Background
Val McDermid was born on June 4, 1955, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, and grew up in a Scottish mining community.
Val McDermid and Robson Green. Her latest book The Last Temptation is set in Europe and reunites psychological profiler Dr. Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan. A major ITV series based on the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series will be broadcast in 2002 with Robson Green playing the lead role.
1995
The Mermaids Singing, the first book in the Hill/Jordan series, won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year.
2010
Val McDermid won the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing.
2011
Val McDermid was the recipient of the Pioneer Award at the 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards.
2012
Val McDermid, a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies.
2015
32 Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate HG1 1DB, England, United Kingdom
Val McDermid participated at the Harrogate international festival.
2016
Val McDermid
2016
McDermid at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2016. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian.
2018
Val McDermid
2018
Val McDermid
2018
Val McDermid
2019
5 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4DR, Scotland, Great Britain
Val McDermid at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with Karine Polwart, Ali Smith, and Nayrouz Qarmout.
2019
Val McDermid, author and Patron of Scottish Book Trust (Photo: Rob McDougall).
2019
The queen of crime, Val McDermid.
St Hilda's College, Oxford, England, United Kingdom
McDermid studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school.
Val McDermid, British writer and novelist
Val McDermid, British writer and novelist
Val McDermid, British writer and novelist
Royal Society of Edinburgh, New Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, Great Britain
In 2017, McDermid was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Royal Society of Literature, Somerset House, London, England, United Kingdom
In 2017, McDermid was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Val McDermid, British writer and novelist
Val McDermid and Robson Green. Her latest book The Last Temptation is set in Europe and reunites psychological profiler Dr. Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan. A major ITV series based on the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series will be broadcast in 2002 with Robson Green playing the lead role.
(This was the summer he discovered what he wanted - at a g...)
This was the summer he discovered what he wanted - at a gruesome museum of criminology far off the beaten track of more timid tourists. Visions of torture inspired his fantasies like a muse. It would prove so terribly fulfilling. The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he's encountered before. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill's own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer's motives. It's also made him the perfect victim. A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted.
https://www.amazon.com/Mermaids-Singing-Tony-Carol-Jordan-ebook/dp/B003E74BXI/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished...)
Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished. Authorities are convinced they're runaways with just the bad luck of the draw to connect them. It's the job of criminal profilers Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to look for a pattern. They've spent years exploring the psyches of madmen. But sane men kill, too. And when they hide in plain sight, they can be difficult to find... He's handsome and talented, rich and famous - a notorious charmer with the power to seduce... and the will to destroy. No one can believe what he's capable of.
https://www.amazon.com/Wire-Blood-Tony-Carol-Jordan-ebook/dp/B003J5UJ5O/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(Winter 1963: two children have disappeared off the street...)
Winter 1963: two children have disappeared off the streets of Manchester; the murderous careers of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady have begun. On a freezing day in December, another child goes missing: thirteen-year-old Alison Carter vanishes from her town, an insular community that distrusts the outside world. For the young George Bennett, a newly promoted inspector, it is the beginning of his most difficult and harrowing case: a murder with nobody, an investigation with more dead ends and closed faces than he'd have found in the anonymity of the inner city, and an outcome which reverberates through the years.
https://www.amazon.com/Place-Execution-Novel-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B002VIABKI/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(A killer is on the loose, blurring the line between fact ...)
A killer is on the loose, blurring the line between fact and fiction. His prey - the writers of crime novels who have turned psychological profilers into the heroes of the nineties. But this killer is like no other. His bloodlust shatters all the conventional wisdom surrounding the motives and mechanics of how serial killers operate. And for one woman, the desperate hunt to uncover his identity becomes a matter of life and death. Professor Fiona Cameron is an academic psychologist who uses computer technology to help police forces track serial offenders. She used to help the Met, but vowed never to work for them again when they went against her advice and subsequently botched an investigation.
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Shadows-Martins-Minotaur-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B003J4VE4U/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(In an effort to plumb the real world of working women and...)
