58 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 where PD James lived from 1984-2012
Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally asP. D. James, was an English novelist andlife peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet,Adam Dalgliesh.[2]
James was born inOxford, the daughter of Sidney Victor James, a tax inspector, and his wife, Dorothy Mary James.[3] She was educated at theBritish School[4] inLudlow andCambridge High School for Girls.[5] Her mother was committed to a mental hospital when James was in her mid-teens.[6]
She had to leave school at the age of sixteen to work to take care of her younger siblings, sister Monica, and brother Edward, because her family did not have much money and her father did not believe in higher education for girls.[citation needed] She worked in a tax office in Ely for three years and later found a job as anassistant stage manager for the Festival Theatre in Cambridge.[7] She married Ernest Connor Bantry White (called "Connor"), an army doctor, on 8 August 1941.[7] They had two daughters, Clare and Jane.[8]
White returned from theSecond World War mentally ill and was institutionalised. With her daughters being mostly cared for by Connor's parents,[9] James studied hospital administration, and from 1949 to 1968 worked for a hospital board in London.[10] She began writing in the mid-1950s, using her maiden name ("My genes are James genes").[11][12]
Her first novel,Cover Her Face, featuring the investigator and poetAdam Dalgliesh ofNew Scotland Yard, was published in 1962.[13] Dalgliesh's last name comes from a teacher of English at Cambridge High School and his first name is that of Miss Dalgliesh's father.[14] Many of James's mystery novels take place against the backdrop of UK bureaucracies, such as the criminal justice system and theNational Health Service, in which she worked for decades starting in the 1940s. Two years after the publication ofCover Her Face, James's husband died on 5 August 1964.[15] Prior to his death, James had not felt able to change her job: "He [Connor] would periodically discharge himself from hospital, sometimes at very short notice, and I never knew quite what I would have to face when I returned home from the office. It was not a propitious time to look for promotion or for a new job, which would only impose additional strain. But now [after Connor's death] I felt the strong need to look for a change of direction."[16] She applied for the grade of Principal in the Home Civil Service[15] and held positions as a civil servant within several sections of theHome Office, including the criminal section. She worked in government service until her retirement in 1979.[8]
On 7 February 1991, James was created alife peer asBaroness James of Holland Park, ofSouthwold in theCounty of Suffolk.[17] She sat in theHouse of Lords as aConservative. She was anAnglican and a lay patron of thePrayer Book Society. Her 2001 work,Death in Holy Orders, displays her familiarity with the inner workings of church hierarchy.[18] Her later novels were often set in a community closed in some way, such as a publishing house, barristers' chambers, a theological college, an island or a private clinic.Talking About Detective Fiction was published in 2009. Over her writing career, James also wrote many essays and short stories forperiodicals andanthologies, which have yet to be collected. She said in 2011 thatThe Private Patient was the final Dalgliesh novel.[19] However, at the time of her death, she had been planning another Dalgliesh novel, set in Southwold.[8]
As guest editor ofBBC Radio 4'sToday programme in December 2009, James conducted an interview with the Director General of the BBC,Mark Thompson, in which she seemed critical of some of his decisions. RegularToday presenterEvan Davis commented that "She shouldn't be guest editing; she should be permanently presenting the programme."[20] In 2008, she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the inauguralITV3 Crime Thriller Awards.[21]
James' main home was her house at 58Holland Park Avenue, in the area from which she took her title; she also owned homes in Oxford and Southwold.[8]
Blue plaque at 58 Holland Park Avenue
James died from cancer at her home in Oxford on 27 November 2014, aged 94.[8][23] She is survived by her two daughters, Clare and Jane, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.[24]
During the 1980s and 1990s, many of James's mystery novels were adapted for television byAnglia Television for theITV network in the UK. These productions have been broadcast in other countries, including the US on thePBS network.Roy Marsden played Adam Dalgliesh. According to James in conversation with Bill Link on 3 May 2001 at the Writer's Guild Theatre, Los Angeles, Marsden "is not my idea of Dalgliesh, but I would be very surprised if he were."[25] The BBC adaptedDeath in Holy Orders in 2003, andThe Murder Room in 2004, both as one-off dramas starringMartin Shaw as Dalgliesh. InDalgliesh (2021),Bertie Carvel starred as the titular, enigmatic detective–poet. Six episodes, shown as three two-parters, premiered onAcorn TV on 1 November 2021 in the United States followed by aChannel 5 premiere on 4 November in the United Kingdom. A further six episodes started to air on Channel 5 in April 2023.
