Welcome to a special edition of Final Draft celebrating the life and writing of Australian author Peter Corris. Peter died at his home on Thursday. He announced last year that he would no longer be writing novels after a career of nearly forty years, due to creeping blindness as a result of Type-1 diabetes.

Peter Corris wrote more than ninety books in his lifetime, including forty two novels in the Cliff Hardy series, which has seen him acknowledged as the Godfather of Australian Crime fiction.  

Peter Corris’ Legacy

Peter Corris was born in the Victorian town of Stawell. His family moved to Melbourne and he was educated at Melbourne High School and Melbourne and Monash University.

After moving to Sydney, Corris worked as a journalist before the publication of his first novel in 1980. The Dying Trade began the careers of both Peter Corris and Cliff Hardy, the detective who would feature in so much of Corris’ work.

As well as successful crime fiction Corris wrote on Pacific History, biography, sport as well as an autobiography of living with chronic illness.

I had the opportunity to interview  Peter Corris twice, around the release of two Cliff Hardy novels; Silent Kill and Gun Control. When we spoke I found a committed writer with a shrewd understanding of his craft and industry combined with a pragmatic approach to the work of writing; as much a job as it was an art form.

I’d like to share with you my conversation with Peter from 2015, around the release of his Cliff Hardy novel Silent Kill, it’s full of wonderful reflections on writing, how Cliff Hardy got his name and Peter even makes fun of my sparse familiarity with crime fiction.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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