In an effort to plumb the real world of working women and throw new light on her own craft - she has interviewed women private eyes from both sides of the Atlantic and assembled their stories with an eye for the absurd and a keen grasp of the gritty nuts and bolts of the profession.
https://www.amazon.com/Suitable-Job-Woman-Inside-Private/dp/1890208159/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(Mapping the minds of murderers is what Dr. Tony Hill does...)
Mapping the minds of murderers is what Dr. Tony Hill does better than anyone. So when a twisted killer starts targeting psychologists across Northern Europe, Hill is the obvious choice to track the executioner's mental and physical journey. Except that Tony, still bearing the scars of past cases, doesn't want to do this anymore. But the killer is about to strike uncomfortably close to home. The next victim is a friend and colleague. And Tony's former partner, Detective Carol Jordan, is directly in the murderer's path, working undercover in a world where human life means less than the smallest drug deal. She needs Tony's help as much as the beleaguered European police officials do. Now the danger is closing in. Confronting the worst of modern crime and struggling to unravel roots that lie deep in the tormented past of Nazi atrocities and Stasi abuses, Tony and Carol are forced to battle for survival against overwhelming odds.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Temptation-Novel-Carol-Jordan-ebook/dp/B00391L86M/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are stagg...)
Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in the ancient Pictish cemetery. The only suspects are the four young students stained with her blood. Twenty-five years later, police mount a cold case review. Among the unsolved murders, they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has his own idea of justice. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire and soon after, a second is killed.
https://www.amazon.com/Distant-Echo-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B003J5UHRE/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan ...)
Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan return in the award-winning series that is the basis for the BBC television show. In a small grim room, the body of a woman is discovered, panic and pain etched in her face. The scene matches in every detail a series of murders two years ago-murders that ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of a deeply disturbed young man named Derek Tyler. But there's no way Tyler could have killed the latest victim. He's been locked up in a mental institution since his trial, barely speaking a word. So is there a copycat? All his years of experience tell top criminal psychologist Dr. Tony Hill that there isn't-but that would make the murders literally impossible.
https://www.amazon.com/Torment-Others-Novel-Carol-Jordan-ebook/dp/B0040JHNRK/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(For centuries, Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher C...)
For centuries, Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher Christian staged the massacre on Pitcairn so that he could return home. And there, he told his story to an old friend and schoolmate, William Wordsworth, who turned it into a long narrative poem - a poem that remained hidden lest it exposes Wordsworth to the gallows for harboring a fugitive. Wordsworth specialist Jane Gresham, herself a native of the Lake District, feels compelled to discover once and for all whether the manuscript ever existed - and whether it still exists today. But as she pursues each new lead, death follows hard on her heels.
https://www.amazon.com/Grave-Tattoo-Novel-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B000Q80SPI/?tag=2022091-20
2006
(Winner of the coveted CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Nove...)
Winner of the coveted CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year for The Mermaids Singing, McDermid reunites her popular investigating team of Dr. Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan in Beneath the Bleeding, as they search for the truth behind a horrific act of mass murder and wholesale destruction.
https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Bleeding-Novel-Carol-Jordan-ebook/dp/B002MZUQ1E/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttin...)
When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttings about a brutal murder, it instantly grabs her attention. The murder occurred in the grounds of her old Oxford college - a groom battered to death just hours after his wedding. As his bride and wedding guests sipped champagne, his alleged killers were slipping his bloodstained body into the river. Charlie doesn't know who sent the package, or why, yet she can't get the crime out of her head. But as she delves deeper, and steps back into the mysterious world of Oxford colleges, she realises that there is much more to this crime than meets the eye...
https://www.amazon.com/Trick-Dark-Val-McDermid/dp/0751543225/?tag=2022091-20
2010
(Tony Hill has had a good run. He and detective Carol Jord...)
Tony Hill has had a good run. He and detective Carol Jordan have put away scores of dangerous criminals at a rate that colleagues envy. But there is one serial killer who has shaped and defined their careers, and whose evil surpasses all others: Jacko Vance, ex-celebrity and sociopath whose brilliance and utter lack of remorse have never left Tony’s mind in the ten years since his imprisonment. Now Jacko has escaped from prison - even more twisted and cunning than before, he is focused on wreaking revenge on Tony and Carol for his years spent behind bars.
https://www.amazon.com/Retribution-Tony-Hill-Carol-Jordan-ebook/dp/B006T9I0SU/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(From one of the finest crime writers we have, The Vanishi...)
