Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh and read Law at university. He stayed on to read Law and
Philosophy as a postgraduate most of this German which was when he first became interested in
German twentieth century history. He worked first as a copywriter at a number of advertising
agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi but spent most of his time researching an idea he'd had
for a novel about a Berlin-based policeman. And following several trips to Germany - and a
great deal of walking around mean streets of Berlin - his first novel March Violets was
published in 1989 and introduced the world to the iconic tough-talking detective Bernie
Gunther. Since then he has written and published ten universally lauded Bernie Gunther novels
and is currently working on his eleventh. He has won both the RBA International Prize for Crime
Writing and the CWA Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award.
