Martina Cole

Martina Cole
Born	Eilidh Martina Cole March 1959 (1959-03) (age 65) Essex, England
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	English
Citizenship	British
Education	Honorary Doctorate
Alma mater	University of East London
Period	1979–present
Genre	crime, murder, gang
Subject	Master of Letters
Literary movement	Revolutionary
Notable works	Women's Aid, One Parent families
Notable awards	Crime Writers Award
Children	2
Relatives	many
Website
http://www.martinacole.co.uk/

Martina Cole (born Eilidh Martina Cole, in March 1959) is a British crime writer, businesswoman and occasional television presenter. She was brought up in Aveley, and as of 2009 has released seventeen novels about crime some of which examine London's gangster underworld. Four of her novels, Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. She has achieved sales of over ten million in the UK alone, and her tenth novel, The Know, spent seven weeks on The Sunday Times's hardback bestsellers list.

Personal life

Cole was born in Essex in 1959 to Irish Catholic parents. Her mother was from Glasnevin, County Dublin and her father was from Cork City. Her cousin is Cork politician Denis Cregan. She left her convent school at 15 and had her first child, Christopher, at the age of 19.

Career

Martina Cole began writing at the age of 20. She wrote a story and called it Dangerous Lady, however, put it in a cupboard in her kitchen. Cole discovered the book a couple of years later while cleaning out her cupboards, and read through it. She commented that she thought into herself "This isn't bad". She phoned Devon Anderson, a book agent, and sent him the story. A couple of days later, he phoned Cole's home and told her that her writing is "extremely rare in woman" and he felt that she'd be a star. He published Dangerous Lady and within one month it appeared on the Daily Mail Bestseller list in the United Kingdom.

Most of her novels feature a female protagonist or antihero, and some take place within the Irish community in and around London.

The Take was serialised on British television on Sky1, on 17 June 2009 - starring Tom Hardy as Freddie. In 2008 she authored a drama documentary series on ITV called Martina Cole's Lady Killers, which broke audience records for ITV3 and transferred to ITV1 in 2009. In 2009 she established her own production entity, "2Queens TV" to explore new avenues in broadcasting for her and her interests.

In 2009 an investigative documentary, Martina Cole Girl Gangs: Los Angeles was filmed. This focused on the role of girls in these gangs, which have been responsible for drug dealing and auto theft, to robbery and murder.

In 2010 the novel Two Women was adapted for the stage. This is the first time one of Martina Cole's novels has been adapted for the theatre. The play opened in February at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.

In 2011, the brand new series, The Runaway, was shown on Sky1 and Sky1 HD. It began on Thursday 31 March. It is based on her 1997 novel of the same name.

Cole's new novel, The Faithless, was released on 20 October 2011 and it has already appeared on the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

In December 2011, readers using madaboutbooks.co.uk voted their favourite Martina Cole book. The Take won by 780 votes and was put at the top of the list of Martina Cole novels. Goodnight Lady came second, followed in third by Maura's Game.

Books

• Dangerous Lady (1992)
• The Ladykiller (1993)
• Goodnight Lady (1994)
• The Jump (1995)
• The Runaway (1997)
• Two Women (1999)
• Broken (2000)
• Faceless (2001)
• Maura's Game (2002)
• The Know (2003)
• The Graft (2004)
• The Take (2005)
• Close (2006)
• Faces (2007)
• The Business (2008)
• Hard Girls (2009)
• The Family (2010)
• The Faithless (2011)

Videograph

• Martina Cole's Double Bill: The Jump & Dangerous Lady (2006)
• The Take (2009)
• The Runaway (2011)

External links

• Official Martina Cole website
• Official Martina Cole Facebook
• The Take at sky.com
• The Runaway at Sky.com