Patricia Highsmith - author of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY - had more than her fair share of secrets. During her life, she felt uncomfortable about discussing the source of her fiction and refused to answer questions about her private life. Yet after her death in February 1995, Highsmith left behind a vast archive of personal documents - diaries, notebooks and letters - which detail the links between her life and her work. Drawing on these intimate papers, together with material gleaned from her closest friends and lovers, Andrew Wilson has written the first biography of an author described by Graham Greene as the 'poet of apprehension'. Wilson illuminates the dark corners of Highsmith's life, casts light on mysteries of the creative process and reveals the secrets that the writer chose to keep hidden until after her death.

Auteur

Andrew Wilson is a novelist, biographer and journalist. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Biography (2004) and the LAMBDA Literary Award (2003) for Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith. He was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Prize (2003) for the same book. His non-fiction books also include biographies of Sylvia Plath, Alexander McQueen, Harold Robbins and a group biography of the survivors of the Titanic. His first novel, The Lying Tongue, published in 2007, was shortlisted for the Jelf First Novel Award. He is the author of four novels which feature Agatha Christie as a detective. Writing under the pseudonym of E.V. Adamson, he is the author of the psychological thriller Five Strangers. He is also a creative writing mentor on the Gold Dust scheme and the new tutor on the Faber Academy crime course.

Résumé
WINNER OF THE EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARDWINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD BIOGRAPHY AWARD'Bring[s] us as close to understanding Highsmith as we are ever likely to get' Sunday Telegraph'An exemplary biography of a tortured, difficult and outstandingly gifted human being' Sunday Times'Everything Wilson has unearthed is remarkable' Mail on SundayPatricia Highsmith author of Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley had more than her fair share of secrets. During her life, she felt uncomfortable about discussing the source of her fiction and refused to answer questions about her private life. Yet after her death in February 1995, Highsmith left behind a vast archive of personal documents diaries, notebooks and letters which detail the links between her life and her work. Drawing on these intimate papers, together with material gleaned from her closest friends and lovers, Andrew Wilson has written the first biography of an author described by Graham Greene as the 'poet of apprehension'. Wilson illuminates the dark corners of Highsmith's life, casts light on mysteries of the creative process and reveals the secrets that the writer chose to keep hidden until after her death.