Reginald Hill’s erstwhile DetectivesDalziel and Pascoe.
Originally published by L.S. Media. January 15th 2012.
Reginald Hill, one of Britain’s most successful and finest crime writers of the last 40 years passed away on the 12thJanuary. The creator of the much televised detective series Dalziel and Pascoe novels died aged 75 after suffering from a brain tumour.
Reginald Hill was born in West Hartlepool in 1936 to a “very ordinary family”. The son of a professional footballer, he discovered the world of literature whilst fetching books for his mother from the local library. After passing his Eleven Plus exam he attended Carlisle Grammar School where true to those days of carrying his mother’s books, he excelled in English.
After spending many years juggling the world of academia at St. Catherine’s College in Oxford he worked as a teacher and senior lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. He finally devoted himself full time to writing in 1980, 10 years after his debut novel A Clubbable Woman.
In 2007 he was asked in an interview whether the latest publication of the 21st Dalziel and Pascoe novel was his 48th published novel to date. His reply was self-effacing and typical of the man’s absolute regard for modesty, “That sounds very reasonable. I counted religiously till I got to ten, then in a more secular fashion till I got to 20, and after that I lost interest in keeping a tally. I mean if 20 doesn’t mean you’re a real writer, then what number does?”
The last of the Dalziel and Pascoe stories appeared in 2009 but Reginald Hill should be remembered for breaking the mould of detective novels as he wrote stories where the detectives didn’t always get their man and were unable to convict anyone for the crime they were investigating. He should also be remembered for being one of the first white novelists to write about a black private detective in the Joe Sixsmith series of books which ran from 1993 to 2008. A prolific writer he took many pseudonyms including Patrick Ruell, Dick Moorland and Charles Underhill.
Finally in 1990 Reginald Hill won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger award for the story Bones and Silence. It was a move that surprised many critics who felt he should have received the award many years earlier.
Reginald Hill deserves his place as one of the greats of the genre, alongside Colin Dexter and Ian Rankin he created characters that were beyond two dimensional and the amalgamation of collected descriptive words, he created warmth and a human factor that can be missing from the majority of fictional detectives.
There is one final novel ready for publication which is due to be released in 2013. It will surely be revered amongst his fans and by crime writing devotees alike.
Reginald Hill born, April 3rd 1936- Died, January 12th 2012.
Ian D. Hall