{"id":2017,"date":"2015-03-25T15:12:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2015-06-05T15:02:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T15:02:18","slug":"lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Davidson hailed as the best spy novelist you probably have&#8217;nt read"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Lionel Davidson Telegraph tribute\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/books\/11451620\/Lionel-Davidson-the-best-spy-novelist-you-might-never-have-read.html\">Jake Kerridge in a <em>Daily Telegraph<\/em> article<\/a> has discovered the merits of Lionel Davidson (died 2009).\u00a0 In a broad and beautifully empathetic article Jake paints a picture of the British thriller writer who was one of the best of his day. Here is a taster: &#8220;Davidson\u2019s snaffling of the narrative devices of the old adventure writers was committed in cold blood. When he began writing in the late Fifties, he was a hard-up freelance journalist with a wife and two sons to support, and set out quite deliberately to write a bestseller. And so he studied and emulated the chart-busters of the past, trying to replicate the combination of \u201cfertility of invention and plausibility of narrative\u201d that characterised Rider Haggard and co.<\/p>\n<p>But what stops his books from being pastiches of a genre that was dead as a dodo is his style. Sceptical, iconoclastic, shorn of pretension and concerned with the way ordinary people think and behave \u2013 the novels are unmistakably the work of a writer from the generation that produced the Angry Young Men&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Over my career as bookseller and publisher spanning than the last two decades. I had sold collectible copies of his early Davidson\u00a0 books to customers and talked over why they were drawn to this particular author. Occasionally I wrote to Lionel to pass on pertinent comments and enquire about his next book. A subject on which he was less than forthright. Then about ten years ago I suggested that we co-operate on a book about his work \u2013 an overview essay, <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/MASTERS-OF-CRIME-Lionel-DAVIDSON-and-Dick-FRANCIS-Essays.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-1340\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/MASTERS-OF-CRIME-Lionel-DAVIDSON-and-Dick-FRANCIS-Essays-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"MASTERS OF CRIME- Lionel DAVIDSON and Dick FRANCIS  Essays\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>a recorded interview and an annotated bibliography including his screenplays. He graciously accepted and the book (also about Dick Francis) was published in 2006.\u00a0 <em><strong>Masters of Crime: Lionel Davidson and Dick Francis<\/strong><\/em> was issued as a trade paperback and also as a leather bound, illustrated signed limited.<\/p>\n<p>After Lionel Davidson had past away in 2009 I was discussing a Scorpion edition of the Crime Writers&#8217; Association collection of stories, <strong><em>Original Sins<\/em><\/strong> with editor Martin Edwards. I like to include additional material on crime writers and Martin suggested I write about Lionel.\u00a0 You see the story about Lionel as a literary man, his connections, and his efforts to be a film maker, as well as children&#8217;s author\u00a0 was not widely known today even among other writers and <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1225 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS.jpg\" alt=\"ANTHOLOGY ORIGINAL SINS\" width=\"175\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS.jpg 175w, https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS-18x32.jpg 18w, https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS-21x36.jpg 21w, https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS-52x90.jpg 52w, https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ANTHOLOGY-ORIGINAL-SINS-87x150.jpg 87w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/><\/a>reviewers.\u00a0 Those that knew him well had passed on.<\/p>\n<p>His novels were dashed out in between other tasks often in only a few weeks, and was genuinely surprised when he won award after award.\u00a0 Take for example, <em>The Chelsea Murders<\/em> (1978) which was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger.\u00a0 Did he research the setting &#8211; not a bit of it &#8211; he was living in Israel at the time and like his other famous books set in far away places he simply imagined it all.<\/p>\n<p>Both the tribute book and the CWA collection is available in the shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jake Kerridge in a Daily Telegraph article has discovered the merits of Lionel Davidson (died 2009).\u00a0 In a broad and beautifully empathetic article Jake paints a picture of the British thriller writer who was one of the best of his day. Here is a taster: &#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[231,71,182,85],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-jake-ketteridge","tag-lionel-davidson","tag-martin-edwards","tag-original-sins"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lionel Davidson hailed as the best spy novelist you probably have&#039;nt read - SCORPION PRESS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Personal reflections on Lionel Davidson (2009 RIP) as a brilliant thriller writer with references to a tribute book.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lionel Davidson hailed as the best spy novelist you probably have&#039;nt read - SCORPION PRESS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Personal reflections on Lionel Davidson (2009 RIP) as a brilliant thriller writer with references to a tribute book.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCORPION PRESS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-25T15:12:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-05T15:02:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/MASTERS-OF-CRIME-Lionel-DAVIDSON-and-Dick-FRANCIS-Essays-Interviews.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"221\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"MJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ef70d48c83d25922a587186006490b95\"},\"headline\":\"Lionel Davidson hailed as the best spy novelist you probably have&#8217;nt read\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-25T15:12:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-05T15:02:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/MASTERS-OF-CRIME-Lionel-DAVIDSON-and-Dick-FRANCIS-Essays-Interviews.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Jake Ketteridge\",\"Lionel Davidson\",\"Martin Edwards\",\"Original Sins\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.scorpionpress.org.uk\/uk\/lionel-davidson-hailed-as-the-best-thriller-writer-you-probably-havent-read\/\",\"name\":\"Lionel Davidson hailed as the best spy novelist you probably have'nt read - 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