Peter James (writer)

Peter J. James (born 22 August 1948) is a British writer of crime.

He was born in Brighton, the son of Cornelia James, the former glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II.

James was educated at Charterhouse and went on to Ravensbourne Film School.

For a brief period of time whilst at film school, James worked as Orson Welles's house cleaner.

James currently races a 1962 C1 Corvette and a 1964 Mini Cooper S. He has donated two police cars to Sussex Police, which bear his name, and a police car to States of Jersey Police.

His 1965 BMW 1800 Ti, with his co-driver Steve Soper, came 10th overall in the St Mary's Trophy in the Goodwood Revival in 2013.

Subsequently, he spent several years in North America, working as a screenwriter and film producer, beginning in Canada in 1970 working first as a gofer, then writer, on the children's television series Polka Dot Door.

His interests include criminology, religion, science and the paranormal, as well as food and wine.

He has written many restaurant columns.

He is also a self-confessed "petrol head," having owned many fast cars over the years, including four Aston Martins, AMG and Brabus Mercedes, a Bentley Continental GT Speed and two classic Jaguar E-Types.

He holds an international racing licence, and has in the past competed in the Britcar series in both a Honda Accord and a former British Touring Car Championship SEAT Toledo.

His first, 19-year marriage was to Georgina Wilkin, from 1979 until 1998.

His 1992 novel Prophecy was adapted into the first episode of the 1995 Chiller TV series.

Since 2021, his Roy Grace series has been adapted into the ITV series Grace, starring John Simm.

James is patron of the Sussex Police Charitable Trust, patron of Brighton & Hove Samaritans, patron of the Brighton Greyhound Owners Association Retired Greyhound Trust, patron of Brighton and Hove Independent Mediation Service, patron of Relate in Sussex, patron of Terrys Cross House, patron of Little Green Pig, national co-patron of Neighbourhood Watch, co-patron of Sussex Crimestoppers, honorary patron for the South Mid Sussex Community First Responders, vice-president of The Old Police Cells Museum in Brighton.

He is an ambassador for the University of Brighton, and a Martlets Hospice Champion (which he also supports through his annual Peter James Golf Classic).

He supports Action Medical Research.

He also supports and works with The Reading Agency, a charity with a mission to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers.

Roy Grace novels

In 1993 Penguin Books published his novel Host on two floppy discs (in addition to conventional print formats).

It has been called the world's first electronic novel and a copy of it is in the Science Museum.

His 1993 novel Host was adapted into the 1998 television movie Virtual Obsession.

Other films on which he is credited include: Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, The Neptune Factor, Blue Blood, Malachi's Cove, The Blockhouse starring Peter Sellers, Spanish Fly starring Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips, A Different Loyalty starring Sharon Stone, The Bridge of San Luis Rey starring Robert De Niro, and The Statement starring Michael Caine.

In January 1999, James was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

James has written 36 novels, including the International best-selling crime thriller series featuring Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, which have sold 21 million copies worldwide and have given him 19 consecutive UK Sunday Times number ones, as well as number ones in Germany, France, Russia and Canada, and he is also a New York Times best-seller.

James's books have been translated into 38 languages.

In the UK and the US, they are published by Macmillan Publishers.

In 2005 The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford and for which James was executive producer, had a royal premiere in the presence of Prince Charles and received a BAFTA Award nomination.

In 2006 the film also won the Silver Ribbon for Best Production Design (Migliore Scenografia) from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.

James has written supernatural thrillers, spy fiction, science-based thrillers, a children's novel, and the novella The Perfect Murder, which was 15 weeks at number one on iBooks and 45 weeks in their top 10, was adapted by Shaun McKenna into a stage play which had a smash hit tour in 2014 and returned to stage in 2016.

Subsequent stage adaptations of his novels, all also by Shaun McKenna, include Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough and The House on Cold Hill have also had sell-out national tours.

His fifth stage adaptation, Looking Good Dead starts on a national tour in March 2021.

The Roy Grace series is currently being produced by ITV with John Simm playing the role of Roy Grace.

His novel Perfect People is also being filmed as an eight-part mini-series in 2021.

He is married to Lara James (m. 2015).

James has served two consecutive terms as chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, and was the programming chair for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2016, part of the Harrogate International Festivals portfolio.

He hosts The Author's Studio, a free online learning facility for all budding authors, on his YouTube channel.

In 2017, James wrote the foreword for the UK edition of The Crime Book, with American crime author Cathy Scott writing the foreword for the US edition.

The nonfiction book, a volume in the Big Ideas Simply Explained series, was released by Dorling Kindersley (Penguin Random House) in April 2017 in the UK and May 2017 in the US.

James has been involved in 26 films in writer and/or producing roles.