Peter Berresford Ellis

English historian, biographer, and novelist (born 1943)

Peter Berresford Ellis (born 10 March 1943) is a British historian, literary biographer, and novelist who has published over 98 books to date either under his own name or his pseudonyms Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan. He has also published 100 short stories. Under Peter Tremayne, he is the author of the international bestselling Sister Fidelma historical mystery series. His work has appeared in 25 languages.

Peter Berresford Ellis was born in Coventry. His father, Alan John Ellis (1898 1971), was a Cork born journalist who started his career with The Cork Examiner. According to Ellis, the Ellis family (originally "Elys") can be traced in the area from 1288; his branch were stonecutters in Cork City from the early 1800s. His mother, Eva Daisy (1897 1991), was the daughter of Henry Randolph Randell, a house painter and decorator from an old Sussex family of Saxon origin. Her autobiography presents its lineage back through 14 generations in the Hurstpierpoint area. Her mother was of Breton descent. Educated at Brighton College of Art and the University of London, Ellis graduated from North East London Polytechnic (now part of the University of East London) in Celtic Studies in 1989. He also earned a master's degree in Celtic Studies from the University of East London (1993).

He began his career as a junior reporter on an English south coast weekly, becoming deputy editor of an Irish weekly newspaper and was then editor of a weekly publishing trade journal in London. He first went as a feature writer to Northern Ireland in 1964 for a London daily newspaper. His first book was published in 1968: Wales: a Nation Again, on the Welsh struggle for political independence, with a foreword by Gwynfor Evans, Plaid Cymru's first MP. Ellis believes that the idea of unbiased historical works is a myth, instead believing that historians should state their bias at the start of a work "I write as someone who fully supports Celtic cultural, political and economic independence. Nor do I disguise the fact that I am a socialist." As of June 2015 he had published 106 books, 100 short stories, several pamphlets, and numerous academic papers and signed journalistic articles. Under his own name he wrote two long running columns: "Anonn is Anall" ("Here and There") from 1987 to 2008 for the Irish Democrat, and, "Anois agus Arís" ("Now and Again") from 2000 to 2008 for The Irish Post. His books include 35 titles under his own name 55 titles under his pen name of Peter Tremayne and eight under the pen name of Peter MacAlan. He has lectured at universities in several countries, including the UK, Ireland, America, Canada, France and Italy. He has also broadcast on television and radio since 1968. The popularity of his Sister Fidelma mysteries led, in January 2001, to the formation of an International Sister Fidelma Society in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a website and a print magazine called The Brehon produced three times a year. A book, The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne, was published by MacFarland in 2012. Ellis's novel, The Devil's Seal was published by St. Martin's Press in 2015.

He was given an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of East London in 2006 in recognition of his work. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1996) and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1998). He was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd (1987) for his work on the history of the Cornish language – The Cornish Language and its Literature (published in 1974). He received an Irish Post Award (1989) for his work on Celtic history, and the French Prix Historia (2010) for best historical crime novel of 2010. and Honorary Life Member of the Irish Literary Society (2002).

Ellis's wife, Dorothea Cheesmur Ellis (11 September 1940 – 30 March 2016) died of cancer at age 75.