Perfidia

About James Ellroy

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed LA Quartet, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the first two parts of his Underworld USA trilogy, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand which were both Sunday Times bestsellers.

In 2011 James Ellroy was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters by France's culture minister Frederic Mitterand. Mitterand described Ellroy as "the master of dark dreams" and called him "one of the most prominent names in modern literature".

Ellroy's editor at William Heinemann, Jason Arthur, said: "If the purpose of this honour is to recognise a significant contribution to literature, then it is richly deserved. It reaffirms my belief that his writing truly transcends genre and easy labels—James is quite simply one of the best novelists writing today."