Another fine one leaves us

    P.D. James, a lady I admired enormously, has died today aged 94. Much has been and will be written about her and her work, but that apart, it was her wit, her sharp intellect, her wisdom, personal courage, and integrity which engendered so much respect and esteem. I've been privileged to hear her talk in person, and rarely have I felt as I did then that I was in the company of someone who was - very quietly and unassumingly - head and shoulders above most others.

    If you haven't read her beyond her novels, do look out for Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography and Talking About Detective Fiction.

 

Edited to add: take a look at the Books at the BBC tribute to P.D. James, a special archive of radio programmes in which she featured.

Comments

[Gillie]

I remember watching her on a book programme that was every night for week/fortnight hosted by Anne Robinson. Name escapes me but she ran rings around the rather callow youth whose only claim to fame appeared to be being caught with drugs while hosting Blue Peter. This was about three years ago? So she'd have been ninety-ish.

[Lyn]

Sad news indeed but she lived a long, productive & good life. I remember her at the Melbourne Writers Festival in discussion with Ruth Rendell which was a real treat. I've read nearly all her books & second your recommendations of TTBIE & TADF.

[Sue]

I was very sad to hear of her death. Only yesterday morning having finished listening to Juliet Stevenson's fine reading of Emma I had been reading what PD James had to say about it being a detective story.

[niki thomas]

I remember exactly that episode Gillie describes, was it My Life in Books?
I was chuffed to bump into her at the end of Southwold Pier a couple of years ago with her daughter. It made my week. She was so charming. Just had to speak to her having been a fan for so many years.
Your tribute to her is perfect.
Kind regards, Niki

[Sue]

How thrilling Niki.

[Cornflower]

In the nicest way, I think she'd run rings round most people!

[Cornflower]

I believe she and Ruth R were great friends, so that must have been a special event.

[Cornflower]

Juliet Stevenson would be excellent for that, and yes, it's so interesting what PD James said about Emma's being a detective story.

[Cornflower]

Thanks, Niki, and how wonderful that you met her!

[Margaret Powling]

PD James was one of the greats of detective fiction, indeed one of the greats of fiction. How I will miss her Adam Dalgleish stories, and how I enjoyed the TV serials starring Roy Marsden, the first of which I remember seeing (although not necessarily the first to have been made), Death of an Expert Witness, with the late Barry Foster (aka Van Der Valk.) What I enjoyed best about her novels, apart from the ingenuity of her complex plots, was their sense of place. She could conjure up exactly what a place not only looked like but felt like.