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P.D. James

Born

in Oxford, The United Kingdom

August 03, 1920

Died

November 27, 2014

Genre

Crime, Mystery, Suspense

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P. D. James, byname of Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, (born August 3, 1920, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England—died November 27, 2014, Oxford), British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.

The daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge. Her formal education, however, ended at age 16 because of lack of funds, and she was thereafter self-educated. In 1941 she married Ernest C.B. White, a medical student and future physician, who returned home from wartime service mentally deranged and spent much of the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals. To support her family (which included two children), she took work in hospita P. D. James, byname of Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, (born August 3, 1920, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England—died November 27, 2014, Oxford), British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.

The daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge. Her formal education, however, ended at age 16 because of lack of funds, and she was thereafter self-educated. In 1941 she married Ernest C.B. White, a medical student and future physician, who returned home from wartime service mentally deranged and spent much of the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals. To support her family (which included two children), she took work in hospital administration and, after her husband’s death in 1964, became a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs. Her first mystery novel, Cover Her Face (1962), introduced Dalgliesh and was followed by six more mysteries before she retired from government service in 1979 to devote full time to writing.

Dalgliesh, James’s master detective who rises from chief inspector in the first novel to chief superintendent and then to commander, is a serious, introspective person, moralistic yet realistic. The novels in which he appears are peopled by fully rounded characters, who are civilized, genteel, and motivated. The public resonance created by James’s singular characterization and deployment of classic mystery devices led to most of the novels featuring Dalgliesh being filmed for television. James, who earned the sobriquet “Queen of Crime,” penned 14 Dalgliesh novels, with the last, The Private Patient, appearing in 2008.

James also wrote An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) and The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), which centre on Cordelia Gray, a young private detective. The first of these novels was the basis for both a television movie and a short-lived series. James expanded beyond the mystery genre in The Children of Men (1992; film 2006), which explores a dystopian world in which the human race has become infertile. Her final work, Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)—a sequel to Pride and Prejudice (1813)—amplifies the class and relationship tensions between Jane Austen’s characters by situating them in the midst of a murder investigation. James’s nonfiction works include The Maul and the Pear Tree (1971), a telling of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 written with historian T.A. Critchley, and the insightful Talking About Detective Fiction (2009). Her memoir, Time to Be in Earnest, was published in 2000. She was made OBE in 1983 and was named a life peer in 1991. ...more

Combine Editions
P.D. James’s books

Average rating: 3.74 · 470,960 ratings · 33,671 reviews · 246 distinct works • Similar authors

	Death Comes to Pemberley 3.30 avg rating — 101,866 ratings — published 2011 — 126 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Children of Men 3.67 avg rating — 48,977 ratings — published 1992 — 124 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 39,610 ratings — published 1962 — 198 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shroud for a Nightingale (Adam Dalgliesh, #4) 4.03 avg rating — 26,449 ratings — published 1971 — 161 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Black Tower (Adam Dalgliesh, #5) 3.95 avg rating — 19,489 ratings — published 1975 — 135 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Cordelia Gray, #1) 3.82 avg rating — 19,334 ratings — published 1972 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lighthouse (Adam Dalgliesh, #13) 3.85 avg rating — 18,340 ratings — published 2005 — 115 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh, #14) 3.80 avg rating — 18,570 ratings — published 2008 — 116 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11) 3.91 avg rating — 16,992 ratings — published 2001 — 126 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unnatural Causes (Adam Dalgliesh, #3) 3.89 avg rating — 16,459 ratings — published 1967 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by P.D. James…

Series by P.D. James

Adam Dalgliesh (14 books)
by

P.D. James

3.91 avg rating — 265,157 ratings

Cordelia Gray (2 books)
by

P.D. James

3.81 avg rating — 28,266 ratings

We love a good mystery, and we are especially intrigued when a brand-new debut author appears in the genre! Who knows what thrills and...

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Which more contemporary English Mystery would you like to read with us during September? Please vote here.

A Mind to Murder by P.D. James

36 votes, 38.3%

Mrs, Presumed Dead by Simon Brett

27 votes, 28.7%

Servant of Death by Sarah Hawkswood

16 votes, 17.0%

The Accomplice by Elizabeth Ironside

15 votes, 16.0%

94 total votes

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P.D. James’s Followers (3,084)

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