Editing P. D. James (section)

== Life and career ==
James was born in [[Oxford]], the daughter of Sidney Victor James, a tax inspector, and his wife, Dorothy Mary James.<ref>
*dedication page of ''Time To Be in Earnest'', 1999
*{{cite web |title=P D James |url=https://www.civilservant.org.uk/women-pd_james.html |website=UK Civil Service |access-date=13 November 2021 |quote=P D James was born in 1920 in Walton Street, Oxford}}</ref> She was educated at the [[Ludlow College|British School]]<ref>
*{{cite web |title='Century of Change 1900-2000: Memories of Ludlow Grammar School, Ludlow Girls' High School, Ludlow College', 2000 - 2002 |url=https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/19/archival_objects/376807 |website=Personal Papers of P D James, 1877 - 2017 |publisher=[[Girton College]] Archive |access-date=13 November 2021}}
*{{cite web |last1=Webb |first1=Richard |title=St Laurence's C of E Primary School |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1168439 |website=Geograph |publisher=geograph.org.uk |access-date=13 November 2021 |language=en |quote=In 1972 St Laurence's C of E Primary School closed. It merged with the former British School on Old Street and Ludlow had just one primary school. This is the site of the shared sports field of the two schools.}}
*{{cite web |last1=James |first1=P. D. |title=I'll never forget my first love |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/pd-james-never-forget-first-love/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/pd-james-never-forget-first-love/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=13 November 2021 |date=1 August 2020}}{{cbignore}}
*{{cite web |last1=Symons |first1=Julian |author1-link=Julian Symons |title=THE QUEEN OF CRIME: P.D. JAMES: Book Review |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/07/home/james-queen.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=13 November 2021 |quote=When I was a child, at Ludlow in Shropshire, I saw children going to school without coats or shoes. There was real poverty in a lot of homes.}}
*{{cite news |last1=Wallace |first1=David |title=Letter: PD James, a Shropshire lass |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/2014/dec/02/letter-pd-james |access-date=13 November 2021 |work=[[the Guardian]] |date=2 December 2014 |language=en |quote=We used to explore all the paths around the castle, all around the hill. Down below there was the river Teme and the water meadows. I can remember very, very clearly the school I went to, and the names of some of the children come right back to me. The British school, it was called, and the earliest poem I learned there was called Mamble.}}
*{{cite web |title=Remembering P.D. James |url=https://prayerbook.ca/remembering-p-d-james/ |website=The Prayer Book Society of Canada |date=6 February 2015 |access-date=13 November 2021 |quote=Later, at a church school in Ludlow, Shropshire, she was required to learn the Collect each week.}}
*{{cite web |title=Desert Island Discs: P D James |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00947h9 |website=BBC Radio 4 |publisher=BBC |access-date=13 November 2021 |date=2002 |quote=Sue Lawley's castaway is crime writer and conservative life peer P D James.}}
*{{cite web |title=Desert Island Discs: P D James |url=https://archive.org/details/wvv8ykpcx9y3gzhdzxyjaossvw70bxxbkjvcbojt <!-- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mk60 https://archive.org/details/podcast_desert-island-discs-archive-1_p-d-james_1000353685420  --> |website=BBC Radio 4 |publisher=BBC |access-date=13 November 2021 |date=1982 |quote=Roy Plomley's castaway is writer P D James.}}
*{{cite web |title=P D James |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p-d-james/id435713106?i=1000093690178 |website=Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005 |publisher=Apple Podcasts |access-date=13 November 2021 |quote=Phyllis attended an old-fashioned grammar school where she enjoyed English lessons}}
*https://4degreesbrewing.com/hill-70-info/corporal-acton/
*https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a/A13533016
*https://www.ludlowsoldiersww1.co.uk/page.php?n=Rogers,%20William%20Ernest
</ref> in [[Ludlow]] and [[Long Road Sixth Form College|Cambridge High School for Girls]].<ref>
*{{cite web|url=http://www.faber.co.uk/author/p-d-james/ |title=Faber & Faber: P. D. James |publisher=Faber.co.uk |date=22 September 2008 |access-date=20 May 2010}}
*{{cite web |title=About |url=https://pdjames.co.uk/about/ |website=P. D. James |access-date=13 November 2021}}</ref> Her mother was committed to a mental hospital when James was in her mid-teens.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Slade |first1=Douglas |title=PD James dead: Remembering the first lady of crime |url=https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/541110/Best-selling-detective-novelist-PD-James-died-aged-94 |access-date=13 November 2021 |work=Express.co.uk |date=28 November 2014 |language=en |quote=The family moved to Ludlow, Shropshire, for her primary school years and then to Cambridge, where she went to the County High School for Girls.  When she was in her mid-teens her mother was committed to a mental hospital.}}</ref>

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 and her father did not believe in higher education for girls.{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}} 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.<ref name="Time To Be in Earnest, p. 20">''Time To Be in Earnest'', p. 20</ref> She married Ernest Connor Bantry White (called "Connor"), an army doctor, on 8 August 1941.<ref name="Time To Be in Earnest, p. 20"/> They had two daughters, Clare and Jane.<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = James, Phyllis Dorothy, Baroness James of Holland Park (1920–2014), crime novelist and public servant|last = Kemp|first = Peter|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.108124|date = 2018}}</ref>

