58 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 where PD James lived from 1984 to 2012
Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park (3 August 1920– 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.[2]
Life and career
James was born in Oxford, the daughter of Sidney Victor James, a tax inspector, and his wife, Dorothy Mary James.[3] She was educated at the British School[4] in Ludlow and Cambridge 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. She worked in a tax office in Ely for three years and later found a job as an assistant 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]
Connor White returned from the Second 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 poet Adam Dalgliesh of New 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 the National Health Service, in which she worked for decades starting in the 1940s. Two years after the publication of Cover 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 the Home Office, including the criminal section. She worked in government service until her retirement in 1979.[8]
During the 1980s and 1990s, many of James's mystery novels were adapted for television by Anglia Television for the ITV network in the UK. These productions have been broadcast in other countries, including the US on the PBS network. Roy Marsden played Adam Dalgliesh. According to James in conversation with Bill Link on 3May 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 adapted Death in Holy Orders in 2003, and The Murder Room in 2004, both as one-off dramas starring Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh. In Dalgliesh (2021), Bertie Carvel starred as the titular, enigmatic detective–poet. Six episodes, shown as three two-parters, premiered on Acorn TV on 1 November 2021 in the United States followed by a Channel 5 premiere on 4 November in the United Kingdom. A further six episodes started to air on Channel 5 in April 2023.
"'Century of Change 1900-2000: Memories of Ludlow Grammar School, Ludlow Girls' High School, Ludlow College', 2000 - 2002". Personal Papers of P D James, 1877 - 2017. Girton College Archive. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
Webb, Richard. "St Laurence's C of E Primary School". Geograph. geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 13 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.
James, P. D. (1 August 2020). "I'll never forget my first love". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
Symons, Julian. "THE QUEEN OF CRIME: P.D. JAMES: Book Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 November 2021. When I was a child, at Ludlow in Shropshire, I saw children going to school without coats or shoes. There was real poverty in a lot of homes.
Wallace, David (2 December 2014). "Letter: PD James, a Shropshire lass". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 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. Retrieved 13 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. Retrieved 13 November 2021. Sue Lawley's castaway is crime writer and conservative life peer P D James.
"Desert Island Discs: P D James". BBC Radio 4. BBC. 1982. Retrieved 13 November 2021. Roy Plomley's castaway is writer P D James.
"P D James". Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005. Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 13 November 2021. Phyllis attended an old-fashioned grammar school where she enjoyed English lessons
"Faber & Faber: P. D. James". Faber.co.uk. 22 September 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
"About". P. D. James. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
↑Slade, Douglas (28 November 2014). "PD James dead: Remembering the first lady of crime". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 13 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.
12345Kemp, Peter (2018). "James, Phyllis Dorothy, Baroness James of Holland Park (1920–2014), crime novelist and public servant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.108124.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
↑Time To Be in Earnest, p. 113, p.115, p. 179, and p. 226
↑Emma Brockes, The Guardian profile: P D James – "Murder She Wrote", 3 March 2001. Accessed 20 January 2013
↑"P.D. James: About the Author P.D. James". randomhouse.com.
↑Enright, Michael (30 December 2018) [2014]. The Sunday Edition - December 30, 2018 (Radio interview). CBC. Event occurs at 26:30.
↑Reese, Jennifer (26 February 1998). "The Salon Interview – P.D. James – The Art of Murder". Salon. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.
↑"Why I am still an Anglican", Continuum, 2006, p. 16.
↑Sarah Crown (4 November 2011). "A life in writing: PD James". The Guardian.
↑John Plunkett (31 December 2009). "BBC director general Mark Thompson thrown by PD James's detective work". The Guardian.
↑Allen, Katie (6 October 2008). "Rankin and P D James pick up ITV3 awards". theBookseller.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2009. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
↑"Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories | Politics". theguardian.com. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
↑"PD James, crime novelist, dies aged 94". BBC News. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
↑Reynolds, Stanley (27 November 2014). "PD James obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
↑"P.D. James with Bill Link". Writers Bloc. 3 May 2001. Retrieved 27 November 2014.