This article titled ?PD James: inside the head of a criminal mastermind? was written by Kate Kellaway, for The Observer on Saturday 14th July 2012 23.05 UTC
At 10 o?clock PD James ? or Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE ? walks into her sitting room. We last met almost 20 years ago in the same room and there is, along with the deja vu, a sense of wonder at seeing her again. At 91, she is remarkable. She is looking marvellous in an elegant powder-blue jacket of oriental cut, offset by a narrow silk scarf decorated with flowers. She is frailer than when last we met (she has survived heart failure and had a hip replaced in 2007) but otherwise is unchanged and in no way extinguished. She is as kind, civil and forthright as I remember. Her secretary, friend and all-round prop, Joyce McLennan, has tea and biscuits ready on the table. Everything is in order ? above all, PD James?s shipshape mind. Incidentally, P and D stand for Phyllis and Dorothy.
It is splendid, she volunteers, to be answering questions from readers and fellow authors. She avoids being insulting yet her view is implicit: journalists are less likely to be armed with surprising questions. As a crime writer, surprise is PD James?s forte. Her ability to keep readers guessing has not failed her in half a century. And it is characteristic that, towards the end of her writing life, she should elect to spring a new surprise on us. It would have been pardonable ? admirable indeed ? to have published another novel starring policeman poet Adam Dalgliesh. But Death Comes to Pemberley (now out in paperback) is a plucky new adventure, a sequel to Jane Austen?s Pride and Prejudice that doubles as a murder novel.
PD James has been an Austen devotee all her life. She can hear Austen?s voice with her inner ear, become her echo on the page. Death Comes to Pemberley is a masterly pastiche. It is more streamlined than her other fiction, involving only one murder and one suspect, but it fills us in on Elizabeth and Darcy and their marriage and satisfies that curiosity one has as the reader of a classic romance: did they live happily ever after?
And what of PD James?s own happiness? Everything about the room and its occupant has a secure, reassuring feel: the William Morris upholstery, the trusty fireplace, the sage green walls, a flourishing orchid and statues ? some of them religious. She has a study lined with poetry, a garden busy with geraniums, but the metal security bars on the windows introduce a different note. She prefers not to dwell on her earlier life?s difficulties. But it is interesting that, asked about what matters, she talks ? in a manner of which Jane Austen would have approved ? about the importance of security and a good marriage when, for a while, she had neither.
She was married to Connor Bantry White, an army doctor, and had two daughters by him: Clare and Jane. Tragically, her husband returned from the war mentally ill ? and she had to support the family single-handedly. He died, aged 44, in 1964, two years after her first novel, Cover Her Face, was published. It must have been extraordinarily hard. But PD James is, one surmises, the sort of person who would only be made more determined by misfortune. Besides, she was not unused to being pitched into helping a family out. For, in a sense, history was repeating itself. She left school at 16 and?helped bring up her younger siblings. Her family was short of money and her father, a tax inspector, did not approve of higher education for girls. And there was another reason too: her?mother had been admitted to a mental hospital.
PD James has always been a powerhouse. As if it were not enough to be a living legend as a crime writer, she also worked (until 1979) in the NHS and Home Office police and criminal law department. She is a Conservative life peer and has been a magistrate, a BBC governor, on the board of the Arts Council, a chair of the Booker prize, a lay patron of the Prayer Book Society. Idleness is alien to her. And while, in one sense, she could be seen as a distinguished, conservative, C of E pillar of the community, there is another in which she cannot be defined through any institution. That is not to say she is not intrigued by institutions ? they are an essential part of her writing (a theological college, a publishing house, a barristers? chambers, the criminal justice system ? each has a novel to itself). But PD James is, above all, an independent thinker.
On New Year?s Eve 2009, she attracted widespread attention by giving that independent thought air time. It was while guest editing the Today programme that she took on the BBC?s director general, Mark Thompson, and politely asked him bullseye questions. She wanted to know why the BBC?s middle management were paid such overblown salaries and why creative people were not better recompensed. Thompson was not ready for her. The interview won the 2010 Nick Clarke award.
