Anne Perry Biography

(2000) I am an amateur historian in the sense that I write about other times purely because I enjoy it. It seems to me to be the best of all possible worlds to create characters and set them to play out their passions against whatever backdrop you like! The differences between their time and ours is a challenge which is fun to explore, and the exercise of transporting a drama from the present into another age brings into sharp relief what is transient and what is permanent, part of the core of human nature. The writing of each story then becomes a journey of discovery as to what is lasting, which values and passions are part of our own condition and are always worth addressing.

Mysteries have always fascinated a wide audience because they satisfy so much in us. They begin with the chaos of things having gone tragically wrong, work through finding facts about events and thus about people, emotions and finally piecing together a truth. Masks are stripped away—uniquely satisfying! Secrets are exposed, good and bad, funny and tragic. In the end we understand what happened and why, we see people and possibly society in sharper focus. In the best stories we see something of ourselves as well. And finally from chaos we untangle order and restore some kind of balance and justice, not always legal, but with a moral satisfaction.

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