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Peter Doyle (writer)

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Peter Doyle
Born1951
Maroubra, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationNovelist
GenreDetective fiction
Literary movementFiction, Non-fiction
Notable worksCity of Shadows

Peter Doyle (born 1951) is an Australian author, musician, visual artist, and exhibition curator. He is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature at Macquarie University,[1] and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Crime Writers Association of Australia.[2]

Biography

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Peter Doyle was born in Maroubra, Sydney, New South Wales, and grew up in Sydney's eastern suburbs, which provide much of the setting for his fiction work. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) from UTS and a PhD in Media and Mass Communications on the renderings of virtual space in early popular music recording from Macquarie University (2002). He also maintains a research interest in comics and the graphic novel, the history of twentieth century popular music, as well as crime writing, both in Australia, and overseas.

He worked variously as a taxi driver, musician, and teacher prior to publishing his first novel, Get Rich Quick, in 1996, which won Australia's prestigious Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel in 1997.[3] He followed this with a successful sequel, Amaze Your Friends, which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel in 1998.[4] His third novel, The Devil's Jump, released in 2001, was a prequel, set in Sydney in the closing days of World War II.

His curatorial work at the Sydney Justice and Police Museum saw him curate two major exhibitions, Crimes of Passion (2002–2003),[5] and City of Shadows: Inner City Crime and Mayhem, 1912-1948 (November 2005-February 2007),[6] both of which were social histories of inner-city twentieth century Sydney based on rediscovered crime scene photography from the period.

Further research into 1920s-era mug shots held at the Justice and Police Museum led to Doyle's book Crooks Like Us (2009) which went on to inform production and styling for the British television series, Peaky Blinders.[7]

In 2013-14 Doyle curated the exhibition Suburban Noir at the Museum of Sydney, combining forensic photographs of the 1950s and 60s with original works by a range of local and overseas artists.[8] In 2015 he curated the exhibition Pulp Confidential: Quick & Dirty Publishing from the 40s & 50s at the State Library of New South Wales, which showcased manuscripts, correspondence and artwork relating to Frank Johnson Publications, a Sydney-based pulp publisher from the 1940s and 1950s.[9]

Peter Doyle is a noted slide and steel guitarist in the Sydney blues, rockabilly, country and pub rock scenes; his interest in music is also a strong influence in his fiction writing.

Awards

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  • 2010 Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Crime Writers Association.[10]
  • 2006 National Trust/Energy Australia Heritage Award in the Interpretation and Presentation, Corporate and Government division
  • Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) 2006 award for Best Research in Record Labels and General History
  • Winner, 1999 Ned Kelly Award Best Crime Novel for Amaze Your Friends[11]
  • Co-winner, 1997 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel for Get Rich Quick[11]

Works

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Novels

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  • Get Rich Quick. Melbourne: Minerva. 1996. ISBN 9781863305105. New edition: Portland, Oregon: Dark Passage/Verse Chorus Press. 2011. ISBN 9781891241246.
  • Amaze Your Friends. Sydney: Random House. 1998. ISBN 9780091836566. New edition: Portland, Oregon: Dark Passage/Verse Chorus Press. 2019. ISBN 9781891241345.
  • The Devil's Jump. Sydney: Arrow/Random House. 2001. ISBN 9780091841966. New edition: Portland, Oregon: Dark Passage/Verse Chorus Press. 2008. ISBN 9781891241208.
  • The Big Whatever. Portland, Oregon: Dark Passage/Verse Chorus Press. 2015. ISBN 9781891241444.

Non-fiction

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  • The Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Sydney: Currency House. 2003. ISBN 9780958121316. Co-authored with John Whiteoak and Aline Scott-Maxwell.
  • City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs, 1912-1948. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust of NSW. 2005. ISBN 9780958121316.
  • Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. 2005. ISBN 9780819567932.
  • Crooks Like Us. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust of NSW. 2009. ISBN 9781876991340.
  • Suburban Noir: Crime and Mishap in 1950s and 1960s Sydney. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing. 2022. ISBN 9781742239439.

Articles

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  • Writing Sound: Popular music in Australian Fiction, Altitude, Issue 8, 2007
  • Signs and Wonders: Little Richard in Australia, 1957, Meanjin, Vol.65, No.3, 2006
  • Public eye, private eye: Sydney police mug shots, 1912-1930, Scan, vol 2, number 3, December 2005[12]
  • Lost City Found: interview with Luc Sante, Scan, vol 2, number 3, December 2005[13]
  • From "My blue heaven" to "Race with the Devil": echo, reverb and (dis)ordered space in early popular music recording Popular Music, May 2004 23/1 pp. 31–49
  • Three way stretch, UTS Review, November, 2000 6/2 pp. 126–140
  • Flying saucer rock'n'roll: the Australian press confronts early rock'n'roll music Perfect Beat, July, 1999, 4/3, pp. 24–47
  • The socio-semiotics of electricity substations in Social Semiotics, No.1, 1991.

Doyle has written feature articles, reviews and short pieces for The Bulletin, HQ and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has also been a columnist for Max and Sydney City Hub.

References

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  1. ^ Macquarie University, Staff Profiles: Peter Doyle, accessed 19 Nov 2024.
  2. ^ Crime Writers Association of Australia, list of recipients of the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award (Wikipedia page in German only), accessed 20 Nov 2024.
  3. ^ Australian Crime Writers Association, Ned Kelly Awards, Previous Winners: Best First Fiction, accessed 19 Nov 2024.
  4. ^ Australian Crime Writers Association, Ned Kelly Awards, Previous Winners: Best Fiction, accessed 19 Nov 2024.
  5. ^ Museums of History, New South Wales, Past Exhibitions: Crimes of Passion. accessed 19 Nov 2024.
  6. ^ Museums of History, New South Wales, Past Exhibitions: City of Shadows, accessed Nov 19 2024.
  7. ^ Peaky Blinders - Series 1 Cast and Crew talk Haircuts (YouTube video), accessed Nov 19 2024.
  8. ^ Museums of History, New South Wales, Past Exhibitions: Suburban Noir, accessed Nov 19 2024.
  9. ^ 'Pulp Confidential: Quick & dirty publishing from the 40s & 50s,' reviewed by Andrew Nette, Pulp Curry, accessed Nov 19 2024.
  10. ^ Australian Crime Writers Association Hall of Fame: Lifetime Award Winners, accessed 19 Nov 2024.
  11. ^ a b "Ned Kelly Awards". Australian Crime Fiction HQ. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  12. ^ "Public eye, private eye: Sydney police mug shots, 1912-1930". SCAN. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  13. ^ "Lost City Found: an interview with Luc Sante". SCAN. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
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