Michael Dibdin

Michael Dibdin was one of the acclaimed authors from the UK, who liked to write crime fiction, mystery, and thriller novels. He was particularly famous for creating the character of Aurelio Zen. Apart from writing the crime fiction books featuring this character, he also penned several standalone books in his writing career. Aurelio Zen’s character was set mainly in Italy by Dibdin, while most of his other works were set in England and the States. Throughout the course of his career, author Dibdin wrote a total of 18 books, 11 of which were a part of the Aurelio Zen series. The remaining 7 books were either standalone novels or other works. Author Dibdin was born on March 21, 1947. His birth had taken place in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Dibdin’s father was a physicist. After living for a period of 7 years in Wolverhampton since his birth, author Dibdin changed places along with his family and lived in different places. He was mainly brought up in Lisburn, North Ireland. Author Dibdin completed his school education from the Friends’ School in Lisburn, which was a voluntary grammar school of Quaker. Dibdin went on to complete his graduation degree from the Sussex University in the subject of English Literature. Later, he joined the Alberta University in Edmonton, Canada and earned his Masters’ degree. Until his graduation, author Dibdin had lived in various places such as Middlesex, Northern Ireland, Italy, Seattle, and Edmonton. His final place of residence was Seattle. Author Dibdin started his writing career in the year 1978 and completed his first book, titled as The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, in the same year. While writing this book, Dibdin was living in Italy. He spent a total of 4 years residing in Italy. During the course of his stay, he was also involved in teaching English at the Perugia University for some time. Author Dibdin is best remembered for his excellent depiction of Aurelio Zen as the lead character in the series of the same name. The first book of this series won the Gold Dagger Award in the year 1988. The special feature of the detective novels of the series is that they give penetrating insights into the lesser visible aspects of the Italian society that have taken place over a period of the last twenty years. The initial books show a touch of lightness that goes on to become darker as the series progresses.