David Peace

David Peace (born 1967) is an English writer. Best known for his UK-set novels Red Riding Quartet (1999–2002), GB84 (2004), The Damned Utd (2006), and Red or Dead (2013), Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list. His books often deal with themes of mental breakdown or derangement in the face of extreme circumstances. In an interview with David Mitchell he stated: "I was drawn to writing about individuals and societies in moments that are often extreme, and often at times of defeat, be they personal or broader, or both. I believe that in such moments, during such times, in how we react and how we live, we learn who we truly are, for better or worse." Biography David Peace was born in Dewsbury and grew up in Ossett, West Yorkshire. He was educated at Batley Grammar School, Wakefield College and Manchester Polytechnic, which he left in 1991 to go to Istanbul to teach English. He cites his father's book collection, and reading the NME between 1979 and 1985, as formative influences. He moved to Tokyo in 1994 and returned to the UK in 2009. He went back to Tokyo in 2011, because he found it hard to write in Britain. He has lectured in the Department of Contemporary Literary Studies at the University of Tokyo since his return to Tokyo in 2011. Red-Riding Quartet The Red-Riding Quartet comprises the novels Nineteen Seventy-Four (1999), Nineteen Seventy-Seven (2000), Nineteen Eighty (2001) and Nineteen Eighty-Three (2002). The books deal with police corruption, and are set against a backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders between 1975 and 1980. They feature several recurring characters. Red Riding, a three-part TV adaptation of the series, aired on Channel 4 in the UK in 2009. The cast includes Sean Bean, Andrew Garfield, David Morrissey and Rebecca Hall. GB84 Peace followed the quartet with GB84 (2004). This is a fictional portrayal of the year of the UK miners' strike (1984–1985). It describes the insidious workings of the British government and MI5, the coalfield battles, the struggle for influence in government and the dwindling powers of the National Union of Mineworkers. The book was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature in 2005.