Nicolas Freeling (born Nicolas Davidson; 3 March 1927 – 20 July 2003), was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the "Van der Valk" series of detective novels. A television series based on the character, Van der Valk, was produced for the British ITV network by Thames Television during the 1970s and was revived in 1991–92; a remake with new cast, characters, and storylines was launched in 2020 as Van der Valk.

Biography

Freeling was born in London, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at Grandfontaine to the west of Strasbourg. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of taking home some veal from a restaurant where he worked, though that was common practice in the restaurant trade.[1]

Freeling got bored with writing about his Amsterdam detective Van der Valk and killed him off in 1972, when he was shot while following up a rather unpromising lead. Freeling refused to bring the detective back to life and wrote two novels in which his widow Arlette is the detective. Then he started his second detective series, about a French police inspector, Henri Castang[2] to revive his failing income. He eventually revived Van der Valk with Sand Castles (1989).[3]

Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel.

Gun Before Butter won France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and was a runner-up for the UK Crime Writers' Association's 1963 Gold Dagger Award.

In 1968 Freeling's novel Love in Amsterdam was adapted as the film Amsterdam Affair directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Wolfgang Kieling as Van der Valk.

A radio drama of his Henri Castang novel The Night Lords adapted by Michael Bakewell was made in 1990 starring Keith Barron, Richard Vernon, and Edita Brychta as part of the BBC Radio 4 Saturday Night Theatre series.

Works

Novels

Van der Valk series

  • Love in Amsterdam (1962), a.k.a. Death in Amsterdam[4]
In an eccentric piece of police procedure, Van der Valk involves narrator Martin Roy in investigating the death of his ex-lover Elsa de Charmoy, a promiscuous and manipulative potter. The novel features the Huis van Bewaring I (Weteringschans) on Amsterdam's Weteringschans, the remand centre where Freeling was held for taking home some food when he was working as a hotel cook.
  • Because of the Cats (1963) [5]
  • Gun Before Butter (1963), a.k.a. Question of Loyalty[6][7]
  • Double-Barrel (1964)[8]
  • Criminal Conversation (1965)[9]
  • The King of the Rainy Country (1966)[10]
Van der Valk is asked to discreetly trace Jean-Claude Marschal, the disappeared heir to a business fortune, and follows him to Innsbruck, Strasbourg and a village in the Vosges, benefitting from the cooperation of German, Austrian and French police colleagues. He discovers Marschal dead in a suicide pact reminiscent of the Mayerling incident. He then tracks Marschal's wife Anne-Marie to Biarritz and the Spanish border, where, despite having previously tried to seduce him, she shoots him.
  • Strike Out Where Not Applicable (1967)[11]
  • Tsing-Boum! (1969)[12]
  • Over the High Side (1971), a.k.a. The Lovely Ladies[13]
  • A Long Silence (1972), a.k.a. Auprès de ma Blonde[14]
  • Sand Castles (1989)[15]
Adaptations
Television

Created by Freeling, the British television crime drama Van der Valk (1972 TV series) is an adaptation of the novels. It premiered on ITV and ran from 1972 to 1992. Van der Valk (2020 TV series), also produced for ITV, is a remake of the original program.

Film
  • Amsterdam Affair (1968), a lesser-known British film, with German actor Wolfgang Kieling in the title role.
  • Pas de frontières pour l'inspecteur (Van der Valk), three French-West German co-produced TV films, starring Frank Finlay in the title role:
    • Van der Valk und das Mädchen (Le milieu n'est pas tendre) (1972), based on the novel Gun Before Butter, directed by Peter Zadek.
    • Van der Valk und die Reichen (Discrétion absolue) (1973), based on the novel The King of the Rainy Country, directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
    • Van der Valk und die Toten (Le bouc émissaire) (1975), based on the novel Double-Barrel, directed by Marcel Cravenne.
  • Because of the Cats (1973), a Dutch/Belgian co-production, starring British actor Bryan Marshall in the title role.
Radio

Adapted for BBC Radio:

Featuring Arlette Van der Valk
  • The Widow (1979)[19]
  • One Damn Thing After Another (1981), a.k.a. Arlette[20]

Henri Castang series

  • Dressing of Diamond (1974)[21]
  • What are the Bugles Blowing For? (1975),[22] a.k.a. The Bugles Blowing[23]
  • Lake Isle (1976),[24] a.k.a. Sabine[25]
  • The Night Lords (1978) [26]
  • Castang's City (1980) [27]
  • Wolfnight (1982) [28]
  • The Back of the North Wind (1983) [29]
  • No Part in Your Death (1984)[30]
  • Cold Iron (1986)[31]
  • Lady Macbeth (1988)[32]
  • Not as Far as Velma (1989)[33]
  • Those in Peril (1990)[34]
  • Flanders Sky (1992), a.k.a. The Pretty How Town
  • You Who Know (1994) [35]
  • The Seacoast of Bohemia (1994)[36]
  • A Dwarf Kingdom (1996)[37]

In 1990 Not as Far as Velma was adapted as a six-part BBC Radio serial starring Keith Barron as Castang.

