle Greenwoodis an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, and children's stories, as well as plays. She is unmarried but lives with a "registered wizard"...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth17 June 1954
CountryAustralia
books since tried
I have been reading crime books ever since I was a child, but I had never tried to write one.
love
I like writing books. I really love words. I love to read.
shooting trying war zone
I think it is rather heroic to go into a war zone where everyone is trying to kill you, and you have no way of shooting back.
criminal determined
I was determined to become a criminal lawyer and help look after the poor.
duty fix front life
I'm a duty solicitor, so I can't fix someone's life; all I can do is fix the problem I've got in front of my eyes.
ballet city love taken time
I've always been in love with Melbourne. When I was 12, I was taken into the city by my grandmother to go to the ballet for the first time.
buy seen time victoria
In the 1970s, I used to buy opals and moonstones at the Queen Victoria Market, which were seen as old-fashioned and too heavy at the time.
ditch work
My work is very carefully researched. Sometimes I have to ditch an idea because I can't prove it.
There's something magical about the idea that you can write something down and someone else can read it. I'm still mildly agog about that.
based detectives flawed
When I first started writing the books in the 1980s, all of the female detectives were flawed in some way because they were based on noir characters.
You need a crime, a detective, and the solution.
admirable grabbed historical novels offered saw
A publisher saw one of my historical novels and thought I would write an admirable detective story, so she offered me a two-book contract, and I grabbed it.
advantages decided female serious
I decided that if I want to write about a female hero in the 1920s, I'm going to have to give her all the advantages I can because she has serious disadvantages in being a woman. I wasn't going to have her cowed or overawed by class, so she had to be titled.
people
I don't think the process of writing books is in any way sensible. It's not logical, and it's not reasonable. I do write very fast, and I just do it in a binge. Other people binge-drink; I binge-write.