From one of the finest crime writers we have, The Vanishing Point kicks off with a nightmare scenario - the abduction of a child in an international airport. Stephanie Harker is in the screening booth at airport security, separated from Jimmy Higgins, the five-year-old boy she’s in the process of adopting when a man in a TSA uniform leads the boy away. The more Stephanie sounds the alarm, the more the security agents suspect her, and the further away the kidnapper gets. It soon becomes apparent that nothing in this situation is clear-cut. For starters, Jimmy’s birth mother was a celebrity - living in a world where conspiracy and obfuscation are excused for the sake of column inches. And then there are the bad boys in both women’s pasts.
https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Point-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B008DYIC50/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(Cross and Burn pick up where The Retribution left off: fo...)
Cross and Burn pick up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the United Kingdom - clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan - who when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. But just because they’re not talking doesn’t mean the killing stops. Women are being murdered - ones who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before.
https://www.amazon.com/Cross-Burn-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B00CIWZ7OC/?tag=2022091-20
2013
(A homeschooled minister’s daughter in the quaint, shelter...)
A homeschooled minister’s daughter in the quaint, sheltered Piddle Valley in Dorset, Cat Morland loses herself in novels and is sure there is a glamorous adventure awaiting her beyond the valley’s narrow horizon. So, imagine her delight when the Allens, neighbors and friends of her parents, invite her to attend the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh as their guest. With a sunny personality, tickets every night, and a few key wardrobe additions courtesy of Susie Allen, Cat quickly begins to take Edinburgh by storm and is taken into the bosom of the Thorpe family, particularly by eldest daughter Bella. And then there’s the handsome Henry Tilney, an up-and-coming lawyer whose family home is the beautiful and forbidding Northanger Abbey.
https://www.amazon.com/Northanger-Abbey-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B00HWGLWFW/?tag=2022091-20
2014
(In the center of historic Edinburgh, builders are prepari...)
In the center of historic Edinburgh, builders are preparing to demolish a disused Victorian Gothic building. They are understandably surprised to find skeletal remains hidden in a high pinnacle that hasn’t been touched by maintenance for years. Who do the bones belong to, and how did they get there? Could the eccentric British pastime of free climbing the outside of buildings plays a role? Enter cold case detective Karen Pirie, who gets to work trying to establish the corpse’s identity.
https://www.amazon.com/Skeleton-Road-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B00JLQ4OHE/?tag=2022091-20
2014
(Vicious online attacks seem to be driving outspoken women...)
Vicious online attacks seem to be driving outspoken women to silence themselves through suicide. Yet for profiler Tony Hill, who knows a thing or two about patterns in human behavior, something doesn’t add up. Carol Jordan, meanwhile, is too busy tackling her own demons to think about a potential serial killer. But when she gets an opportunity for a second chance, it’s game on.
https://www.amazon.com/Splinter-Silence-Carol-Jordan-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00XAQ1PHS/?tag=2022091-20
2015
(Forensics goes behind the scenes with some of these top-l...)
Forensics goes behind the scenes with some of these top-level professionals and their groundbreaking research, drawing on original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists. Along the way, we discover how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist was able to uncover the victims of a genocide. The journey takes us to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites, reveals both extraordinary bravery and true wickedness, as we trace the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern-day.
https://www.amazon.com/Forensics-Burns-Prints-About-Crime/dp/0802125158/?tag=2022091-20
2016
(When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up ...)
When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before. Finding the answer to the cold case should be straightforward. But it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating, a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems.
https://www.amazon.com/Out-Bounds-Karen-Pirie-Book-ebook/dp/B01LYZYJGN/?tag=2022091-20
2016
(Tony and Carol are on the hunt for a serial killer who vi...)
