Reginald Hill (1936–2012)
Author of On Beulah Height
About the Author
Reginald Hill has received Britain's most coveted mystery writers award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, as well as the Golden Dagger, for his Dalziel/Pascoe series. (Publisher Provided) Reginald Hill was born in Hartlepool, England on April 3, 1936. He received an English degree from St. show more Catherine's College, Oxford University and worked as a teacher until 1980, when he retired to become a full-time writer. His first novel, A Clubbable Woman, was published in 1970. During his lifetime, he wrote over 50 books that range from historical novels to science fiction including Fell of Dark, No Man's Land, The Spy's Wife, and The Woodcutter. He was best known for the Dalziel and Pascoe series and the Joe Sixsmith series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill. He received the 1990 Golden Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year for Bones and Silence and the 1995 Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement. He died from a brain tumor on January 12, 2012 at the age of 75. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Tony Davis
Series
Works by Reginald Hill
Pascoe's Ghost [short story] 2 copies
The Game of Dog 2 copies
Uncle Harry 2 copies
The Stranger House 1 copy
Snowball [short story] 1 copy
Castles [short story] 1 copy
The Woodcutter 1 copy
Stonestar [short story] 1 copy
INEDITO 1 copy
Auteur Theory [short story] 1 copy
Exit Line [short story] 1 copy
Associated Works
The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Second Annual Edition (1993) — Contributor — 12 copies
The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Seventh Annual Edition (1998) — Contributor — 9 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Outbreak • The Collaborators • A Boy Called Bracken • The Churchill Diamonds (1500) — Author — 6 copies
The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Sixth Annual Edition (1997) — Contributor — 5 copies, 1 review
Livros Condensados: Der lange Mord | Afrika, dunkel lockende Welt | Das grosse Doppelspiel | Wer entfuehrte Suzy Marsh? (1991) 5 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: A Matter of Honour • Ice Trek • The Long Kill • This Shining Land 4 copies
Livros Condensados: O voo das águias | Primeiro prémio | Assassino a soldo | Sétimo céu (1999) 3 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: The Long Kill • The Ladies of Missalonghi • Exodus Genesis • Just Another Kid (1989) — Author — 3 copies
Dalziel & Pascoe (Series 1-12) — Author — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hill, Reginald Charles
- Other names
- Morland, Dick
Ruell, Patrick
Underhill, Charles - Birthdate
- 1936-04-03
- Date of death
- 2012-01-12
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Carlisle Grammar School
St. Catherine's College, Oxford - Occupations
- teacher(1960-1980)
novelist
short story writer
crime novelist - Awards and honors
- Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement (1995)
- Agent
- Caradoc King (AP Watt)
- Short biography
- Hill was born to a "very ordinary" working-class family—his father was a professional footballer long before sportsmen earned riches—but began reading young. His mother was a great fan of Golden-Age crime writers, and he discovered the genre while fetching her library-books. After National Service (1955–57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957–60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- West Hartlepool, County Durham, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Cumbria, England, UK
- Place of death
- Ravenglass, Cumbria, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
Reginald Hill in Crime, Thriller & Mystery (November 2012)
Reginald Hill in British & Irish Crime Fiction (January 2011)
Reviews
Accidents, Suicides or Murders?
Review of the Grafton Books paperback edition (1991) of the Collins Crime Club hardcover original (1990)
Yorkshire CID Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel (pronounced "dee-ELL") and assistants Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe and Detective Sergeant Wield are show more caught up in an elaborate series of apparent accidents, suicides and disappearances which are either an extended series of coincidences or the result of masterful nefarious planning.
Dalziel himself is an indirect witness to one of the "suicides," but the two other surviving witnesses provide statements which contradict not only him but each other. Someone is lying or could the corpulent Superintendent actually be wrong? Even the normally loyal Pascoe and Wield begin to have their doubts. But then the bodies continue to pile up and an evasive character seems to be the manipulator behind the scenes. How will they find any evidence to prove it?
