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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 · 477,789 ratings · 34,345 reviews · 238 distinct works • Similar authors

	Death Comes to Pemberley 3.30 avg rating — 102,391 ratings — published 2011 — 123 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 — 49,925 ratings — published 1992 — 15 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 — 40,167 ratings — published 1962 — 192 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 — 26,660 ratings — published 1971 — 159 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 — 19,770 ratings — published 1975 — 132 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 — 19,598 ratings — published 1972 — 143 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 — 18,575 ratings — published 2005 — 2 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 — 18,820 ratings — published 2008 — 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
	Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11) 3.92 avg rating — 17,224 ratings — published 2001 — 24 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 — 16,729 ratings — published 1967 — 162 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 — 269,492 ratings

Cordelia Gray (2 books)
by

P.D. James

3.81 avg rating — 28,625 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...

Polls

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Top 5 Move Onto Final Poll

One by One

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7 votes, 19.4%

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And Then There Were None

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4 votes, 11.1%

The Turn of the Key

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4 votes, 11.1%

The Hunting Party

by Lucy Foley

2 votes, 5.6%

Cover Her Face

by P.D. James

2 votes, 5.6%

An Unwanted Guest

by Shari Lapena

1 vote, 2.8%

The Last Time I Lied

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1 vote, 2.8%

They All Fall Down

by Rachel Howzell Hall

1 vote, 2.8%

36 total votes

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P.D. James’s Followers (3,132)

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