Lawrence Block was born in Buffalo, New York in 1938. He attended Antioch College in Ohio then went to work in the mailroom of a New York publisher. His first story was published in 1957 and he has gone on to write more than thirty novels and countless stories and articles, not just under his own name but also as Paul Kavanagh. Indeed Lawrence Block has had several pseudonyms having learned his writer's art crafting erotic literature as Andrew Shaw, Sheldon Lord and Jill Emerson!

In 1994 Lawrence Block won the Mystery Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and has also won Edgar, Shamus, and Maltese Falcon awards for his work. In 2004 Lawrence Block was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for a lifetime's achievement in crime writing.

During his prolific writing life Lawrence Block has created several popular yet quite distinct character series. His first popular novels featured Evan Tanner, a veteran of the Korean war who doesn't sleep due to shrapnel lodged in his brain. Then there are the 'Burglar' novels featuring Bernie Rhodenbarr, a sophisticated New York bookstore owner not averse to a little breaking and entering on the side, with a lesbian sidekick who owns a pet grooming business.

In a darker mode Block's Matt Scudder novels feature a recovering alcoholic whose progress and change is charted over several novels, set in an urban landscape marked by dives, late night bars, clubs, lounges, taverns and gin joints. Private investigator Scudder patrols the decaying inner city and endeavours to keep in check his own inner devils. Other central characters include criminal lawyer Martin Ehrengraf who features in his short stories, a sex-mad teenager called Chip Harrison and a hit man named Keller.

Find out more