Dalziel as usual is in fine form ranting and raging against the inefficiency of others:
The side-plots involve the staging of a cycle of Mystery Plays as organized and directed by the controversial local theatre personality Eileen Chung who plans to rope Dalziel himself into the production in the role of God with the aid of her friend Ellie Pascoe and her somewhat unwilling husband. And there is a series of anonymous notes appearing on the Superintendent's desk which promise yet another suicide, unless the secret identity of Dalziel's 'Dark Lady' can be unveiled in time. The climactic scene is a completely unexpected shocker.
This was again one of the best of the Dalziel & Pascoe series that I've read in my current 2022 re-read mini-binge (I don't own all of them) due to the extensive characterizations that author Hill develops throughout and the constant entertainment of Dalziel's outrageous statements and sometime off the wall deductions.
See cover image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/BonesAndSilence.jpg
Cover image of the original Collins Crime Club hardcover edition (1990). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
I re-read Bones and Silence due to a recent discovery of my old mystery paperbacks from the 1980s in a storage locker cleanout. I was also curious about the precedents for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb in the Slough House espionage series in the personality of Reginald Hill's Chief Inspector Andy Dalziel, which Herron has acknowledged.
See photograph at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZkxI4CXkAAu2sG?format=jpg&name=large
Book haul of the early Dalziel and Pascoe paperbacks, mostly from Grafton Books in the 1980s. Image sourced from Twitter.
Trivia and Link
Bones and Silence was adapted for television in 1998 as Episode 3 of Series 3 of the long running TV series of Dalziel and Pascoe (1996-2007). The entire episode is posted on YouTube here, but it is formatted in a way that makes it hard to watch. show less
Review of the Grafton Books paperback edition (1991) of the Collins Crime Club hardcover original (1990)
We are only lightly covered with buttoned cloth; and beneath these pavements are shells, bones and silence. - excerpt from Virginia Woolf's The Waves used as part of the epigraph for Bones and Silence
Yorkshire CID Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel (pronounced "dee-ELL") and assistants Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe and Detective Sergeant Wield are show more caught up in an elaborate series of apparent accidents, suicides and disappearances which are either an extended series of coincidences or the result of masterful nefarious planning.
Dalziel himself is an indirect witness to one of the "suicides," but the two other surviving witnesses provide statements which contradict not only him but each other. Someone is lying or could the corpulent Superintendent actually be wrong? Even the normally loyal Pascoe and Wield begin to have their doubts. But then the bodies continue to pile up and an evasive character seems to be the manipulator behind the scenes. How will they find any evidence to prove it?
Dalziel as usual is in fine form ranting and raging against the inefficiency of others:
'Because it's worth it to me,' grunted Dalziel. 'One, I'll break my own promises, not wait till someone give me permission. And two, I want to know. He might be a useless specimen but he's from my patch, and he went south to work, not to die, it that's what happened to him. I wouldn't put it past them cockneys. 'Here' a dead 'un, not one of ours, another bloody northener, when's the next load of rubbish going out to the tip?' It's time they knew they've got me to answer to!'
This was the nearest thing to a radical political statement Pascoe had ever heard from the Superintendent. It wasn't going to usher in the Socialist Millennium, but shouted loud enough, it might cause a little unease in Thatcherland.
The side-plots involve the staging of a cycle of Mystery Plays as organized and directed by the controversial local theatre personality Eileen Chung who plans to rope Dalziel himself into the production in the role of God with the aid of her friend Ellie Pascoe and her somewhat unwilling husband. And there is a series of anonymous notes appearing on the Superintendent's desk which promise yet another suicide, unless the secret identity of Dalziel's 'Dark Lady' can be unveiled in time. The climactic scene is a completely unexpected shocker.
This was again one of the best of the Dalziel & Pascoe series that I've read in my current 2022 re-read mini-binge (I don't own all of them) due to the extensive characterizations that author Hill develops throughout and the constant entertainment of Dalziel's outrageous statements and sometime off the wall deductions.