Tony and Carol are on the hunt for a serial killer who victimizes women at weddings without a date - and forces the duo to confront their most haunting moral dilemma so far. In the north of England, single women are beginning to disappear from weddings. A pattern soon becomes clear: Someone is crashing the festivities and luring the women away - only to leave the victims’ bodies in their own burned-out cars in remote locations. Tony and Carol are called upon to investigate - but this may be the toughest case they’ve ever had to face.
https://www.amazon.com/Insidious-Intent-Val-McDermid-ebook/dp/B06XWH8SFW/?tag=2022091-20
2017
(Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somervil...)
Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville’s inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise - a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Pirie is called in to unravel a case where nothing is quite as it seems. And as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice.
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Ground-Karen-Pirie-Book-ebook/dp/B07KNDC2SQ/?tag=2022091-20
2018
(There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Ka...)
There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud nothing bad could happen. In Crack Down, Kate learns that once again with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. With the unexpected being Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son who proves even more troublesome than his father. She soon finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters and violent gangland enforcers, bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.
https://www.amazon.com/Crack-Down-Clean-Break-Brannigan-ebook/dp/B07611GLF3/?tag=2022091-20
2018
(After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol J...)
After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to reassess everything they thought they knew about right and wrong, both are dealing with the fallout in their own separate ways. While Tony must pay the price for his actions, Carol is conducting investigations into suspected miscarriages of justice. But when a shocking discovery is made on a construction site, and skeletal remains are found to belong to a killer who is supposedly alive and in prison, suddenly, Tony and Carol are brought into each other's orbit once again...
https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Speak-Tony-Carol-Jordan/dp/1408712253/?tag=2022091-20
2019
(Accompanied by over 100 stunning photographs, this remark...)
Accompanied by over 100 stunning photographs, this remarkable book uncovers Val's own Scotland in all its glory - from the iconic Isle of Skye to the majestic streets of Edinburgh; from the undiscovered hideaways of the Highlands to the wild and untamed Jura.
https://www.amazon.com/My-Scotland-Val-McDermid/dp/075157256X/?tag=2022091-20
2019
Val McDermid was born on June 4, 1955, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, and grew up in a Scottish mining community.
McDermid was at first educated at Kirkcaldy High School and then studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school.
After graduation, Val McDermid became a journalist and worked briefly as a dramatist. Her first success as a novelist, Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery occurred in 1987.
Her first published book was Report for Murder (1987), and since then, she has written a large number of crime novels. These include three different series of books: The Lindsay Gordon Mystery series which comprises Report for Murder (1987), Common Murder (1989), Final Edition (1991), Union Jack (1993), Booked for Murder (1996) and Hostage to Murder (2003); The Kate Branningan Mystery series which comprises Dead Beat (1992), Kick Back (1993), Crack Down (1994), Clean Break (1995), Blue Genes (1996) and Star Struck (1998); and the Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan Mystery series which includes The Mermaids Singing (1995), The Wire in the Blood (1997), The Last Temptation (2002), The Torment of Others (2004), which won the 2006 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Beneath the Bleeding (2007), Fever of the Bone (2009), The Retribution (2011), Cross and Burn (2013) and Splinter the Silence (2015). The Wire in the Blood has been made into a successful 6-part television series.
Her book Stranded (2005), is her second collection of short stories. The first collection, The Writing on the Wall and other stories was published in 1997. She is also the author of several books of non-fiction, including A Suitable Job for a Woman: Inside the World of Women Private Eyes (1995) and Forensics (2015). She has also dabbled in Children's literature, publishing the book My Granny is a Pirate in 2012. In 2014 she rewrote Austen's Northanger Abbey for the modern age, part of the Jane Austen Project.
Val McDermid was a crime reviewer for the Manchester Evening News for four years, still writes occasional journalism, and broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages.
(Cross and Burn pick up where The Retribution left off: fo...)
2013(In an effort to plumb the real world of working women and...)
2000(Accompanied by over 100 stunning photographs, this remark...)
2019(A homeschooled minister’s daughter in the quaint, shelter...)
2014(Forensics goes behind the scenes with some of these top-l...)