Other novels

  • Valparaiso (1964, 1. edition as by F. R. E. Nicolas[38])[39]
  • The Dresden Green (1966)[40]
  • This is the Castle (1968)[41]
  • Gadget (1977) [42]
  • A City Solitary (1984) [43]
  • One More River (1998)[44]
  • Some Day Tomorrow (1999) [45]
  • The Janeites (2002)[46]

Non-fiction

  • The Kitchen (1970)
  • Cook Book (1972)
  • Criminal Convictions (1994)
  • The Village Book (2001) [47]
  • The Kitchen and the Cook (2002)[48]

References

  1. ↑ "Nicolas Freeling" Obituaries, Daily Telegraph 22 July 2003
  2. ↑ Rosemary., Herbert (1 January 2003). Whodunit? : a who's who in crime & mystery writing. Oxford University Press. pp. 29. ISBN 0195157613. OCLC 252700230.
  3. ↑ "Sand Castles by Nicholas Freeling".
  4. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1962), Love in Amsterdam, Gollancz, retrieved 27 September 2016
  5. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1963), Because of the cats, Gollancz, retrieved 27 September 2016
  6. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1963), Gun before butter, V. Gollancz, retrieved 27 September 2016
  7. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (2013), Gun before butter ([2013 edition] ed.), Melbourne Penguin Group (Australia), ISBN 978-0-14-356978-7
  8. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (2013), Double-barrel, London Bloomsbury Reader, ISBN 978-1-4482-0701-5
  9. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1975), Criminal conversation, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-002761-7
  10. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1968), The king of the rainy country, Penguin, retrieved 28 September 2016
  11. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1975), Strike out where not applicable, Penguin, retrieved 28 September 2016
  12. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1969), Tsing-boum : a novel, Hamilton, ISBN 978-0-241-01696-1
  13. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (2001), Over the high side, House of Stratus, ISBN 978-1-84232-848-4
  14. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1972), A long silence : a novel, H. Hamilton, ISBN 978-0-241-02169-9
  15. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1990), Sand castles, Mysterious Press, retrieved 27 September 2016
  16. ↑ Guns Before Butter, BBC Radio 4, 8 November 1993
  17. ↑ Van der Valk - King of the Rainy Country, BBC Radio 4
  18. ↑ Radio Drama & Readings, radio 4, 1999, suttonhelms.org.uk
  19. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1979), The widow, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-27184-9
  20. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1981), One damn thing after another, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-27186-3
  21. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1976), Dressing of diamond, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-004131-6
  22. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1975), What are the bugles blowing for?, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-27180-1
  23. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1975), The bugles blowing (1st ed.), Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0-06-011354-4
  24. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1976), Lake isle, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-27181-8
  25. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1977), Sabine (1st U.S. ed.), Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0-06-011356-8
  26. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1980), The night lords, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-005092-9
  27. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1980), Castang's city, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-27185-6
  28. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1982), Wolfnight : a novel of suspense (1st American ed.), Pantheon Books, ISBN 978-0-394-52266-1
  29. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1984), The back of the north wind, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-006953-2
  30. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1984), No part in your death, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-27189-4
  31. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1986), Cold iron, Deutsch, ISBN 978-0-233-97969-4
  32. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1989), Lady Macbeth, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-010547-6
  33. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1992), Not as far as Velma, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-016896-9
  34. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1990), Those in peril, Mysterious Press, ISBN 978-0-89296-412-3
  35. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1994), You who know, Little, Brown & co, ISBN 978-0-316-90686-9
  36. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1994), The seacoast of Bohemia, Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 978-0-316-91082-8
  37. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1996), A dwarf kingdom, Little, Brown, ISBN 978-0-316-87892-0
  38. ↑ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 122.
  39. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1971), Valparaiso, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-003289-5
  40. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1975), The Dresden Green, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-002902-4
  41. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1971), This is the castle, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-003296-3
  42. ↑ Nicolas Freeling (1979), GadgetPaperback (New ed.), Penguin (Non-Classics), ISBN 978-0-14-004898-8
  43. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1986), A city solitary, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-008057-5
  44. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (1998), One more river, Mysterious Press, ISBN 978-0-89296-616-5
  45. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (2000), Some day tomorrow, Arcadia, ISBN 978-1-900850-35-3
  46. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (2002), The Janeites, Arcadia, ISBN 978-1-900850-73-5
  47. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas (2001), The village book, Arcadia, ISBN 978-1-900850-63-6
  48. ↑ Freeling, Nicolas; Wing, Gary (2002), The kitchen and the cook ([New ed.] ed.), Big Cat, ISBN 978-0-9541974-1-4

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