See cover image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/BonesAndSilence.jpg
Cover image of the original Collins Crime Club hardcover edition (1990). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
I re-read Bones and Silence due to a recent discovery of my old mystery paperbacks from the 1980s in a storage locker cleanout. I was also curious about the precedents for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb in the Slough House espionage series in the personality of Reginald Hill's Chief Inspector Andy Dalziel, which Herron has acknowledged.
See photograph at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZkxI4CXkAAu2sG?format=jpg&name=large
Book haul of the early Dalziel and Pascoe paperbacks, mostly from Grafton Books in the 1980s. Image sourced from Twitter.
Trivia and Link
Bones and Silence was adapted for television in 1998 as Episode 3 of Series 3 of the long running TV series of Dalziel and Pascoe (1996-2007). The entire episode is posted on YouTube here, but it is formatted in a way that makes it hard to watch. show less
A Candle for Christmas & Other Stories: A fantastic mystery short story collection, the perfect Christmas gift for crime fiction lovers by Reginald Hill
My first encounter with Reginald Hill's writing was on 27th November 2025, when I read his story 'The Running Of The Deer' in the 'Christmas Stalkings' collection. I bought 'A Candle For Christmas' the same day. I've been dipping into it every day since. It's been a very rewarding experience.
Reginald Hill is a great storyteller. I love his dark imagination, his gruff Yorkshire humour, and his skill at misdirecting my attention so that most stories end with a surprise. Most of all, I admire show more his ability to bring his characters to life.
The tales in this collection range from police procedural to historical fiction. The Christmas stories that bookend this collection were a delight. The stories in between ranged from the disturbing to the amusing. Each of them was beautifully put together.
I foresee a lot more Reginal Hill in my reading future.
I've rated and commented on each story below. I hope the comments encourage you to read this collection.
A CANDLE FOR CHRISTMAS ★★★★
This was masterfully done. The plot alone would have made this a memorable story. There were twists and surprises throughout, making me reconsider what i thought I knew.
Yet it was the people, not the plot, that drove this story. Reginald Hill went beyond having the reader choose between the contrasting styles and conflicting vales between Dalziel and Pascoe. He made the people involved in the case complex. They weren't just plot devices, their emotions, motives and relationships were all complicated. They were people with problems and flaws. People you could sympathise with, be angry with and be uncertain whether or not to believe all at the same time.
The icing on the cake was the final scene of the story, where Dalziel has dinner with the Pascoe family at their home a few days after Christmas. It was a charming, intimate portrait in which Dalziel was cast in a different light by his relationship with Pascoe's young daughter, Rosie, who adores her 'Uncle' Andy. After a case filled with violence and abuse, this intimate family scene, linked by the symbolism of a candle, offered a reminder that all of us are more complicated than we sometimes seem and that there is always a possibility of hope if we leave ourselves open to it.
A SHAMEFUL EATING ★★★★
A wonderfully creepy story about the survivors of a shipwreck. This was like reading something by Robert Louis Stevenson channeling Edgar Alan Poe. A powerful historical fiction horror story.
BROTHER'S KEEPER ★★★
This seemed like a straightforward story. I knew exactéy where it was going.. until it went somewhere else. This starts grounded in an orderly reality that slides slowly towards chaos, all the while distracting me from what was really happening. The ending me me grin in a rueful way.
SILENT NIGHT ★★★★
A beuatifully done, orginal, emotionally engaging Christmas Eve ghost story, set in a small English village.
THE BOY AND MAN BOOKER ★★★★
What started as a witty swipe at the pomposity of the Booker Prize, the mix of predation and sycophancy that defines the agent/writer relationship and the high-strung egos of authors, became more than a satire as I spent time inside the unpleasant mind of Boy David, a nervous but arrogant writer, blinded to his own narcissism and misogyny by an interior monologue dedicated to polishing his high opinion of his own brilliance. I hated him by the time the threats started. The ending was clever, surprising and left me smiling.
