Beautiful Shadow: The twisted world of Patricia Highsmith

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Journalist and crime author Andrew Wilson spent half a decade researching and writing Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith.

When she died, aged 74 in 1995, Highsmith left one of the world’s largest literary estates.

Inside her notebooks, or cahiers, Andrew found never-before-seen reminiscences of her many (and I mean many) love affairs, notes about the dark crimes which prompted her stories and people she had watched which inspired her characters.

Highsmith rarely sold more than 8,000 copies a year in the USA. She was far more celebrated in Europe, to where she moved in the 1970s.

But now, following the superb Netflix series ‘Ripley’ as well as the 1999 film ‘The Talented Mr Ripley,’ interest in Highsmith has never been higher.

Who was Patricia Highsmith?

A lesbian writer who wrote a queer classic yet was deeply misogynistic. A political liberal who held profoundly racist views. A writer of psychological thrillers who hated people.

And how did she manage to persuade quite so many married women into bed?

And what her fascination with snails? Why did she keep them in her bra?

Andrew Wilson describes all of this and about why he spent five years writing ‘Beautiful Shadow.’

You can find more about Andrew Wilson here: https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk/

Andrew’s Agatha Christie mysteries are available here: https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk/the-agatha-christie-mysteries

His new biography of Marilyn Monroe I Wanna Be Loved By You is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Be-Loved-You-Marilyn-ebook/dp/B0FB496Q27/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

In this episode we refer to Truman Capote. You can hear more about In Cold Blood here:

And Andrew talks about Highsmith’s interest in the Lord Lucan case. You can hear more about that here:

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