| P. D. James | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 3, 1920 (1920-08-03) (age 88) Oxford, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | British |
| Genres | Crime fiction Thriller |
|
Influences
|
|
|
Influenced
|
|
| Official website | |
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 life peer in the House of Lords.[1]
Contents |
James began writing in the mid-1950s.[2] Her first novel, Cover Her Face, featuring the investigator and poet Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, was published in 1962.[3]
Many of James's mystery novels take place against the backdrop of the UK'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's 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 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. [4] 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 prose is very clear and precise. Her new 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.
Omnibus editions
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.[5] Despite its substantial changes from the book, James was reportedly pleased with the adaptation and proud to be associated with the film.[6]
The following are currently available on DVD:
Some honours that James has received include:[7]
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.[8]
stock | retire | vm
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History