Crime Times Three (1979), later reprinted asThree Complete Novels (1988), comprisingCover Her Face,A Mind to Murder, andShroud for a Nightingale
Murder in Triplicate (1980), later reprinted asIn Murderous Company (1988), comprisingUnnatural Causes,An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, andThe Black Tower
Omnibus (1982), comprisingUnnatural Causes,Shroud for a Nightingale andAn Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Trilogy of Death (1984), comprisingInnocent Blood,An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, andThe Skull Beneath the Skin
A Dalgliesh Trilogy (1989), comprisingShroud for a Nightingale,The Black Tower, andDeath of an Expert Witness
A Second Dalgliesh Trilogy (1993), comprisingA Mind to Murder,A Taste for Death, andDevices and Desires
Deadly Pleasures (1996), comprisingThe Black Tower,Death of an Expert Witness, andThe Skull Beneath the Skin
An Adam Dalgliesh Omnibus (2008), comprisingA Taste for Death,Devices and Desires, andOriginal Sin
"Moment of Power" (1968), first published inEllery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 1968 (collected as "A Very Commonplace Murder" inThe Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)
"The Victim" (1973), first published inWinter's Crimes 5, ed. Virginia Whitaker (collected inSleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)
"Murder, 1986" (1975), first published inEllery Queen's Masters of Mystery
"A Very Desirable Residence" (1976), first published inWinter's Crimes 8, ed. Hilary Watson (collected inSleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)
"Great-Aunt Ellie's Flypapers" (1979), first published inVerdict of Thirteen, ed. Julian Symons (collected as "The Boxdale Inheritance" inThe Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)
"The Girl Who Loved Graveyards" (1983), first published inWinter's Crimes 15, ed. George Hardinge, later reprinted as "Memories Don't Die", inRedbook, July 1984 (collected inSleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)
"The Murder of Santa Claus" (1984), first published inGreat Detectives, ed. D. W. McCullough (collected inSleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)
"The Mistletoe Murder" (1991), first published inThe Spectator (collected inThe Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)
"The Man Who Was 80" (1992), first published inThe Illustrated London News, 1 November 1992, andThe Man Who, later revised as "Mr. Maybrick's Birthday" c. 2005 (collected as "Mr. Millcroft's Birthday" inSleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)
"The Part-time Job" (2005), first published inThe Detection Collection, ed. Simon Brett
"Hearing Ghote" (2006), first published inThe Verdict of Us All, ed. Peter Lovesey. An earlier version of the story ("The Yo-Yo") written in 1996 was later published inSleep No More: Six Murderous Tales in 2017.
"The Twelve Clues of Christmas" (collected inThe Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)
Vert, between two oak trees eradicated Or a bend sinister wavy Argent, thereon another Azure charged with a quill pen Argent, the quill Or, a chief Azure issuant thereon a representation of Southwold Lighthouse proper.
Supporters
On either side a tabby cat salient guardant Proper wearing a collar Vert, edged, buckled and studded Or, reposing the exterior paw upon an open book, the pages lettered Proper edged Or and bound Gules each upright on a set of two closed books edged Or, their spines outward, one bound Vert lying on top of the other Azure.
Webb, Richard."St Laurence's C of E Primary School".Geograph. geograph.org.uk. Retrieved13 November 2021.In 1972 St Laurence's C of E Primary School closed. It merged with the former British School on Old Street and Ludlow had just one primary school. This is the site of the shared sports field of the two schools.
Wallace, David (2 December 2014)."Letter: PD James, a Shropshire lass".the Guardian. Retrieved13 November 2021.We used to explore all the paths around the castle, all around the hill. Down below there was the river Teme and the water meadows. I can remember very, very clearly the school I went to, and the names of some of the children come right back to me. The British school, it was called, and the earliest poem I learned there was called Mamble.
"Remembering P.D. James".The Prayer Book Society of Canada. 6 February 2015. Retrieved13 November 2021.Later, at a church school in Ludlow, Shropshire, she was required to learn the Collect each week.
"Desert Island Discs: P D James".BBC Radio 4. BBC. 2002. Retrieved13 November 2021.Sue Lawley's castaway is crime writer and conservative life peer P D James.
"P D James".Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005. Apple Podcasts. Retrieved13 November 2021.Phyllis attended an old-fashioned grammar school where she enjoyed English lessons
^Slade, Douglas (28 November 2014)."PD James dead: Remembering the first lady of crime".Express.co.uk. Retrieved13 November 2021.The family moved to Ludlow, Shropshire, for her primary school years and then to Cambridge, where she went to the County High School for Girls. When she was in her mid-teens her mother was committed to a mental hospital.
Knight, Stephen. "The Golden Age". InThe Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction ed. by Martin Priestman, pp 77–94. (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Kotker, Joan G. "PD James's Adam Dalgliesh Series." inIn the Beginning: First Novels in Mystery Series (1995): 139+
Sharkey, Jo Ann.Theology in suspense: how the detective fiction of PD James provokes theological thought. (PhD Dissertation, University of St Andrews, 2011).online; with long bibliography
Siebenheller, Norma.P. D. James. (New York: Ungar, 1981).
