Inspector Banks author Peter Robinson dies aged 72 as publisher pays tribute

Peter Robinson wrote the Inspector Banks novels (Picture: Ulf Andersen/Getty)

Crime author Peter Robinson has died at the age of 72, his publisher has announced.

The Leeds-born novelist was best known for his Inspector Banks crime novels set in Yorkshire, featuring Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks.

In an announcement on Friday, Robinson’s publishing house Hodder & Stoughton said he had died on Tuesday after a brief illness.

He published his first DCI Banks novel in 1987 and wrote a number of other novels, short stories and poems throughout his career, while ITV adapted the series for a drama, airing between 2011 and 2017 and starring Stephen Tompkinson.

Robinson’s editor and Hodder managing director Carolyn Mays said: ‘Peter was a combination of all the best bits of his detective Alan Banks – thoughtful and passionate about justice, he had fine taste and a totally down-to-earth view of the world.

‘His humour was wry and very dry. He was a Yorkshireman to the core; much that he did was done without fanfare, like the scholarship he created at the University of Leeds, where he himself took his first degree, to sponsor students through an English literature and creative writing course.

His publisher said Robinson had ‘all the best bits’ of Banks (Picture: Philippe Hays/REX/Shutterstock) ITV adapted his novels into the DCI Banks drama (Picture: ITV)

‘Our hearts are with his family and friends, his agents David Grossman and Dominick Abel, the many thousands of fans who will miss his work so much, and most of all with his beloved wife Sheila, to whom he dedicated every single book he wrote.’

After studying English literature at the University of Leeds, Robinson moved to Canada where he lived in the Beaches area of Toronto with his wife Sheila Halladay.

Robinson’s latest book will be published in March (Picture: Ibl/Rex/Shutterstock)

Despite the move, much of his writing was deeply rooted in a contemporary Yorkshire in the fictional town of Eastvale.

In 2020 Robinson received the Grand Master Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, having previously received their Derrick Murdoch Award in 2010.

Mays described Robinson’s latest work, Standing In The Shadows – which is set to be published in March – as ‘perhaps his finest work yet’, although the release will be ‘a bittersweet experience’.

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Tributes have been paid online, including from fellow crime writers Val McDermid and Ian Rankin.

McDermid wrote on Twitter: ‘Sad to hear of the death of @Inspector_Banks. We were both first published in 1987, and our paths often crossed, (usually accompanied by beer) in Canada and his beloved Yorkshire. Condolences to Sheila.’

Rankin added: ‘Hellish news about my dear friend Peter Robinson. Spent many a wonderful evening in the company of him and his partner Sheila.’

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