Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is an English crime-writer. In 2006 she won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel "Raven Black". Cleeves studied English at Sussex University but dropped out. She then took up various jobs including cook, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is widowed with two daughters. The Vera Stanhope novels have been dramatized as the TV detective series "Vera" and the Jimmy Perez novels as the series "Shetland". In 2014 Cleeves was awarded an Honorary Doctorate
Vera Maretskaya life, and was later diagnosed with brain cancer, but continued her acting career on Moscow Radio. At that time she created popular radio shows based on her adaptations of "Woman Without Love" and "The Art of Living", both by writer André Maurois. In 1976 Maretskaya was designated the Hero of Socialist Labour. She was awarded the Stalin Prize four times (1942, 1946, 1948, 1951) and was made the People's Artist of the USSR (1949). Maretskaya died on 17 August 1978, aged 72, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Vera Maretskaya Vera Petrovna Maretskaya (Russian: Вера Петровна