Peter Corris

Peter Robert Corris (8 May 1942 – 30 August 2018) was an Australian academic, historian, journalist and a novelist of historical and crime fiction. As crime fiction writer, he was described as "the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-writing", particularly for his Cliff Hardy novels.

Biography

Corris' secondary school education was at Melbourne High School. He was a Bachelor level student at the University of Melbourne, then gained a Master of Arts in history at Monash University. He studied at the Australian National University where he was awarded a PhD in history on the topic of the South Seas Islander slave trade (Kanakas). He continued these studies as a university lecturer, but later became a journalist, being a literary editor of the National Times. He recalled, "I got sick of the literary editor shit. I got fucking sick of new books, beautiful new hardbacks flowing in every week in their dust covers, filling the cupboard up. For the first year or so I thought, 'This is heaven.'... It was a dream job for 18 months but it got to the stage where I hated the look of a new book."

The first Cliff Hardy book was The Dying Trade. Corris later recalled "I'd already finished the second one because I enjoyed doing the first one so much, and had started a third one, and well, the ball just got rolling, even though it took about 5 years for the first one to get published."

He was married to writer Jean Bedford.

Peter Corris wrote a book, Sweet & Sour: A Diabetic Life (2000), that provided deep insights into his life living with type-1 diabetes. Some of his novels have diabetic subplots. In January 2017, Corris announced that he would no longer be writing novels owing to 'creeping blindness' because of his diabetes.

Awards and achievements

• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Lifetime Achievement, 1999: winner
• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Fiction, 2004: nominated for Master's Mates
• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Fiction, 2006: shortlisted for Saving Billie
• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Fiction, 2007: shortlisted for The Undertow
• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Fiction, 2008: nominated for Appeal Denied
• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Fiction, 2008: nominated for Open File
• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Fiction, 2009: winner for Deep Water

Partial list of books

Other works

• Passage, Port and Plantation: A History of Solomon Islands Labour Migration, 1870-1914 (Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1973); ISBN 0-522-84050-7
• Lords of the Ring (Sydney, Cassell Australia, 1980); ISBN 0-7269-1406-1
• Lightning Meets the West Wind: The Malaita Massacre, by Roger M. Keesing & Peter Corris (Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1980); ISBN 0-19-554223-1
• The National Times Australian Book of Quizzes, by Jean Bedford & Peter Corris (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1983); ISBN 0-86861-094-1
• The Winning Side (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984); ISBN 0-86861-785-7
• The Australian Family Quiz Book (Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1985); ISBN 0-207-15060-5
• The Gulliver Fortune (Sydney, Bantam Books, 1989); ISBN 0-947189-81-5
• Naismith's Dominion (Sydney, Bantam Books, 1990); ISBN 1-86359-017-X
• Fred Hollows: An Autobiography, by Fred Hollows with Peter Corris (Melbourne, John Kerr, 1991); ISBN 0-9588004-6-4
• The Brothers Craft (Sydney, Bantam Books, 1992); ISBN 1-86359-053-6
• Fighting for Fraser Island: A Man and an Island, by John Sinclair with Peter Corris (Sydney, Kerr Publishing, 1994); ISBN 1-875703-16-0
• Wimmera Gold (Sydney, Bantam Books, 1994); ISBN 1-86359-258-X
• A Round of Golf: 18 Holes with Peter Corris (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1998); ISBN 1-86448-853-0
• Petro-Pirates: The Hijacking of the Petro Ranger, by Ken Blyth with Peter Corris (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2000); ISBN 1-86508-368-2
• Sweet & Sour: A Diabetic Life (Lismore, NSW, Southern Cross University Press, 2000); ISBN 1-875855-46-7
• The Journal of Fletcher Christian: Together with the History of Henry Corkill (Sydney, Random House Australia, 2005); ISBN 1-74051-351-7
• Blood Brothers (Sydney, Lothian Books, 2007; ISBN 978-0-734-41006-1
• Wishart's Quest (Melbourne, Arcadia, 2009); ISBN 978-1-921-50954-4
• The Colonial Queen (Melbourne, Arcadia, 2011); ISBN 978-1-921-87531-1
• Mad Dog: William Cyril Moxley and the Moorebank Killings (Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 2011); ISBN 978-1-742-23286-7
• Standing in the Shadow: Three Novellas (Melbourne, Arcadia, 2013); ISBN 978-1-921-87532-8
• Damned If I Do, by Philip Nitschke with Peter Corris (Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2013); ISBN 978-0-522-86141-9

Edited

• The Picador Book of Golf, edited by Peter Corris & Jamie Grant (Sydney, Picador, 1995); ISBN 0-330-35692-5
• Ringside: A Knockout Collection of Fights & Fighters: The Winners, the Losers, the Legends, edited by Peter Corris & Barry Parish (Sydney, Random House Australia, 1996); ISBN 0-09-183333-7
• Menace in the Mulga (Brisbane, Crime Writers Queensland, 2000); ISBN 0-9585413-2-9
• Heart Matters: Personal Stories About That Heart-Stopping Moment, edited by Peter Corris & Michael Wilding (Melbourne, Viking, 2010); ISBN 978-0-670-07385-6
• Best on Ground: Great Writers on the Greatest Game, edited by Peter Corris & John Dale (Melbourne, Viking, 2010); ISBN 978-0-670-07460-0

See also

• William R. Bell
• Malaita massacre
• List of fictional private investigators
• Jimmy Sharman
• Jim Sharman

References

External links

• The Peter Corris website
• Corris and Langmores' biography of Jimmy Sharman (1887–1965)
• Peter Corris plaque in the "Writers Walk", Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia.