Occupation Writer Name Elizabeth George Nationality American Role Writer | Spouse Ira Toibin (m. 1971) Citizenship United States | |
![]() | ||
Parents Anne George, Robert Edwin George Awards Agatha Award for Best First Novel Books A Great Deliverance, Just One Evil Act, Well‑Schooled in Murder, This Body of Death, A Traitor to Memory Similar People Catherine George, Sharon Small, Nathaniel Parker, Anne Perry, Erik Larson Profiles |
Elizabeth george speare biography
Susan Elizabeth George (born February 26, 1949) is an American writer of mystery novels set in Great Britain.
Contents
- Elizabeth george speare biography
- Biography
- Career
- Quote
- Fiction Inspector Lynley
- Fiction other
- Non fiction
- Awards
- References

She is best known for a series of novels featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley, 19 in number as of 2015. The first eleven were adapted for television by the BBC as earlier episodes of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.
Elizabeth george speare biography
Biography
Elizabeth George was born in Warren, Ohio, to Robert Edwin and Anne (née Rivelle) George, their second child—she has an older brother, author Robert Rivelle George. Her mother was a nurse, and her father a manager for a conveyor company. The family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was eighteen months old. Her father wanted to get away from the Midwestern weather.
She was a student of English, having received a teaching certificate from the University of California, Riverside. While teaching English in the public school system, she completed a master's degree in counseling and psychology. She received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Cal State University Fullerton in 2004 and was awarded an honorary Masters in Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in 2010. She also established the Elizabeth George Foundation in 1997.
George married Ira Jay Toibin in 1971 and they divorced in 1995.
George is currently married to Tom McCabe (see acknowledgements in 2015 novel A Banquet of Consequences)
Career
Her first published novel was A Great Deliverance (1988). It introduces Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, actually Lord Asherton, privately educated (Eton College and Oxford University); his partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grammar school educated and from a working-class background—both from Scotland Yard; Lady Helen Clyde, Lynley's girlfriend; and Lynley's former school friend Simon St. James.
Quote
Art can't be taught; passion can't be taught; discipline can't be taught; but craft can be taught. And writing is both an art and a craft.
Fiction: Inspector Lynley
Fiction: other
Non-fiction
Awards
George's first novel, A Great Deliverance, was favorably received by the mystery fiction community.
It won the Agatha Award for "Best First Novel" in 1988 and the 1989 Anthony Award in the same category. It was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1988.