PD James, the grande dame of crime fiction, dies

CRIME writer Phyllis Dorothy James died peacefully at home yesterday. She was 94.

(FILES) A file picture dated January 2001 shows British author P.D. James at her London home. British detective writer P. D. James, who was best known for her mystery series featuring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh, died on Thursday November 27, 2014 at the age of 94. AFP PHOTO/FILES

PHYLLIS Dorothy James, the crime writer who set her detective Adam Dalgliesh on the trail of more than a dozen murder mysteries, died peacefully at home yesterday. She was 94.

Her family said that James had died at her home in Oxford and was “a much-loved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother”.

Faber & Faber, her publisher, said that it would miss the author hugely.

“This is a very sad day for us at Faber. It is difficult to express our profound sadness at losing P. D James, one of the world’s great writers and a Faber author since her first publication in 1962.

“She was so very remarkable in every aspect of her life, an inspiration and great friend to us all. It is a privilege to publish her extraordinary books. Working with her was always the best of times, full of joy.”

James, who is survived by two daughters, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, ­suggested last year that she might write one more story about ­Dalgliesh despite a previous declaration that The Private Patient, his 14th adventure, would be his last.

“I have the setting, the plot outline, the ending, but I need to find the time for it,” she said at a crime fiction festival in Lyons.

“I don’t have a lot of energy nowadays, but I promise I will make every effort to finish this.”

However, her publisher said that she had not submitted a manuscript.

A. S Byatt said James elevated crime writing to literary ­fiction. “The writing was terribly good,” she told BBC news.

“When people in her books died, other characters’ lives changed too. She was working with real people that she cared about. She said crime fiction should win the Booker and tried to have it taken seriously. Phyllis was on the borderline between crime fiction and literary fiction.

“She attended to detail and knew about chemistry and the nature of poisons and stabbings. She was always in control and ­always knew where she was going and what would happen.”

Crime writers said James had been an inspiration to them. Ian Rankin, author of the Rebus detective novels, posted a tribute on Twitter.

“Every event I did with her was a joy,” he wrote. “Sharp intellect, ready wit.”

Patricia Cornwell, author of the Kay Scarpetta thrillers, thanked James for “encouraging me when I was getting started”.

Val McDermid wrote: “I salute the great P. D James for so many reasons. Today, I’ve lost a friend as well as a teacher. There was nothing cosy about Phyllis.”

James’s successes included her dystopian novel, The Children of Men, which was adapted as a film starring Clive Owen.

Her Dalgliesh stories were adapted for television with Roy Marsden playing the leading role for the ITV productions, and Martin Shaw for two broadcast by the BBC.

James, whose more recent work included Death Comes to Pemberley, a crime novel set in the milieu of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, had predicted that ­Dalgliesh would outlive her.

“It always struck me that to kill off Dalgliesh would be a vicarious form of suicide,” she said in 2003.

“I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He’s going to die when I die. If I were 23 I suppose I might feel differently, but I think Dalgliesh will see me out.

“Dalgliesh is locked forever in late middle age, unlike his creator, unfortunately.”

The Times