P.D. James: Author(1920–2014)

Phyllis Dorothy James, best known as P.D. James

“I think that when one writes detective stories one is imposing order, and a form of imperfect but human justice, on chaos.”

P.D. James was born in Oxford, England, on August 3, 1920. She began working as a civil servant at age 16 through marriage and motherhood, and began writing mystery novels in her late 30s. By the time she retired to write full-time, she had become famous as the creator of fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh. James also wrote the novels Children of Men and Death Comes to Pemberley. James died on November 27, 2014 at the age of 94.

James had achieved her ambition of becoming a professional writer. She wrote her first novel, a detective story titled Cover Her Face, in the evenings and during her daily commute. It was published under the name "P.D. James" in 1962, and it introduced the character of Adam Dalgliesh, a detective with a calm, introspective manner and a talent for writing poetry.
Dubbed the "Queen of Crime," James went on to write 13 more Dalgliesh murder mysteries. Many of them were set in enclosed communities, illuminating the tensions and violence that can erupt amongst tightly knit groups of people. Shroud for a Nightingale, published in 1971, is set at a nursing school, and Original Sin (1994) at a small publishing house in London; Death in Holy Orders (2001) probes the motives behind a killing at a theological college, and the final Dalgliesh mystery, The Private Patient (published in 2008), unfolds at a private plastic surgery clinic in an English manor house.

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