Biography
Crime novelist P. D. James was born in Oxford on 3 August 1920, the eldest daughter of an Inland Revenue Official. The family moved to Cambridge when she was 11, where she attended the Cambridge High School for Girls. She worked for the National Health Service (1949-68) and the Civil Service until 1979 when she began to work as a full-time writer. She was a Governor for the BBC (1988-93), and Chairman of the Literature Ad
visory Panel at both the Arts Council of England (1988-92) and the British Council (1988-93). She was awarded the OBE in 1983 and created a Life Peer (Baroness James of Holland Park) in 1991. Baroness James is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and chaired the Booker Prize Panel of Judges in 1987. She has been President of the Society of Authors since 1997. She has received the following honorary degrees: Doctor of Letters from the Universities of Buckingham 1992; Hertfordshire 1994; Glasgow 1995; Durham 1998, Portsmouth 1999. Doctor of Literature from the University of London 1993; Doctor of the University, Essex 1996. She was made an Associate Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge (1986) and an Honorary Fellow (2000). She is also an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford (1996) and of Girton College, Cambridge (2000).
Her novels include a series of books featuring the Scotland Yard policeman Commander Adam Dalgliesh. Her latest Commander Dalgliesh mystery is The Private Patient (2008).
P. D. James has been awarded major prizes for her crime writing in Great Britain, America, Italy and Scandinavia. In 1999 she received the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award for long term achievement. She is published widely overseas including the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Argentina.
Bibliography
Cover Her Face Faber and Faber, 1962
A Mind to Murder Faber and Faber, 1963
Unnatural Causes Faber and Faber, 1967
Shroud for a Nightingale Faber and Faber, 1971
The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811 (with Thomas A. Critchley) Constable, 1971
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Faber and Faber, 1972
The Black Tower Faber and Faber, 1975
Death of an Expert Witness Faber and Faber, 1977
Innocent Blood Faber and Faber, 1980
The Skull beneath the Skin Faber and Faber, 1982
A Taste for Death Faber and Faber, 1986
Devices and Desires Faber and Faber, 1989
The Children of Men Faber and Faber, 1992
Original Sin Faber and Faber, 1994
A Certain Justice Faber and Faber, 1997
Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography Faber and Faber, 1999
Death in Holy Orders Faber and Faber, 2001
The Murder Room Faber and Faber, 2003
The Lighthouse Faber and Faber, 2005
The Private Patient Faber and Faber, 2008
Prizes and awards
1971 Best Novel Award, Mystery Writers of America Shroud for a Nightingale
1971 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction Shroud for a Nightingale
1973 Mystery Writers of America Best Novel Award An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
1975 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction The Black Tower
1986 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction A Taste for Death
1986 Mystery Writers of America Best Novel Award A Taste for Death
1987 Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award)
1992 Deo Gloria Award The Children of Men
1999 Grandmaster Award, Mystery Writers of America
2002 WH Smith Literary Award (shortlist) Death in Holy Orders
2005 British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year (shortlist) The Murder Room
2006 British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year (shortlist) The Lighthouse
2006 Crime Writers' Association Short Story Dagger (shortlist - 'The Part-Time Job')
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