28/12/2025
Continuing our featured Author’s Series we are up to J. Diving into crime we have several titles by PD James, a pseudonym for Phyllis Dorothy James, later Baroness James of Holland Park, especially known for her Dalgliesh Mysteries, featuring Adam Dalgliesh, police commander and poet. Her first novel Cover her Face (1962) we have in stock.
Born in 1920 in Oxford, she attended high school but in her mid teens she was caring for her two younger siblings, her mother having been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She left school at 16 as it was clear her family couldn’t afford for her to go to university. Later having to support her Royal Army Medical Corps doctor husband and two daughters during her husband’s illness, she took evening classes in hospital administration, securing then a job in charge of psychiatric units (NHS), from which two books emerged. Later she took the Civil Service exams, coming third in the whole country. The official letter starting Dear Sir with the Sir crossed through and replaced with Madam, it was so rare for a woman to apply at that time. She worked in the Home Office (1968-1979), whilst writing. She died, a life peer, in 2014. See pictures for more of her novels to be found in our extensive Crime Fiction department.
Wishing you all a happy New Year, see you soon!
