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Lindsey Davis, historical novelist, was born in Birmingham, England in 1949. Having taken a degree in English literature at Oxford University (Lady Margaret Hall), she became a civil servant. She left the civil service after 13 years, and when a romantic novel she had written was runner up for the 1985 Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize, she decided to become a writer, writing at first romantic serials for the UK women's magazine Woman's Realm.

Her interest in history and archaeology led to her writing a historical novel about Vespasian and his lover Antonia Caenis (The Course of Honour), for which she couldn't find a publisher. She tried again, and her first novel featuring the Roman "detective", Marcus Didius Falco, The Silver Pigs, set in the same time period and published in 1989, was the start of her runaway success as a writer of historical whodunnits. A further fifteen Falco novels have followed, as well as The Course of Honour, which was finally published in 1998. She has won many literary awards. She was honorary president of the Classical Association from 1997 to 1998.

The eighteenth Falco novel, Saturnalia, will be published in the UK 1 February 2007.

Published works

Marcus Didius Falco

1. The Silver Pigs (1989)
2. Shadows in Bronze (1990)
3. Venus in Copper (1991)
4. The Iron Hand of Mars (1992)
5. Poseidon's Gold (1993)
6. Last Act in Palmyra (1994)
7. Time to Depart (1995)
8. A Dying Light in Corduba (1996)
9. Three Hands in the Fountain (1997)
10. Two for the Lions (1998)
11. One Virgin Too Many (1999)
12. Ode to a Banker (2000)
13. A Body in the Bath House (2001)
14. The Jupiter Myth (2002)
15. The Accusers (2003)
16. Scandal takes a Holiday (2004)
17. See Delphi and Die (2005)
18. Saturnalia (2007)

Omnibus editions:

• Falco on His Metal (1999)
  • Venus in Copper
  • The Iron Hand of Mars
  • Poseidon's Gold
• Falco on the Loose (2003)
  • Last Act in Palmyra
  • Time to Depart
  • A Dying Light in Corduba

Other Novels

• The Course of Honour (1998)

Awards and nominations

• Short listed for the Georgette Heyer Prize for two unpublished works (pre-Falco).
• Winner of the Author's Club Prize for "Best First Novel" in 1989 for The Silver Pigs.
• Winner of the Crime Writers' Association (CWA): Dagger in the Library for being an author "whose work has given most pleasure" in 1995.
• Winner of the first Ellis Peters Historical Dagger awarded by the Crime Writers' Association in 1999 for Two for the Lions.
• Winner of the Sherlock Award for the Best Comic Detective in 2000 for Didius Falco.

External links

• The official website of Lindsey Davis
• Lindsey Davis´biography and The Silver Pigs (spanish)
• Interview with Lindsey Davis
• Publisher's newsletters

• 1949 births
• English crime writers
• English mystery writers
• English novelists
• Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
• Historical novelists
• Living people
• People from Birmingham, England
• Women writers