I was sorry to learn of the death last week of the crime novelist Anne Perry. I first met her about 25 years ago, but of course I already knew her by reputation. And unfortunately, where Anne was concerned, mention of her reputation is always accompanied by reference to the murder she committed in her teens, a terrible crime for which she served a sentence in New Zealand.
Anne had come back to Britain and forged a new life under a new name with considerable success - then, with the making of Heavenly Creatures, a film based on the crime, her true identity was suddenly revealed to the world. She was a prolific writer specialising in historical mysteries and she enjoyed huge success in the US in particular. Her main detective, Inspector Pitt, was brought to the TV screens in 1998, but although Keeley Hawes and Peter Egan featured in a quality cast, the show wasn't made into a series.
Anne and I got on well from our first conversation. I found her very interesting and she was consistently generous towards me. She talked to me at length about the experience of being unmasked in that frightening way (a riveting story) but she wasn't self-pitying. We also discussed the writing process and the publishing world in quite a bit of depth and she sent me a draft of her agent's book on the subject of writing a bestseller, in the hope it would encourage me.
We never discussed the old crime itself; I felt that to ask her about it would be grossly intrusive. Over the years she gave me a lot of support, including truly wonderful endorsements for Eve of Destruction and Dancing for the Hangman and an invitation to contribute to two anthologies that she edited - though I must admit that I felt there was a dark irony in the fact that one of them was called Thou Shalt Not Kill. This was a collection of 'Biblical mystery stories' and my contribution was a pretty chilling tale based on the story of Jezebel.
When I was compiling a CWA anthology of history-mysteries, I reached out to Anne and after some discussion about trying a different historical period from the Victorian era in which she specialised, she wrote an absolutely excellent story for me, set in the early twentieth centry. It was called 'Heroes' which made its very first appearance in Past Crimes. In due course, this story won her an Edgar. In fact, it proved to be the only time she won an Edgar, so I like to feel that I repaid her generosity to an extent. On a couple of other occasions, she and I took part in a panels together at venues in London.
One time she and I were part of a small group of crime writers who were invited to an event at Oxford Museum. The photo above originally appeared in the Oxford Mail and it's a favourite of mine. It depicts Anne and me (with a cardboard cutout of Inspector Morse behind us!) along with Michelle Spring, Nora Kelly, Bob Barnard, Andrew Taylor, Keith Miles, Judith Cutler, Kate Charles, and Colin Dexter. Quite a group! It's a summer evening that stands out in my memory, more than twenty years later. After Anne moved to live in the US a few years ago, we lost touch, but I featured her in some depth in The Life of Crime and I tried very hard to write about her in a fair and objective and compassionate rather than prurient way.
I'm aware that not everyone found Anne an easy person and there's no point in pretending otherwise.. I suspect that some people couldn't forgive her for the crime she committed and some, including a couple of friends of mine who also appeared on those panels, found her distant and rather chilly and aloof. Anne could certainly give that impression, but I suspect that it was to a very large extent a technique of self-protection. Beyond a certain point, she was unknowable, but then any author who has thought deeply about characterisation is aware that this is true of many people, perhaps everyone to some degree.
I understand the reservations about Anne but I can only say that my personal experience of her was entirely positive and I've no hesitation in saying that I shall remember her with genuine affection. Yes, she did something appalling and inexcusable in her youth, and it's impossible not to feel profound sorrow for her unfortunate victim. But, thinking about Anne over the years, I've become increasingly convinced that it is right to allow for redemption where the person concerned tries to do the right thing in later life. As far as I am aware, Anne did everything she reasonably could to redeem herself and live a good life. I am glad that I knew her.
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