White returned from the [[Second World War]] mentally ill and was institutionalised. With her daughters being mostly cared for by Connor's parents,<ref>''Time To Be in Earnest'', p. 113, p.115, p. 179, and p. 226</ref> James studied hospital administration, and from 1949 to 1968 worked for a hospital board in London.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/03/crime.pdjames Emma Brockes, ''The Guardian'' profile: P D James – "Murder She Wrote", 3 March 2001. Accessed 20 January 2013]</ref> She began writing in the mid-1950s, using her maiden name ("My genes are James genes").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/guardian.html|title=P.D. James: About the Author P.D. James|work=randomhouse.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-december-30-2018-1.4462999|title=The Sunday Edition - December 30, 2018|date=30 December 2018|last=Enright|first=Michael|type=Radio interview|language=en|publisher=CBC|orig-year=2014|time=26:30}}</ref>

Her first novel, ''[[Cover Her Face]]'', featuring the investigator and poet [[Adam Dalgliesh]] of [[Scotland Yard|New Scotland Yard]], was published in 1962.<ref name=Salon>{{cite news|last= Reese|first=Jennifer|url=http://www.salon.com/books/int/1998/02/cov_si_26int2.html|title=The Salon Interview – P.D. James – The Art of Murder|work=[[Salon.com|Salon]]|date=26 February 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605024339/http://www.salon.com/books/int/1998/02/cov_si_26int.html|archive-date=5 June 2011}}</ref> Dalgliesh's last name comes from a teacher of English at Cambridge High School and his first name is that of Miss Dalgliesh's father.<ref>''Time To Be in Earnest'', p. 48</ref> Many of James's mystery novels take place against the backdrop of UK bureaucracies, such as the criminal justice system and the [[National Health Service]], in which she worked for decades starting in the 1940s. Two years after the publication of ''Cover Her Face'', James's husband died on 5 August 1964.<ref name="Time To Be in Earnest, p. 115">''Time To Be in Earnest'', p. 115</ref> Prior to his death, James had not felt able to change her job: "He [Connor] would periodically discharge himself from hospital, sometimes at very short notice, and I never knew quite what I would have to face when I returned home from the office. It was not a propitious time to look for promotion or for a new job, which would only impose additional strain. But now [after Connor's death] I felt the strong need to look for a change of direction."<ref>''A Time To Be in Earnest'', p. 115</ref> She applied for the grade of Principal in the Home Civil Service<ref name="Time To Be in Earnest, p. 115"/> and held positions as a civil servant within several sections of the [[Home Office]], including the criminal section. She worked in government service until her retirement in 1979.<ref name = ODNB/>

On 7 February 1991, James was created a [[life peer]] as '''Baroness James of Holland Park''', of [[Southwold]] in the [[County of Suffolk]].<ref name="ReferenceA">{{London Gazette |issue=52448 |date=13 February 1991 |page=2255}}</ref> She sat in the [[House of Lords]] as a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]. She was an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and a lay patron of the [[Prayer Book Society (England)|Prayer Book Society]]. Her 2001 work, ''[[Death in Holy Orders]]'', displays her familiarity with the inner workings of church hierarchy.<ref>"Why I am still an Anglican", Continuum, 2006, p. 16.</ref> 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 [[Periodical literature|periodicals]] and [[Anthology|anthologies]], which have yet to be collected. She said in 2011 that ''The Private Patient'' was the final Dalgliesh novel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/nov/04/pd-james-life-in-writing|title=A life in writing: PD James|author=Sarah Crown|work=The Guardian|date=4 November 2011}}</ref> However, at the time of her death, she had been planning another Dalgliesh novel, set in Southwold.<ref name = ODNB/>

As guest editor of [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme in December 2009, James conducted an interview with the Director General of the BBC, [[Mark Thompson (television executive)|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."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/dec/31/bbc-mark-thompson-pd-james|title=BBC director general Mark Thompson thrown by PD James's detective work|author=John Plunkett|work=The Guardian|date=31 December 2009}}</ref> In 2008, she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the inaugural [[ITV3]] Crime Thriller Awards.<ref>{{cite web|author= Allen, Katie|title= Rankin and P D James pick up ITV3 awards|url= http://www.thebookseller.com/news/68347-rankin-and-p-d-james-pick-up-itv3-awards.html|work= theBookseller.com|date= 6 October 2008|access-date= 6 October 2008|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090409070859/http://www.thebookseller.com/news/68347-rankin-and-p-d-james-pick-up-itv3-awards.html|archive-date= 9 April 2009}}</ref>

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 [[2014 Scottish independence referendum|referendum on that issue]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/07/celebrities-open-letter-scotland-independence-full-text |title=Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories &#124; Politics |work=theguardian.com |date=2014-08-07 |access-date=2014-08-26}}</ref>

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.<ref name = ODNB/>
[[File:58 Holland Park Avenue, London W11.jpg|thumb|Blue plaque at 58 Holland Park Avenue]]

James died from cancer at her home in Oxford on 27 November 2014, aged 94.<ref name = ODNB/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30232569|title=PD James, crime novelist, dies aged 94|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=27 November 2014|website=BBC News|access-date=27 November 2014}}</ref> She is survived by her two daughters, Clare and Jane, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.<ref name="PD James obituary">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/27/pd-james | title=PD James obituary | newspaper=The Guardian | date=27 November 2014 | access-date=27 November 2014 | author=Reynolds, Stanley}}</ref>