Author Bios
Diana Norman (aka Ariana Franklin)
• Birth—August 25, 1933
• Where—London, England, UK
• Death—January 27, 2011
• Where—London, England
• Awards—British Crime Writers' Assn. Historical Dagger Award
Diana Norman was a British author and journalist. She is well known for her historical crime fiction, written under the pen name Ariana Franklin.
Personal
Norman was born Mary Diana Narracott. She lived in London until World War II when her family moved her to Devon to escape the blitz. Her father wrote for the (London) Times, and although she lacked formal education—she left school at 15—she followed in his journalistic footsteps. At 17 she returned to London to work for a local newspaper in the East End.
At 20 Norman was hired by the Daily Herald, becoming the youngest reporter on Fleet Street. She covered royal visits, war exercises with the Royal Marines (she wore camouflage), and an occasional murder.
In 1957 she married a fellow journalist, Barry Norman, now a well-known media personality and film critic for the BBC. The couple raised two daughters. Their marriage is the subject of a 2013 memoir published by Barry, See You in the Morning.
Writing
After becoming a mother Norman gave up journalism and devoted herself full-time to writing, first medieval history and later historical fiction. Her first book, nonfiction, came out in 1963: The Stately Ghosts of England. Two more nonfiction works followed—Road from Singapore (1970) and Terrible Beauty: Life of Constance Markievicz, 1868–1927 (1987).
In 1980 Nornam turned to historical novels, still writing under her own name, Diana Norman. Her first novel, Fitzempress' Law, set in Henry II's reign, came out in 1980, and she followed it with 10 more.
In 2006, with City of Shadows, she began writing under the name Ariana Franklin, eventually publishing seven Franklin books, three of which featured the fictional medieval pathologist, Adelia Aguilar. Mistress of the Art of Death, published in 2007, won the British Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Award for the year's best historical crime novel. Her final work, The Siege Winter, a stand alone, was written with her daughter Samantha Norman; it was published posthumously in 2015.
Norman died in 2011 after a long illness from vasculitis, a rare autoimmune disease. (Adapted from The Guardian obituary and from Wikipedia. Both sources accessed 3/23/2015.)
Samanatha Norman
• Birth—December 28, 1962
• Where—Datchworth, Hertfordshire, England, UK
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in London, England
Samantha Norman began working life in publishing as a junior editor in children's books before moving in to freelance journalism. She became variously a boxing correspondent, feature writer, travel writer, theatre critic, film critic and showbusiness columnist for most national newspapers and magazines before falling in to television where she worked as a presenter for many years. Nowadays, as well as writing, she is an interviewer for Celebrity Productions, specifically their Audience With ... series.
She completed The Siege Winter, a historical thriller written by her mother Diana Norman, aka Ariana Franklin. The book was published in 2015, four years after her mother's death in January, 2011 (see above). According to an interview with Bookish, Norman credited her mother for teaching her how to write:
Shortly after leaving university, I found myself in a rather dull office job with the ambition—although, alas, not the opportunity—to become a journalist. As in all times of crisis, I went home to mum—a trained journalist herself—who sat down with me and patiently taught me how to research a subject, conduct an interview, and craft a story. Under her tutelage I went on to have the most wonderful career traveling the world and visiting extraordinary places to interview remarkable people.
(Author bio adapted from the publisher.)