P. D. James

Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park (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]

James was born in Oxford, the daughter of Sidney Victor James, a tax inspector, and his wife, Dorothy Mary James.^[3] She was educated at the British School^[4] in Ludlow and Cambridge High School for Girls.^[5] Her mother was committed to a mental hospital when James was in her mid-teens.^[6]

She had to leave school at the age of sixteen to work to take care of her younger siblings, sister Monica, and brother Edward, because her family did not have much money. She worked in a tax office in Ely for three years and later found a job as an assistant stage manager for the Festival Theatre in Cambridge.^[7] She married Ernest Connor Bantry White (called "Connor"), an army doctor, on 8 August 1941.^[7] They had two daughters, Clare and Jane.^[8]

Connor White returned from the Second World War mentally ill and was institutionalised. With her daughters being mostly cared for by Connor's parents,^[9] James studied hospital administration, and from 1949 to 1968 worked for a hospital board in London.^[10] She began writing in the mid-1950s, using her maiden name ("My genes are James genes").^[11][12]

نُشرت روايتها الأولى، "غطّي وجهها" ، التي تدور أحداثها حول المحقق والشاعر آدم دالغليش من شرطة سكوتلاند يارد ، عام 1962. ^{[ 13 ]} اسم عائلة دالغليش مُشتق من اسم مُدرّس لغة إنجليزية في مدرسة كامبريدج الثانوية، واسمه الأول هو اسم والد الآنسة دالغليش. ^{[ 14 ]} تدور أحداث العديد من روايات جيمس البوليسية في أروقة المؤسسات البيروقراطية البريطانية، مثل نظام العدالة الجنائية وهيئة الخدمات الصحية الوطنية ، حيث عملت لعقود بدءًا من أربعينيات القرن العشرين. بعد عامين من نشر كتابها " غطّي وجهها" ، توفي زوج جيمس في 5 أغسطس 1964. ^{[ 15 ]} قبل وفاته، لم تكن جيمس تشعر بالقدرة على تغيير وظيفتها: "كان [كونور] يخرج من المستشفى بشكل دوري، أحيانًا بإشعار قصير جدًا، ولم أكن أعرف أبدًا ما الذي سأواجهه عند عودتي إلى المنزل من المكتب. لم يكن الوقت مناسبًا للبحث عن ترقية أو وظيفة جديدة، الأمر الذي كان سيزيد من الضغط عليّ. لكن الآن [بعد وفاة كونور] شعرت بحاجة ماسة للبحث عن تغيير في مساري المهني." ^{[ 16 ]} تقدمت بطلب للحصول على رتبة رئيس في الخدمة المدنية الداخلية ^{[ 15 ]} وشغلت مناصب كموظفة مدنية في عدة أقسام بوزارة الداخلية ، بما في ذلك القسم الجنائي. استمرت في العمل في الخدمة الحكومية حتى تقاعدها عام 1979. ^{[ 8 ]}

On 7 February 1991, James was created a life peer as Baroness James of Holland Park, of Southwold in the County of Suffolk.^[17] She sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative. She was an Anglican and a lay patron of the Prayer Book Society. Her 2001 work, Death in Holy Orders, displays her familiarity with the inner workings of church hierarchy.^[18] Her later novels were often set in a community closed in some way, such as a publishing house, barristers' chambers, a theological college, an island or a private clinic. Talking About Detective Fiction was published in 2009. Over her writing career, James also wrote many essays and short stories for periodicals and anthologies, which have yet to be collected. She said in 2011 that The Private Patient was the final Dalgliesh novel.^[19] However, at the time of her death, she had been planning another Dalgliesh novel, set in Southwold.^[8]

As guest editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme in December 2009, James conducted an interview with the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, in which she seemed critical of some of his decisions. Regular Today presenter Evan Davis commented that "She shouldn't be guest editing; she should be permanently presenting the programme."^[20] In 2008, she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the inaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards.^[21]

In August 2014, James was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.^[22]

James' main home was her house at 58 Holland Park Avenue, in the area from which she took her title; she also owned homes in Oxford and Southwold.^[8]

James died from cancer at her home in Oxford on 27 November 2014, aged 94.^[8][23] She is survived by her two daughters, Clare and Jane, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.^[24]

During the 1980s and 1990s, 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."^[25] 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.^[26] Despite substantial changes from the book, James was reportedly pleased with the adaptation and proud to be associated with the film.^[27]

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.

