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Portrait of Derek Raymond Photo: Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images (1990)

Sample of authors

Raymond, Derek

English author, who during a Bohemian and wandering life occupied himself with a number of different jobs and activities, a by-no-means small part of them criminal. This is also reflected in his books: he is known as a pioneer in the crime-literature sub-genre called ‘British noir’, and which is usually set in environments and among people at the bottom of society. The books have been criticised f...

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Portrait image of Ian Rankin Ian Rankin and Maj Sjöwall
Photo: Ola Erikson / Forflex

Sample of authors

Rankin, Ian

The Scottish crime writer Ian James Rankin was born in the coal mining town of Cardenden, Fife, where his father owned a grocery store. His mother worked in a school canteen. There were few books at home, and Rankin began to visit his local library as a child and began to write short stories as a teenager. He attended Denend Primary School in Cardendan and later Auchterderran Junior High at...

Further reading