P. D. James

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Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park OBE (born 3 August 1920) is an English writer of crime fiction under the name P. D. James and a life peer in the House of Lords.

1 Writing
2 List of books
3 Film and television
4 DVD Release
5 Honours
6 Prizes and awards
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links

[edit] Writing

James did not begin writing until she reached her thirties. Her first novel, Cover Her Face, featuring the investigator/poet Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, was published in 1962. She has said that her influences include Jane Austen, Dorothy L. Sayers, herself a well-known British author of mysteries, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.

Many of James' mystery novels take place against the backdrop of Britain's vast bureaucracies such as the criminal justice system and the health services, arenas in which James honed her skills 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' husband died and she took a position as a civil servant within the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs. James worked in government service until her retirement in 1979, and her many years of experience within these bureaucracies add a complex stratum of insider's knowledge to her writing. Her 2001 work, Death in Holy Orders, displays an insightful grasp of the inner workings of church hierarchy.

[edit] List of books

Her detective novels include:

Cover Her Face (1962) (introducing her Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh)
A Mind to Murder (1963)
Unnatural Causes (1967)
Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811, with Thomas A. Critchley (1971)
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) (introducing her female sleuth Cordelia Gray)
The Black Tower (1975)
Death of an Expert Witness (1977)
The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982)
A Taste for Death (1986)
Devices and Desires (1990)
Original Sin (1994)
A Certain Justice (1997)
Death in Holy Orders (2001)
The Murder Room (2003)
The Lighthouse (2005)

P. D. James has also written a successful mainstream novel entitled Innocent Blood (1980) and the dystopian novel The Children of Men (1992). Her autobiography Time to Be in Earnest was published in 2000.

[edit] Film and television

Most of James' mystery novels have been turned into television mini-series broadcast in Great Britain on the BBC and on PBS in the United States. Her 1992 novel The Children of Men served as the inspiration for Children of Men, a feature film released in 2006, ^[1] directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Sir Michael Caine, and Julianne Moore.

[edit] DVD Release

Inspector Alleyn is currently available on DVD

[edit] Honours

^[2]

Order of the British Empire, 1983
Baroness James of Holland Park, a life peerage, 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

In January 2007 she opened the University of Portsmouth's library extension - the Frewen library, which was delayed several times in late 2006.

[edit] 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

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

Richard B Gidez. P.D. James. Twayne’s English Authors Series, 1986.
Delphine Kresge-Cingal. Perversion et perversité dans les romans à énigme de P.D. James. Lille: Presses du Septentrion, 2001. (PhD paper)
P.D. James: A Reader’s Checklist And Reference Guide. CheckerBee, 1999.
Norma Siebenheller. P.D. James. Ungar, 1981.