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P. D. James

Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.[2]

The Right Honourable

The Baroness James of Holland Park

OBE FRSA FRSL

Phyllis Dorothy James
(1920-08-03)3 August 1920
Oxford, England

27 November 2014(2014-11-27) (aged 94)
Oxford, England

P. D. James

Novelist

Ernest Connor Bantry White
​
​
(m. 1941; died 1964)​

2

Film and television[edit]

During the 1980s, many of James's mystery novels were adapted for television by Anglia Television for the ITV network in the UK. These productions have been broadcast in other countries, including the US on the PBS network. Roy Marsden played Adam Dalgliesh. According to James in conversation with Bill Link on 3 May 2001 at the Writer's Guild Theatre, Los Angeles, Marsden "is not my idea of Dalgliesh, but I would be very surprised if he were."[24] The BBC adapted Death in Holy Orders in 2003, and The Murder Room in 2004, both as one-off dramas starring Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh. In Dalgliesh (2021), Bertie Carvel starred as the titular, enigmatic detective–poet. Six episodes, shown as three two-parters, premiered on Acorn TV on 1 November 2021 in the United States followed by a Channel 5 premiere on 4 November in the United Kingdom. A further six episodes started to air on Channel 5 in April 2023.


Her novel The Children of Men (1992) was the basis for the feature film Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine.[25] Despite substantial changes from the book, James was reportedly pleased with the adaptation and proud to be associated with the film.[26]


A three-episode adaptation of her novel Death Comes to Pemberley, written by Juliette Towhidi, was made into the TV series Death Comes to Pemberley by Origin Pictures for BBC One. It was first shown in the UK over three nights from 26 December 2013 as part of the BBC's Christmas schedule and stars Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth, Matthew Rhys as Mr Darcy, Jenna Coleman as Lydia and Matthew Goode as Wickham.

"Moment of Power" (1968), first published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 1968 (collected as "A Very Commonplace Murder" in The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)

"The Victim" (1973), first published in Winter's Crimes 5, ed. Virginia Whitaker (collected in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)

"Murder, 1986" (1975), first published in Ellery Queen's Masters of Mystery

"A Very Desirable Residence" (1976), first published in Winter's Crimes 8, ed. Hilary Watson (collected in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)

"Great-Aunt Ellie's Flypapers" (1979), first published in Verdict of Thirteen, ed. Julian Symons (collected as "The Boxdale Inheritance" in The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)

"The Girl Who Loved Graveyards" (1983), first published in Winter's Crimes 15, ed. George Hardinge (collected in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)

"Memories Don't Die" (1984), first published in Redbook, July 1984

"The Murder of Santa Claus" (1984), first published in Great Detectives, ed. D. W. McCullough (collected in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)

"The Mistletoe Murder" (1991), first published in The Spectator (collected in The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)

"The Man Who Was 80" (1992), first published in The Illustrated London News, 1 November 1992, and The Man Who, later revised as "Mr. Maybrick's Birthday" c. 2005 (collected as "Mr. Millcroft's Birthday" in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)

"The Part-time Job" (2005), first published in The Detection Collection, ed. Simon Brett

"Hearing Ghote" (2006), first published in The Verdict of Us All, ed. Peter Lovesey. An earlier version of the story ("The Yo-Yo") written in 1996 was later published in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales in 2017.

"The Twelve Clues of Christmas" (collected in The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, 2016)

(1983)

Death of an Expert Witness

(1984)

Shroud for a Nightingale

(1985)

Cover Her Face

(1985)

The Black Tower

(1988)

A Taste For Death

(1991)

Devices and Desires

(1993)

Unnatural Causes

(1995)

A Mind to Murder

(1997)

Original Sin

(1998)

A Certain Justice

(2003)

Death in Holy Orders

(2003)

The Murder Room

(2021)

Dalgliesh

1983[27]

Officer of the Order of the British Empire

Associate Fellow of , 1986[28]

Downing College, Cambridge

Baroness James of Holland Park, of Southwold in the County of Suffolk, 7 February 1991[16]

Life peerage

[29]

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

[29]

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

President of the 1997–2013[30]

Society of Authors

Shusha Guppy (Summer 1995). . The Paris Review. Summer 1995 (135).

"P. D. James, The Art of Fiction No. 141"

. Accessed 2010-09-15

The Guardian, 4-3-01

. Accessed 2010-09-15

The Sunday Herald newspaper (U.K.), 13-9-08

. Accessed 2 Aug. 2020

CBC Radio hour-long interview by Eleanor Wachtel, 2000

. Accessed 2010-09-15

The Globe and Mail (Canada), 30-1-09

. Accessed 2010-09-15

The Daily Telegraph newspaper (U.K.), 21-7-10

. Accessed 2010-09-15

The Independent newspaper (U.K.), 29-9-08

. Accessed 2010-09-15

The American Spectator magazine (U.S.), 4-1-10

Extended audio discussion on Death Comes to Pemberley for the Faber website. Recorded October 2011.

Video interview discussing Death Comes to Pemberley. Filmed October 2011.

Gidez, Richard B. P. D. James. Twayne's English Authors Series. New York: Twayne, 1986.

Hubly, Erlene. "Adam Dalgliesh: Byronic Hero." Clues: A Journal of Detection 3: 40–46.

"P. D. James: The Empress's New Clothes." In Varieties of Crime Fiction (Wildside Press, 2019) ISBN 978-1-4794-4546-2.

Joshi, S. T.

Knight, Stephen. "The Golden Age". In The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction ed. by Martin Priestman, pp 77–94. (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Kotker, Joan G. "PD James's Adam Dalgliesh Series." in In the Beginning: First Novels in Mystery Series (1995): 139+

Sharkey, Jo Ann. Theology in suspense: how the detective fiction of PD James provokes theological thought. (PhD Dissertation, University of St Andrews, 2011).

online; with long bibliography

Siebenheller, Norma. P. D. James. (New York: Ungar, 1981).

Smyer, Richard L. "P.D. James: Crime and the Human Condition". Clues 3 (Spring/Summer 1982): 49–61.

Wood, Ralph C. "A Case for P.D. James as a Christian Novelist". Theology Today 59.4 (January 2003): 583–595.

Young, Laurel A. P. D. James: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017.  978-0-7864-9791-1

ISBN

. Accessed 2016-08-03

The British Council's Contemporary Writers

. Accessed 2010-09-15

Faber and Faber (U.K.), publisher

. Accessed 2010-09-15

Random House (U.S.), publisher

. Accessed 2010-09-15

Penguin Books (U.K.), publisher

at IMDb

P. D. James

at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Portraits of P. D. James

Fellows Remembered, The Royal Society of Literature.

"P.D. James (Baroness James of Holland Park OBE JP)"