Winners

• 1986 - Eric Ambler
  Eric Ambler
  Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...
  
  
• 1987 - P. D. James
  P. D. James
  Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.-Life and career:James...
  
  
• 1988 - John le Carré
  John le Carré
  David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
  
  
• 1989 - Dick Francis
  Dick Francis
  Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...
  
  
• 1990 - Julian Symons
  Julian Symons
  Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
  
  
• 1991 - Ruth Rendell
  Ruth Rendell
  Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
  
  
• 1992 - Leslie Charteris
  Leslie Charteris
  Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father...
  
  
• 1993 - Ellis Peters
• 1994 - Michael Gilbert
  Michael Gilbert
  Michael Francis Gilbert, CBE was a British writer of both fictional mysteries and thrillers who wrote as Michael Gilbert.-Life and work:...
  
  
• 1995 - Reginald Hill
  Reginald Hill
  Reginald Charles Hill is an English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.- Biography :...
  
  
• 1996 - H.R.F. Keating
• 1997 - Colin Dexter
  Colin Dexter
  Norman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as a television series from 1987 to 2000.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• 1998 - Ed McBain
• 1999 - Margaret Yorke
  Margaret Yorke
  Margaret Yorke is an English crime fiction writer, real name Margaret Beda Nicholson .-Life and work:Born in Compton, Surrey, she spent her childhood in Dublin, moving to England in 1937. During World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the WRNS as a driver...
  
  
• 2000 - Peter Lovesey
  Peter Lovesey
  Peter Lovesey is a British writer of historical and contemporary crime novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath...
  
  
• 2001 - Lionel Davidson
  Lionel Davidson
  Lionel Davidson was an English novelist who wrote a number of acclaimed spy thrillers.-Life and career:Lionel Davidson was born in 1922 in Hull, Yorkshire, one of nine children of an immigrant Jewish tailor. He left school early and worked in the London offices of the Spectator magazine as an...
  
  
• 2002 - Sara Paretsky
  Sara Paretsky
  Sara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction.-Life and career:Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa and raised in Kansas, graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in...
  
  
• 2003 - Robert Barnard
  Robert Barnard
  Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
  
  
• 2004 - Lawrence Block
  Lawrence Block
  Lawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively...
  
  
• 2005 - Ian Rankin
  Ian Rankin
  Ian Rankin, OBE, DL , is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.-Background:He attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath...
  
  
• 2006 - Elmore Leonard
  Elmore Leonard
  Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
  
  
• 2007 - John Harvey
  John Harvey (author)
  John Harvey is a British author of crime fiction most famous for his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels, based in the City of Nottingham.-Writing Career:...
  
  
• 2008 - Sue Grafton
  Sue Grafton
  Sue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W...
  
  
• 2009 - Andrew Taylor
  Andrew Taylor
  - Sport :* Andrew Taylor , English football player* Andy Taylor , English football player* Andy Taylor , English football player...
  
  
• 2010 - Val McDermid
  Val McDermid
  Val McDermid is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels starring her most famous creation, Dr. Tony Hill.-Biography:...
  
  
• 2011 - Lindsey Davis
  Lindsey Davis
  Lindsey Davis is an English historical novelist, best known as the author of the Falco series of crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire.-Biography:...