2016(After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol J...)
2019(There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Ka...)
2018(Tony and Carol are on the hunt for a serial killer who vi...)
2017(When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up ...)
2016(From one of the finest crime writers we have, The Vanishi...)
2012(Winner of the coveted CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Nove...)
2007(Winter 1963: two children have disappeared off the street...)
1999(This was the summer he discovered what he wanted - at a g...)
1995(Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are stagg...)
2003(Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somervil...)
2018(For centuries, Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher C...)
2006(When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttin...)
2010(In the center of historic Edinburgh, builders are prepari...)
2014(Vicious online attacks seem to be driving outspoken women...)
2015(A killer is on the loose, blurring the line between fact ...)
2000(Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished...)
1997(Mapping the minds of murderers is what Dr. Tony Hill does...)
2002(Tony Hill has had a good run. He and detective Carol Jord...)
2011(Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan ...)
2004McDermid is a dedicated radical feminist and socialist. She has incorporated the ideas of feminism into some of her novels.
McDermid considers her work to be part of the "Tartan Noir" Scottish crime fiction genre. Here is what she stated about a process of her writing a novel: "The only target I have is the deadline. I’ve done this enough times to have a sense of when I need to start and how far in I need to be at various points on the calendar. Usually, I’m not quite where I need to be when I need to be there so I write in a state of panic mostly. Physically writing the book takes me about three months of seven-day weeks. I generally start at about 10 in the morning and finish late in the evening. Or in the early hours, if it’s going well. When I start I know the shape of the story and some of the crucial turning points but not much more than that. I only ever know the details of the next four or five sections that lie ahead of me. I used to plan very carefully but my method changed about a dozen years ago. My editor thinks its because I became more confident in my narrative skills.
I get bored very easily… As I said, I never write books back to back with the same characters. It gives me – and them – space and time to breathe and consider what’s the best way forward."
Quotations:
"I am a lesbian and that has some influence on my perspective. But equally importantly, I’m also Scottish, I’m a mother, I’m a feminist, I’m half of a couple, I’m a singer, a reader, a news junkie, and a football fan. All of this and more informs my work. I honestly think labels and categories have become much more blurred in recent years, so I don’t see much point in them."
"Reading Kate Millett’s feminist classic Sexual Politics was like having a lightbulb going on above my head. It gave me a totally different view. I started hanging round with feminist groups, and that’s where I learned about lesbians. And I realised that’s where I belonged. Not much later, I had my heart well and truly broken in my first real relationship. It was one of those star-crossed, doomed things, which ended badly. I had to be emotionally tough about it. You had to be careful who you talked to about such things then. There was a lot of hostility, really quite nasty homophobia all around. So I just had to get a grip and get on. But that heartbreak stayed with me a long time, reverberating through my life."
"Many women struggle to let go of that imposter syndrome; waiting for the moment when they turn round and say, it’s not really you we wanted! When I went for my Oxford exam the woman asked me how long I’d lived in Shetland. My heart contracted in my chest and I thought, they’ve got the wrong person. It should be a lassie from Shetland sitting here, not me. I almost shouted, I’ve never been to Shetland! She said – but it says here you went to Fair Isle primary school. I said, that’s just a name! That was a terrible, terrible moment. And it’s never quite left me."
"Different kinds of stories demand different turns, different voices, different kinds of investigation. A book takes quite a long time before I'm ready to write it. It can be two or three years for me getting the first idea; I play around with it and get more information about it, talk to people who know about the general subject area I'm interested in. Gradually, a kind of story develops, and I know pretty early on whether it's a story that will fit one of the characters I already have, or whether I need to branch out in a new direction."
"I’ve always thought a sense of place is a really key element in good crime fiction. All the writers whose books stick most in my mind are the ones who really summon up a vision of a place for me. So when I’m thinking about a book, I’m always thinking about where it happens. And there are some locations that just seem to invite writing about them."
In 2017, McDermid was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
On 23 October 2016 McDermid, who is gay, married Jo Sharp, a professor of geography at the University of Glasgow and McDermid's partner.