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| PD JAMES (1920-) |
"The greatest mystery of all is the human heart, and that is the mystery with which all good novelists are concerned." | | Birthplace
Oxford, England
Education
She left school at 16.
Other jobs
Assistant stage manager; nurse; mental health administrator; civil servant (criminal law department)
Did you know?
She wrote her first novel, Cover Her Face (1962), on the train to work.
Critical verdict
She is best known for her poetic inspector Adam Dalgleish, though she was also one of the first to write about a young female private detective ("we as a sex are very much better at detecting lying than men are... I think that women make very, very good detectives"). Her work, well-crafted and in the solidly English tradition of Christie (interest in murder "seems to be rather a feature of our national character") has become more ambitious, with her most recent mysteries showing a new emphasis on social analysis and characterisation.
Recommended works
A Certain Justice, her novel set around the law courts, is vintage James. For something different try The Children of Men, her futuristic dystopia set in a sterile world.
Influences
Her favourite novelist is Jane Austen ("an absolute mistress of construction"). She grew up loving female mystery writers - Dorothy L Sayers (they share a religious sensibility), Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh - and was particularly influenced by Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone.
Now read on
Elizabeth George, Minette Walters, Ruth Rendell, Jennifer Rowe, Colin Dexter
Adaptations
Her mysteries have been elegantly televised.
Recommended biography
A memoir, A Time to be in Earnest, acts as 'a fragment of autobiography'.
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