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Barbara Nadel

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Barbara Nadel
BornLondon, England, United Kingdom
OccupationAuthor
NationalityEnglish
Genre
Years active1999–present
Notable works
  • Inspector İkmen
  • Francis Hancock
  • Hakim and Arnold

Barbara Nadel is an English crime and historical fiction author and former healthcare professional. She is best known for her Inspector İkmen series of novels set in Istanbul, Turkey, and her Francis Hancock series set in the East End of London. She has also written the Hakim and Arnold and the Ten Bells Street series, the latter under the pen name Mary Collins.[1][2]

Early life

Nadel was born and raised in the East End of London in the 1960s and 1970s.[3] Her father had lived through World War II and witnessed the carpet bombing during The Blitz in the early 1940s.[4] As a young child, she wanted to be an Egyptologist when she grows up.[1] She frequently visited the local library to borrow books.[5] "With no real gardens to play in", Nadel and her friends would "explore any other strange buildings we might find on our sojourns out to play in the street. Disused railway buildings, derelict houses, abandoned sheds" and even "on what we called 'bomb sites', massive craters in the ground where bombs had fallen."[2][3]

Barbara Nadel trained as an actress before becoming a writer. Now writing full-time, she has previously worked as a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship's Good Companion Service and as a mental health advocate for the mentally disordered in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in schools and colleges, and was the patron of The Acorn Group in Shrewsbury,[6][7] a charity (now apparently closed following a cut in funding[8][9]) caring for those in emotional and mental distress. She has been a regular visitor to Turkey for more than 25 years.

Writing career

Nadel had tried to publish her first novel in 1992 but was unsuccessful. Seven years later, in 1999, she contacted Julie Burton Literary Agency who liked her work and became her agent. Nadel next signed a three-book contract with Hodder Headline,[10] with her debut novel Belshazzar's Daughter being published that year. Nadel's motivation to pursue publishing again had been financial difficulties after her husband lost his job.

Her Inspector İkmen series follow Çetin İkmen, a chain-smoking and hard-drinking detective on the Istanbul police force, and his colleagues Mehmet Süleyman, Balthazar Cohen, and Armenian forensic pathologist Arto Sarkissian. Ikmen's father's ancestry hails from the Cappadocia region while his mother is Albanian. The two main characters develop flaws as the series progresses, as Nadel explains, "People do get angry, have affairs, experience envy and have less than satisfactory relationships with their families in real life. That İkmen and Süleyman do these things too, makes them better characters."[11]

Her Francis Hancock series, set in West Ham in the East End of London during World War II, follows undertaker Francis Hancock amid The Blitz. The first novel Last Rights was published in 2005. With the second series, Nadel became a full-time professional writer in 2006.[10]

On 24 January 2011, Quercus announced having signed Nadel to write a new crime series set in modern-day East End which was to be published starting in Summer 2012 under the pen name B J Nadel.[12] The book, A Private Business, was ultimately published and credited to Barbara Nadel.[13] The series follows private investigator Lee Arnold and his British Bangladeshi assistant Mumtaz Hakim. Her parents had moved to the Spitalfields neighborhood in the 1960s from East Pakistan before the latter became independent in 1971.[14] The series' publication moved to Allison & Busby starting with the fifth book.

Other published works include short stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, plus British magazines (My Weekly and Woman's Own), and travel pieces for British newspapers (The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent), and the US food magazine Saveur.[citation needed]

Personal life

Barbara Nadel is married. The couple have one adult son who is a comic book writer,[4] and one grandson who was born in 2016.[15]

According to Nadel, she cannot sleep until she's read for at least half an hour.[5] She quit drinking alcohol but used to enjoy rakı.[15] She enjoys eating almonds, pickles, fish sandwiches, baklava, profiteroles and kokoreç.[4]

Since November 2014, Nadel and her husband have resided in Essex in the East of England.[16] The couple previously lived in Lancashire in North West England with her six pet axolotls.[17][18] Her Persian cat named Lily died on 23 December 2011.[19] By 2020, she had one axolotl named Hattie and two cats.[15][2]