THE ITALIAN SHERLOCK HOLMES ★★★
The tone of this Sherlock Holmes pastiche was pitch perfect. The setting was exotic. The locked-room plot was fun. I was disappointed that, in the end, Holmes did little to affect the outcome.
THE GAME OF DOG ★★★
A truly ingenious idea for the perfect murder, wrapped up bleak, male Yorkshire humour that changes it from a devilish plot into something almost whimsical.
THE MAN WHO DEFENESTRATED HIS SISTER ★★★
This started as what felt like a light-hearted piece of Victorian era crime fiction. Then it transformed into an intriguing puzzle of the kind Sherlock might have enjoyed solving. Then the realities of class and institutional power came to dominate the story, leading to an ending that was surprising, orginal and chilling.
URBAN LEGEND ★★★
An ingenious twist on urban legends. This one is a true story, told by someone who was there. What the truth was still took me by surprise.
WHERE ARE ALL THE NAUGHTY PEOPLE? ★★★★★
This is a superb horror story - made more horrifying because, despite the crucial moments taking place in a graveyard and a crypt at night, there's nothing supernatural going on - just people being people. At first, the story is told as the narrator remembers seeing it when he was a curious, naturally solitary, impressionable eight-year-old with the graveyard next to his house as his playground. Then the story moves to the present day, with the narrator in his fifties, finally being forced to apply an adult's understanding to what he saw back then. It's a sad story about a damaged life. Even so, I didn't understand the totality of the damage or its cause until the chilling end of the story.
THE DIFFERENCE ★★★★
A dark imagination, a talent for misdirection, accessible atmospheric prose and a grounding in real life makes this a story the perfectly demonstrates Reginald Hills talents. An egaging story with a sting in the tale that changed my perception of everything I though I'd understood.
Then there's this great opening paragraph:
"A good day for a funeral. Dark clouds, sagging like black drapes. Atmosphere chill and damp, a gusting breeze tugging at hair and clothes like a child’s fingers. The others move away, leaving me alone by the grave. Death is a time for doubt, a time to review missed opportunities, unspoken words. I had the opportunity to speak, and I didn’t take it. Was I right or wrong? Would it have made any difference? The funeral’s over which suggests it hardly matters."
ON THE PSYCHIATRIST'S COUCH ★★★★
It's not easy to write an engaging story told entirely in the first person by someone addressing a person who remains silent throughout, but Reginal Hill pulls it off. The narrator is a convicted serial killer talking to a psychologist. We get the killer's entire life story. He's at pains to sound rational and of sound mind. The longer he talked, the more my sense that something bad was happening grew. The story, once again, had a sting in the tail.
ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS ★★★★★
A perfect ending to this collection. Reginald Hill packs in a whole novel's worth of plot twists to this short story about a newborn baby abducted on Christmas morning. This is the stuff that the best Christmas Specials are made of. Dalziel, Pascoe and Wieldy hack their way through an undergrowth of distractions to track down the baby and his abductors, ending with a dramatic chase in the darkness through the deep snow of rural Yorkshire. The ending is spectacular. The humour is muscular but somehow cheery. An excellent Christmas tale. show less
Reginald Hill is a great storyteller. I love his dark imagination, his gruff Yorkshire humour, and his skill at misdirecting my attention so that most stories end with a surprise. Most of all, I admire show more his ability to bring his characters to life.
The tales in this collection range from police procedural to historical fiction. The Christmas stories that bookend this collection were a delight. The stories in between ranged from the disturbing to the amusing. Each of them was beautifully put together.
I foresee a lot more Reginal Hill in my reading future.
I've rated and commented on each story below. I hope the comments encourage you to read this collection.
A CANDLE FOR CHRISTMAS ★★★★
This was masterfully done. The plot alone would have made this a memorable story. There were twists and surprises throughout, making me reconsider what i thought I knew.
