Getting Away with Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen

Lynda La Plante

‘I’ve seen a lot, and been through a lot in a tough industry. I’ve met the great, the good and the bloody awful. And I hope I’ve gained some wisdom along the way that I can share...’

THE crime-writing queen who gave us Jane Tennison, the all-time female star of TV crime drama, has finally brought us the rollercoaster story of her own incredible life... and it’s as unique, funny, moving and hard-hitting as you would expect!

Liverpool-born Lynda La Plante (pictured below), who was commissioned to write her memoir in her eightieth year, has achieved success and awards beyond the dreams of most crime authors... three BAFTAs, a BAFTA Fellowship, an Emmy award, a British Film Institute Fellowship, a Royal Television Society award, an Edgar, and a CBE to name just some. 

But international fame has not dulled the ambition, humility and charmingly caustic wit of this born storyteller whose career began when she was aged just fifteen and shows no sign of flagging as she works every day, averages two novels a year, and undertakes several TV projects.

An actor, writer and producer as well as author, La Plante is a force to be reckoned with and her list of character creations includes the unforgettable Dolly Rawlins in Widows, the pioneering Prime Suspect police detective Jane Tennison, and Met detective Jack Warr, star of the brilliant Widows spin-off series.

After growing up on Merseyside, La Plante studied drama at RADA with the likes of John Hurt and Ian McShane, and then had a period treading the boards in musical comedy. But, having worked as a jobbing actor, she wanted to write the fierce, flawed and complex roles for women that just weren’t available in the Seventies and Eighties... and in doing so, she broke through the glass ceiling and changed TV drama for ever.

From typing her first ideas to running her own award-winning production company, and from mixing with the mafia in Italy to shadowing a private detective in Los Angeles, La Plante employs her trademark wit, style and raw honesty to bring us her experiences as a producer and writer, alongside a coruscating cache of hilarious and jaw-dropping stories.

Working in the Eighties, a time of entrenched gender inequality and rampant male chauvinism, La Plante faced innumerable obstacles both in front of and behind the camera, and her groundbreaking books and scripts broke down stereotypes and blazed a trail for others along the way.

Getting Away with Murder is an absolute delight from start to finish... it’s a tell-all, entertaining memoir that brims with the author’s addictive enthusiasm, humour and joie de vivre, and reveals how she overcame a mountain of obstacles to create generation-defining television and become a multi-million-copy bestselling author.

And despite her octogenarian status, La Plante remains at the top of her game, still a maverick, still pushing boundaries, and still standing strong where others would wilt. She’s a writer whose work has always fearlessly explored ‘the light and the dark that everyone has within them’ and now she shows us exactly how shedunnit!
(Zaffre, hardback, £22)