Awards

Year Award Category Nominees Result
2005 Crime Writers' Association's
Silver Dagger 		Deadly Web (from Inspector İkmen, book #7) Won
2006 Jury magazine's
Flintyxan ("Flint Axe") 		Best Historical Crime Novel Dödlig rättvisa, Marianne Alstermark's Swedish translation of Last Rights (from Francis Hancock, book #1) Won
2007 Crime Writers' Association's
Dagger in the Library 		Herself Nominated
Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award Dance with Death (from Inspector İkmen, book #8) Nominated
2008 Redbridge Libraries'
Big Red Read Awards 		Book of the Year Ashes to Ashes (from Francis Hancock, book #3) Won
2010 Crime Fiction of the Year Sure and Certain Death (from Francis Hancock, book #4) Won
2013 Short Mystery Fiction Society's
Derringer Award 		Best short story "Nain Rouge" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2012) Nominated

Bibliography

Inspector İkmen

Published by Headline

Francis Hancock

Published by Headline

  1. Last Rights (2005)
  2. After the Mourning (2006)
  3. Ashes to Ashes (2008)
  4. Sure and Certain Death (2009)

Adaptation

Main article: The Turkish Detective

In June 2020, it was announced that Miramax TV and ViacomCBS International Studios would produce a television adaptation of the Çetin İkmen novels entitled The Turkish Detective.[29]

By April 2022, the project was greenlit for a full series of eight episodes, to be released on Paramount+. The series is written by Ben Schiffer, and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. Acclaimed Turkish actor Haluk Bilginer stars as İkmen, alongside Ethan Kai as Mehmet Süleyman, and Yasemin Allen as Ayşe Farsakoğlu.[30] The series released in September 2023.

The series will air in the UK on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.[31]

References

  1. ^ a b "The Writing Life of: Barbara Nadel". 21 June 2018. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Monday Memoirs: Then & Now – Pen to Print". 13 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b "An Interview with Barbara Nadel". ShinyNewBooks.co.uk. 20 October 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Sümer, Gencoy (25 May 2023). "Interview with Barbara Nadel". Dedektif Dergi. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Interview with Barbara Nadel". IndependentBookReviews.co.uk. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  6. ^ "The Acorn Group home page". btconnect.com. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  7. ^ The Acorn Group (pamphlet (large JPG) ed.). Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  8. ^ "Charity to Close in Funding Crisis". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 12 August 2010. Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  9. ^ "Charity Number 1118270". UK Charity Commission Register of Charities. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  10. ^ a b "The Writing Life interview: Barbara Nadel". Goodreads.com. 12 March 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  11. ^ "Interview: Barbara Nadel | Crime Fiction Lover". 14 September 2012.
  12. ^ "Blog entry". Quercus. 24 January 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  13. ^ Nadel, Barbara. Private Business: Hakim Arnold Mystery. ASIN 0857387731.
  14. ^ "Web of Lies Sample Chapter" (PDF). 7 June 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  15. ^ a b c "Barbara Nadel". annecoatesauthor.com. 6 May 2020. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  16. ^ Nadel, Barbara (19 April 2015). "Blog entry". International Crime Authors Reality Check. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  17. ^ "The Intel: Barbara Nadel Reloaded". CrimeThrillerFella. 28 March 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  18. ^ Nadel, Barbara (19 April 2012). "Tweet at 2:40 AM". Twitter. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  19. ^ Nadel, Barbara (2 May 2012). "Blog entry". International Crime Authors Reality Check. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  20. ^ Headline web site. Accessed 16 July 2012
  21. ^ Headline web site. Accessed 17 September 2014
  22. ^ Headline web site. Accessed 17 September 2014
  23. ^ Headline web site.[permanent dead link‍] Accessed 11 December 2015
  24. ^ Headline web site. Archived 6 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 6 November 2016
  25. ^ "Blood Business (Ikmen Mystery 22) by Barbara Nadel - Books". www.hachette.com.au. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  26. ^ Quercus web site. Archived 7 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 17 September 2014
  27. ^ Quercus web site. Accessed 2 September 2015
  28. ^ Allison & Busby web site. Accessed 6 November 2016
  29. ^ Kanter, Jake (24 June 2020). "ViacomCBS International Studios Partners With Miramax On 'The Turkish Detective'". Deadline. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  30. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (13 April 2022). "'The Turkish Detective' From Niels Arden Oplev & Miramax TV Gets Paramount+ Series Order, Sets Cast". Deadline. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  31. ^ Hibbs, James (7 July 2024). "Meet the cast of The Turkish Detective". Radio Times. Retrieved 10 July 2024.

Further reading

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