Yet it was the people, not the plot, that drove this story. Reginald Hill went beyond having the reader choose between the contrasting styles and conflicting vales between Dalziel and Pascoe. He made the people involved in the case complex. They weren't just plot devices, their emotions, motives and relationships were all complicated. They were people with problems and flaws. People you could sympathise with, be angry with and be uncertain whether or not to believe all at the same time.
The icing on the cake was the final scene of the story, where Dalziel has dinner with the Pascoe family at their home a few days after Christmas. It was a charming, intimate portrait in which Dalziel was cast in a different light by his relationship with Pascoe's young daughter, Rosie, who adores her 'Uncle' Andy. After a case filled with violence and abuse, this intimate family scene, linked by the symbolism of a candle, offered a reminder that all of us are more complicated than we sometimes seem and that there is always a possibility of hope if we leave ourselves open to it.
A SHAMEFUL EATING ★★★★
A wonderfully creepy story about the survivors of a shipwreck. This was like reading something by Robert Louis Stevenson channeling Edgar Alan Poe. A powerful historical fiction horror story.
BROTHER'S KEEPER ★★★
This seemed like a straightforward story. I knew exactéy where it was going.. until it went somewhere else. This starts grounded in an orderly reality that slides slowly towards chaos, all the while distracting me from what was really happening. The ending me me grin in a rueful way.
SILENT NIGHT ★★★★
A beuatifully done, orginal, emotionally engaging Christmas Eve ghost story, set in a small English village.
THE BOY AND MAN BOOKER ★★★★
What started as a witty swipe at the pomposity of the Booker Prize, the mix of predation and sycophancy that defines the agent/writer relationship and the high-strung egos of authors, became more than a satire as I spent time inside the unpleasant mind of Boy David, a nervous but arrogant writer, blinded to his own narcissism and misogyny by an interior monologue dedicated to polishing his high opinion of his own brilliance. I hated him by the time the threats started. The ending was clever, surprising and left me smiling.
THE ITALIAN SHERLOCK HOLMES ★★★
The tone of this Sherlock Holmes pastiche was pitch perfect. The setting was exotic. The locked-room plot was fun. I was disappointed that, in the end, Holmes did little to affect the outcome.
THE GAME OF DOG ★★★
A truly ingenious idea for the perfect murder, wrapped up bleak, male Yorkshire humour that changes it from a devilish plot into something almost whimsical.
THE MAN WHO DEFENESTRATED HIS SISTER ★★★
This started as what felt like a light-hearted piece of Victorian era crime fiction. Then it transformed into an intriguing puzzle of the kind Sherlock might have enjoyed solving. Then the realities of class and institutional power came to dominate the story, leading to an ending that was surprising, orginal and chilling.
URBAN LEGEND ★★★
An ingenious twist on urban legends. This one is a true story, told by someone who was there. What the truth was still took me by surprise.
WHERE ARE ALL THE NAUGHTY PEOPLE? ★★★★★
This is a superb horror story - made more horrifying because, despite the crucial moments taking place in a graveyard and a crypt at night, there's nothing supernatural going on - just people being people. At first, the story is told as the narrator remembers seeing it when he was a curious, naturally solitary, impressionable eight-year-old with the graveyard next to his house as his playground. Then the story moves to the present day, with the narrator in his fifties, finally being forced to apply an adult's understanding to what he saw back then. It's a sad story about a damaged life. Even so, I didn't understand the totality of the damage or its cause until the chilling end of the story.
THE DIFFERENCE ★★★★
A dark imagination, a talent for misdirection, accessible atmospheric prose and a grounding in real life makes this a story the perfectly demonstrates Reginald Hills talents. An egaging story with a sting in the tale that changed my perception of everything I though I'd understood.
