P. D. James

P. D. James
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	British
Genre	Crime fiction Thriller Dystopian fiction

Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL (born 3 August 1920), commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring her most iconic creation, policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.

Career

James was born in Oxford and educated at Cambridge High School for Girls. She began writing in the mid-1950s. Her first novel, Cover Her Face, featuring the investigator and poet Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, was published in 1962.

Many of James's mystery novels take place against the backdrop of the UK's bureaucracies such as the criminal justice system and the health services, arenas in which James had worked for decades, starting in the 1940s when she went to work in hospital administration to help support her ailing husband and two children. Two years after the publication of Cover Her Face, James's husband died and she took a position as a civil servant within the criminal section of the Home Office.

James worked in government service until her retirement in 1979, and her experiences within these bureaucracies add a complex stratum of insider's knowledge to her writing. Her 2001 work, Death in Holy Orders, displays a grasp of the inner workings of church hierarchy: she is an Anglican and a Lay Patron of the Prayer Book Society. Her later novels are often set in a community closed in some way, be this in a publishing house or barristers' chambers, a theological college, an island or a private clinic as with her latest work.

Her most recent Adam Dalgliesh novel, The Private Patient, was published in August 2008 in the U.K. by Faber & Faber and in November 2008 in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf. Her latest book, Talking About Detective Fiction, was published in 2009.

As guest editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme at the end of December 2009, James conducted a searching interview with BBC Director-General Mark Thompson which appeared critical of some of his decisions. Regular Today presenter Evan Davis commented that "She shouldn't be guest editing; she should be permanently presenting the programme".

List of books

Novels

Adam Dalgliesh mysteries

• Cover Her Face (1962)
• A Mind to Murder (1963)
• Unnatural Causes (1967)
• Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
• The Black Tower (1975)
• Death of an Expert Witness (1977)
• A Taste for Death (1986)
• Devices and Desires (1989)
• Original Sin (1994)
• A Certain Justice (1997)
• Death in Holy Orders (2001)
• The Murder Room (2003)
• The Lighthouse (2005)
• The Private Patient (2008)

Cordelia Gray mysteries

• An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972)
• The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982)

Miscellaneous novels

• Innocent Blood (1980)
• The Children of Men (1992)

Omnibus editions

• Crimes Time Three (1979), later reprinted as Three Complete Novels (1988), comprising Cover Her Face, A Mind to Murder, and Shroud for a Nightingale
• Murder in Triplicate (1980), comprising Unnatural Causes, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and The Black Tower
• Trilogy of Death (1984), comprising Innocent Blood, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and The Skull Beneath the Skin
• A Dalgliesh Trilogy (1989), comprising Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower, and Death of an Expert Witness
• A Second Dalgliesh Trilogy (1993), comprising A Mind to Murder, A Taste for Death, and Devices and Desires
• An Adam Dalgliesh Omnibus (2008), comprising A Taste for Death, Devices and Desires, and Original Sin

Nonfiction

True crime

• The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811 (1971), coauthored with Thomas A. Critchley

Memoir

• Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography (1999)

Literary criticism

• Talking About Detective Fiction (2009)

Film and television

During the 1980s, many of James's mystery novels were adapted for television by Anglia Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom. These productions have been broadcast in other countries, including the USA on its PBS channel. These productions featured Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh. The BBC has since adapted Death in Holy Orders (2003) and The Murder Room (2004) as one-off dramas starring Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh.

Her 1992 novel The Children of Men served as the inspiration for Children of Men, a feature film released in 2006, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. Despite its substantial changes from the book, James was reportedly pleased with the adaptation and proud to be associated with the film.

DVD releases

The following are currently available on DVD:

• Death in Holy Orders/The Murder Room
• Children of Men
• Cover Her Face
• Unnatural Causes
• Original Sin
• The Black Tower
• Death of an Expert Witness
• A Taste for Death
• Devices and Desires
• A Mind to Murder
• Shroud for a Nightingale
• A Certain Justice

Honours

Some honours that James has received include:

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 1983
• Life peerage, Baroness James of Holland Park (of Southwold in the County of Suffolk), 1991
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• President of the Society of Authors 1997–
• Doctor of Letters honoris causa
  • University of Buckingham, 1992
  • University of Hertfordshire, 1994
  • University of Glasgow, 1995
  • University of Durham, 1998
  • University of Portsmouth, 1999
• Doctor of Literature honoris causa, University of London, 1993
• Doctor of the University, Essex, 1996
• Associate Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, 1986; Honorary Fellow, 2000
• Honorary Fellow
  • St Hilda's College, Oxford, 1996
  • Girton College, Cambridge, 2000
  • Kellogg College, Oxford

In January 2007, James opened the University of Portsmouth's library extension, the Frewen library, which was delayed several times in late 2006. In 2008, she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the innaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards.

Prizes and awards

• 1971 Best Novel Award, Mystery Writers of America: Shroud for a Nightingale
• 1971 Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction: Shroud for a Nightingale
• 1973 Best Novel Award, Mystery Writers of America: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
• 1975 CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction: The Black Tower
• 1986 CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction: A Taste for Death
• 1986 Mystery Writers of America Best Novel Award: A Taste for Death
• 1987 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award)
• 1992 Deo Gloria Award: The Children of Men
• 1999 Grandmaster Award, Mystery Writers of America
• 2002 WH Smith Literary Award (shortlist): Death in Holy Orders
• 2005 British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year (shortlist): The Murder Room
• 2007 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (longlist): The Lighthouse

Bibliography

• Richard B Gidez. P. D. James. Twayne’s English Authors Series, New York: Twayne, 1986.
• Delphine Kresge-Cingal. Perversion et perversité dans les romans à énigme de P. D. James. Lille: Presses du Septentrion, 2001. (PhD thesis)
• Norma Siebenheller. P. D. James. New York: Ungar, 1981.

External links

• U.K. publisher Faber & Faber: P. D. James webpage
• U.S. publisher Random House: P. D. James webpage
• U.K. publisher Penguin Books: P. D. James webpage
• Template:Contemporary writers
• Fantastic Fiction Author Page
• Interview with P. D. James for Salon online magazine
• Interview with P. D. James for The Sunday Herald following publication of The Private Patient