• "لحظة القوة" (1968)، نُشرت لأول مرة في مجلة إيليري كوين للغموض، يوليو 1968 (جمعت تحت عنوان "جريمة قتل عادية للغاية" في كتاب جريمة قتل الهدال وقصص أخرى ، 2016).
• "الضحية" (1973)، نُشرت لأول مرة في جرائم الشتاء 5 ، حررتها فيرجينيا ويتاكر (جمعت في كتاب "لا مزيد من النوم: ست حكايات قتل" ، 2017).
• "جريمة قتل، 1986" (1970)، نُشرت لأول مرة في كتاب " أساتذة الغموض" لإيليري كوين.
• "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, later reprinted as "Memories Don't Die", in Redbook, July 1984 (collected in Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, 2017)
• "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)

• Shusha Guppy (Summer 1995). "P. D. James, The Art of Fiction No. 141". The Paris Review. Summer 1995 (135).
• The Guardian, 4-3-01. Accessed 2010-09-15
• "A grisly end", The Sunday Herald, 12 September 2008
• CBC Radio hour-long interview by Eleanor Wachtel, 2000. Accessed 2 Aug. 2020
• 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. Accessed 2010-09-15
• 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.
• Joshi, S. T. "P. D. James: The Empress's New Clothes." In Varieties of Crime Fiction (Wildside Press, 2019) ISBN 978-1-4794-4546-2.
• نايت، ستيفن. "العصر الذهبي". في كتاب "رفيق كامبريدج لأدب الجريمة " الذي حرره مارتن بريستمان، الصفحات 77-94. (مطبعة جامعة كامبريدج، 2003).
• كوتكر، جوان ج. "سلسلة آدم دالغليش لـ بي دي جيمس". في كتاب " في البداية: الروايات الأولى في سلسلة الغموض" (1995): 139+
• شاركي، جو آن. اللاهوت في التشويق: كيف تُثير روايات بي دي جيمس البوليسية الفكر اللاهوتي. (أطروحة دكتوراه، جامعة سانت أندروز، 2011). متوفرة على الإنترنت؛ مع قائمة مراجع مطولة.
• سيبنهيلر، نورما. بي دي جيمس . (نيويورك: أونغار، 1981).
• سميث، أماندا (9 نوفمبر 1982). "وظيفة مناسبة لهذه المرأة" . صحيفة بوسطن فينيكس . تم الاطلاع عليه في 1 أكتوبر 2024 .
• سمير، ريتشارد ل. "بي دي جيمس: الجريمة والحالة الإنسانية". كلوز 3 (ربيع/صيف 1982): 49-61.
• وود، رالف سي. "حجة لاعتبار بي دي جيمس روائيًا مسيحيًا". اللاهوت اليوم 59.4 (يناير 2003): 583-595.
• يونغ، لوريل أ. بي دي جيمس: دليل لأدب الغموض . جيفرسون، كارولاينا الشمالية: ماكفارلاند، 2017. ISBN 978-0-7864-9791-1

• كتابات معاصرة من المجلس الثقافي البريطاني . تاريخ الوصول: 3 أغسطس 2016
• دار نشر فابر آند فابر (المملكة المتحدة) . تاريخ الوصول: 15 سبتمبر 2010
• دار راندوم هاوس (الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية)، الناشر . تاريخ الوصول: 15 سبتمبر 2010
• دار نشر بنجوين بوكس ​​(المملكة المتحدة) . تاريخ الوصول: 15 سبتمبر 2010
• بي دي جيمس على موقع IMDb
• صور شخصية لـ بي دي جيمس في المعرض الوطني للصور الشخصية، لندن
• "PD James (Baroness James of Holland Park OBE JP)" مؤرشف في 24 أكتوبر 2017 في Wayback Machine ، تم تذكر الزملاء، الجمعية الملكية للأدب.