Nicolas Freeling, born Nicolas Davidson (March 3, 1927 – July 20, 2003), was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels. A television series based on the character was produced for the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 network by Thames Television

Thames Television

Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....

 during the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s.

Biography

Freeling was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at Grandfontaine

Grandfontaine, Bas-Rhin

Grandfontaine is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. In the German dialect of the region it is called Grosbrun.-Name:...

 to the west of Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of stealing some food.

Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

, from the Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....

, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association

Crime Writers' Association

The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....

, and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière

The Grand Prix de Littérature Policière is a French literary prize founded in 1948 by author and literary critic Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. It is the most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in France...

.

In 1968 his novel Love in Amsterdam was adapted as the film Amsterdam Affair

Amsterdam Affair

Amsterdam Affair is a 1968 British crime film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Wolfgang Kieling, William Marlowe, Catherine Schell and Pamela Ann Davy. Dutch policeman Van Der Valk investigates a novelist who is accused of murdering his mistress...

directed by Gerry O'Hara

Gerry O'Hara

Gerry O'Hara is an English film and television director.O'Hara was an assistant director on Laurence Olivier's film,Richard III; the Carol Reed film, Our Man in Havana and the Academy Award-winning Tom Jones....

 and starring Wolfgang Kieling

Wolfgang Kieling

Wolfgang Kieling was a German actor. In films since childhood in his native Germany, Kieling also occasionally appeared in English-language films, most notably in Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain , where he played an East German agent brutally slain by Paul Newman...

 as Van Der Valk.

Novels

Van der Valk series

• Love in Amsterdam (1962), aka Death in Amsterdam
• Because of the Cats (1963)
• Gun Before Butter (1963), aka Question of Loyalty
• Double-Barrel (1964)
• Criminal Conversation (1965)
• The King of the Rainy Country (1966)
• Strike Out Where Not Applicable (1967)
• Tsing-Boum! (1969)
• The Lovely Ladies (1971), aka Over the High Side
• A Long Silence (1972), aka Auprès de ma Blonde
  Auprès de ma Blonde
  "Auprès de ma blonde" or "Le Prisonnier de Hollande" is a popular chanson dating to the 17th century...
  
  
• Sand Castles (1989)

Featuring Arlette Van der Valk

• The Widow (1979)
• One Damn Thing After Another (1981), aka Arlette

Henri Castang series

• A Dressing of Diamonds (1974)
• What are the Bugles Blowing For? (1975), aka The Bugles Blowing
• Sabine (1976), aka Lake Isle
• The Night Lords (1978)
• Castang's City (1980)
• Wolfnight (1982)
• The Back of the North Wind (1983)
• No Part in Your Death (1984)
• Cold Iron (1986)
• Lady Macbeth (1988)
• Not as Far as Velma (1989)
• Those in Peril (1990)
• Flanders Sky (1992), aka The Pretty How Town
• " You Who Know"(1994)
• The Seacoast of Bohemia (1994)
• A Dwarf Kingdom (1996)

Other novels

• Valparaiso (1964)
• The Dresden Green (1966)
• This is the Castle (1968)
• Gadget (1977)
• A City Solitary (1984)
• One More River (1998)
• Some Day Tomorrow (1999)
• The Janeites (2002)

Non-fiction

• The Kitchen (1970)
• Cook Book (1972)
• Criminal Convictions (1994)
• The Village Book (2001)
• The Kitchen and the Cook (2002)

External links

• Freeling's obituary in The Guardian