Nicholas Rhea is the pseudonym of former policeman and prolific writer Peter N Walker who was born in 1936 in Glaisdale on the North York Moors.
Born to an insurance agent and a teacher, he was the oldest of three children, winning a scholarship to Whitby Grammar School. He left in 1952 at the age of 16 and, dreaming of writing for a living, applied to the local paper, the Whitby Gazette. He was rejected and so went on to become a police cadet before joining the North Riding force full time in 1956.
He never gave up on his writing though, and began to put serious effort into it in the late 1950s, having his first short story published in the Police Review magazine at the age of 20. He fervently believed he would one day have a book published and wrote 13 separate novels in the then popular ‘kitchen sink’ genre, all of which were rejected. It was only when someone suggested he wrote about what he knew, police and crime, that his breakthrough came, and his first novel, Carnaby and the Hijackers, was published in 1967.
Rhea as a police cadet in 1952.
Rhea during National Service in 1956 with his future wife Rhoda.
Rhea at work in his study in the mid 1960s.
Continuing to rise through the ranks at the region’s police headquarters in Northallerton, he retired to write full time in 1982, having achieved the rank of inspector, and having had almost 30 books published. By then, he was press officer for North Yorkshire Police and was awarded a commendation for his media-facing role in the hunt for multiple murderer Barry Prudom.
Rhea introduced the staff magazine to the North Yorkshire Police in the late 1970s.
Rhea with just some of his books in the late 1990s, after Heartbeat had hit our television screens.
Rhea is most recognised for his Constable series (now republished by Joffe Books) which spawned the hugely successful TV show, Heartbeat. Filmed on the North York Moors and centred around the village of Goathland, it ran for 18 seasons, over 350 episodes, and at its height achieved 18 million viewers in the UK, while also being broadcast internationally. He is also known for The Carnaby series, The Mark Pemberton Series and The Montague Pluke Series, as well as writing many factual books, particularly about the North Yorkshire countryside he loved so much. He was an active member and former chairman of The Crime Writers’ Association, and was awarded its John Creasey Award for services to the Association in 2007.
Married with four children, Rhea died of prostate cancer at St Leonard’s Hospice in York on April 21st 2017.
Rhea signing copies of his Constable books at Holman’s Bookshop in Whitby.
Rhea with his lifetime achievement award in 2008 at the Dalesman Yorkshire Rural Awards, with Sir Ken Morrison.
Rhea accepting the John Creasey Award in 2007, presented by CWA Chairman Philip Gooden.
One of the last pictures of Rhea, taken at home in 2016 by his grandson Joseph.