A. J. Quinnell
A. J. Quinnell was a pseudonymous British author known for his thriller novels, most notably "Man on Fire," published in 1980. The true identity of Quinnell was Philip Nicholson, whose decision to remain anonymous stemmed from a desire to avoid public recognition. He grew up in Wakefield, England, and had early aspirations of becoming a writer, shaped in part by an encounter with his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway. After relocating to Hong Kong at the age of twenty, Nicholson's interactions with various figures, including mercenaries and Mafia members, influenced his writing. His debut novel achieved significant acclaim, receiving an Edgar Award and inspiring two film adaptations, one in 1987 and a more successful version in 2004. Over the following decades, Quinnell wrote additional novels, drawing inspiration from real-life events. He lived in Gozo, Malta, with his third wife, Danish novelist Elsebeth Egholm, until his death in 2005, while he was still working on a new project. Quinnell's works continue to resonate with readers, although many have become rare and difficult to find.
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Subject Terms
A. J. Quinnell
Author
- Born: June 29, 1939
- Birthplace: England
- Died: July 10, 2005
- Place of death: Gozo, Malta
Biography
A. J. Quinnell was the pseudonym of a popular British author whose real identity was a matter of mystery and speculation for many years. The mystery was intentional because Quinnell was not seeking fame or public recognition for his books. Indeed, many people did not know A. J. Quinnell and Philip Nicholson to be the same man until after the writer’s death; generally, readers knew only that Quinnell’s alter ego was a British businessman and perhaps the head of a company.
As a boy, Quinnell, then known as Nicholson, attended Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school in Wakefield and after school earned money at a Liverpool shipping company. During a family vacation in Tanzania, a teenaged Nicholson, who already knew he wanted to be a writer, came upon his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, with a group of hunters. When Hemingway vulgarly dismissed the young man’s request to meet him, the future writer vowed he would never behave in such a way toward his readers; perhaps this is why, as an adult, he wished not to be recognized by his readers at all.
When he was twenty years old, Nicholson moved to Hong Kong and worked as a textiles trader. The mercenaries, criminals, journalists, and former French Legion members whom he met there would appear in fictionalized form in his later books. It was while he was working in Hong Kong that a tragic experience for one man became a turn of good luck for Nicholson. During a flight between Tokyo and Japan, an Italian passenger suffered a heart attack, and Nicholson insisted that the flight crew call a private hospital with which he had connections rather than the public hospital to enable the man to receive the best medical care. Afterward, the man’s family and friends expressed their gratitude to Nicholson and offered their help.
He later accepted that offer when he was conducting research for his first novel, which was based on the string of Mafia kidnappings in Italy. The Italian family arranged for him to meet not only attorneys and governmental investigators but also Mafia members themselves, all of whom proved vital to Nicholson’s creation of an authentic story. While writing the book, Nicholson created the pseudonym A. J. Quinnell by combining the last name of a Welsh rugby player and the initials of a favorite bartender’s son. After eighteen months of work, Quinnell’s first novel, Man on Fire, was published in 1980. The novel soared up the best-seller lists and earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The book was adapted into an unimpressive Italian film released in 1987 and then into an acclaimed Hollywood film released in 2004; although the latter film was reset in modern-day Mexico, it retained a great deal of the dialogue from Quinnell’s novel, much to the pleasure of the author, who lived only one more year after the film’s release.
Quinnell continued to write additional novels throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, including other thrillers inspired by actual events, though many of the books have gone out of print and early editions are now difficult and expensive to obtain. The author was living with his third wife, Danish novelist Elsebeth Egholm, in Gozo, Malta, Quinnell’s home since the early 1970’s, when he died in 2005 while working on a final novel, a prequel to Man on Fire.