Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which have led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. In addition to her acclaimed series about murderer Tom Ripley, she wrote many short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. Although she wrote specifically in the genre of crime fiction, her books have been lauded by various writers and critics as being artistic and thoughtful enough to rival mainstream literature. Michael Dirda observed that, "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favourite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
- Shortened biography from Wikipedia
Radio Adaptations[]
Her five Tom Ripley novels were dramatized by BBC Radio 4 and broadcast in 2009, then subsequently released on CD as The Complete Ripley Radio Mysteries. Strangers On A Train was broadcast in 1996 as part of BBC Radio 4's Cinema 100 Season this too being released on CD. In 1983 A Suspension Of Mercy was a Saturday Night Theatre production starring the American actor Stuart Milligan.