Then there's this great opening paragraph:
"A good day for a funeral. Dark clouds, sagging like black drapes. Atmosphere chill and damp, a gusting breeze tugging at hair and clothes like a child’s fingers. The others move away, leaving me alone by the grave. Death is a time for doubt, a time to review missed opportunities, unspoken words. I had the opportunity to speak, and I didn’t take it. Was I right or wrong? Would it have made any difference? The funeral’s over which suggests it hardly matters."
ON THE PSYCHIATRIST'S COUCH ★★★★
It's not easy to write an engaging story told entirely in the first person by someone addressing a person who remains silent throughout, but Reginal Hill pulls it off. The narrator is a convicted serial killer talking to a psychologist. We get the killer's entire life story. He's at pains to sound rational and of sound mind. The longer he talked, the more my sense that something bad was happening grew. The story, once again, had a sting in the tail.
ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS ★★★★★
A perfect ending to this collection. Reginald Hill packs in a whole novel's worth of plot twists to this short story about a newborn baby abducted on Christmas morning. This is the stuff that the best Christmas Specials are made of. Dalziel, Pascoe and Wieldy hack their way through an undergrowth of distractions to track down the baby and his abductors, ending with a dramatic chase in the darkness through the deep snow of rural Yorkshire. The ending is spectacular. The humour is muscular but somehow cheery. An excellent Christmas tale. show less
Inspired by Jane Austen's Sanditon, Hill has written this clever crime novel in which Andy Dalziel is a convalescing patient in a Sandytown private nursing home. When a murder is committed Peter Pascoe leads the investigation without his superior Dalziel. At least, that's what Pascoe thinks, but Dalziel is difficult to keep under wraps. Terrific storyline, an innovative presentation style, and a cast of highly-developed characters keeps interest high. The differences between the two show more detectives are stunning: Pascoe, university educated, goes by the book; Dalziel is ribald, his speech littered with folksy Yorkshire phrases, and he is not averse to breaking rules. And although they work well as a pair, it would be tough getting Pascoe to admit it. This was fabulous entertainment even if Hill had omitted the criminal aspect. My favourite Reginald Hill so far.
One of my favourite quotes from Dalziel:
"You've been running your eyes over me like an Aberdeen undertaker wondering whether to charge by the inch or the ounce." show less
One of my favourite quotes from Dalziel:
"You've been running your eyes over me like an Aberdeen undertaker wondering whether to charge by the inch or the ounce." show less
It's a lot of fun to reread this book years after reading the entire run of Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries. It is here, rather than in the first book in the series (A Clubbable Woman) that we start to understand the gulf between Pascoe and Dalziel, the former a college-educated young man and the latter an old, fat, high-school educated and extremely canny police superintendent. This is also the first book in which we meet Ellie, Pascoe's college girlfriend and now a 31-year-old college show more instructor herself. Her relationship with Pascoe is a real highlight of this series going forward.
This particular mystery is nicely complex and difficult to guess. There are lots of clues and plenty of red herrings, and even with lots of experience reading mysteries I only got the answer half-right. (I had remembered nothing about the book after first reading it some 30-40 years ago.) The picture of progressive, even dissolute college life (the book was originally published in 1971) sets the stage for a fundamental Dalziel/Pascoe uneasiness as their partnership goes on. The characters are drawn very well, even those who have only a short time on the stage. The writing is sharp and clear and occasionally quite beautiful.
I'm very glad I decided to reread this series; it's even better than I remember. show less
This particular mystery is nicely complex and difficult to guess. There are lots of clues and plenty of red herrings, and even with lots of experience reading mysteries I only got the answer half-right. (I had remembered nothing about the book after first reading it some 30-40 years ago.) The picture of progressive, even dissolute college life (the book was originally published in 1971) sets the stage for a fundamental Dalziel/Pascoe uneasiness as their partnership goes on. The characters are drawn very well, even those who have only a short time on the stage. The writing is sharp and clear and occasionally quite beautiful.
I'm very glad I decided to reread this series; it's even better than I remember. show less
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