PD James has a special place in her readers? lives. When I explain to a friend we cannot meet because I am interviewing her, his response is: ?Excuses don?t come any better.? And I feel hugely indebted to her because it?was the Dalgliesh novels that saw me?through the sleepless months after my first son was born. That magnificent?narrative grip, the Victorian and the visceral together: the capaciousness coupled with violent detail? her books?were powerful enough to keep even a shattered new mother reading. I had such an appetite for PD James?s novels at that time that I did not want to?read anyone else. I am still grateful now.
I think I am ready for her. She watches with concern as I turn on the tape recorder, explaining that she and machines do not get on. As we sit side by side on the sofa, she is completely engaged: warm, careful and deliberate. She speaks as if she were dictating to a secretary. She turns each answer over, sometimes returning to it for tailoring ? to?add an extra twist or subtract where necessary ? but always determined to do each question?justice.
Jeffrey Archer Are you a lark or an owl?
PD James I am a lark, we get up early in the morning, don?t we? I always have woken terribly early. Usually about 5am. I can ? and do ? work as early as that but then I sleep for an hour in the afternoon. I am a siesta woman. I suppose you could say that, although I am a lark, I go back to the nest again in the afternoon.
JA How many rewrites do you do?
PDJ This is quite easy to answer: with some passages, absolutely none, whereas with others, I may have to rewrite a considerable number of times before I am satisfied. I know when a thing is not as good as I can make it. That is the point. Other people might be able to do it better but I have to make it the best I can do. And I sometimes feel it is not as good as I can make it. But when it is right you know. It is like with a painting: you know, don?t touch it again.
Paula Byrne, author of Jane Austen and the Theatre: With which character in Jane Austen do you identify yourself?
PDJ It has to be Elizabeth Bennet. I share her humour and irony and interest in other people and her wish to be well married. I have a similar enthusiasm for the security that is offered by family. Because we are always aware in Pride and Prejudice that although Mrs Bennet is, in many ways, a dreadful mum and embarrasses her elder daughters to a terrible extent, she is absolutely right that if Mr Bennet were to have got pneumonia ? which they often did, the elderly ? and if he had died of it in the winter or had fallen off his horse, the Bennets would have been thrown out of their house by the Collinses and would have had to live in a cottage on the estate. Mrs Bennet was absolutely right about security. I think I should also want the security of a prosperous marriage.
Nicci French, crime writer: Do crime novels always have a moral impulse?
PDJ No, not the most violent and sadistic of the crime novels but detective stories do affirm the sanctity of each individual life and the possibility of human justice.
NF Do you believe in good and evil in a Manichean way or do you see human nature as much more murky and ambiguous?
PDJ I believe in good and evil in a Manichean way. Evil is a positive force? to me, this seems close to human experience.
NF Are you scared of dying and does that inform your writing?
PDJ No, I am not afraid of death but I do fear the process of dying if it means prolonged pain, indignity and lack of independence. I make a strong distinction between death and dying. At over 90, I fear prolonged pain. And as to whether it informs my writing ? it?probably does but not in a way I am conscious of.
Mike Stotter, editor in chief of crime magazine Shots and liaison officer of the Crime Writers? Association: Despite your love of Jane Austen?s work, you chose to write in the crime genre. What drew you to the detective story?
PDJ I enjoyed reading?them from childhood. I thought I could write one successfully and that it would stand a good chance of publication. I love structure in novels and am fascinated by communities of people: a publishing house, a nuclear power station, a theological college. I like studying community life.
Ormskirkgirl Why do you think there is a sudden appetite for Nordic crime? And are you a fan?
PDJ The stories are strong, the characters believable and the TV series are excellent. And there is a particular attraction to a crime novel set in a different country.
O Do you think great thrillers can also qualify as great literature?
PDJ Perhaps they can seldom be ?great? literature but they deserve to be called literature sometimes. And sometimes good literature.
Jo Mercer You published your first Dalgliesh in 1962. How has murder changed in half a century?
PDJ I doubt whether murder has changed ? although the detective novel certainly has. But the common motives of greed, jealousy, anger and hatred have stayed the same.
Mark Johnson Have you ever switched your killer halfway through a novel?
PDJ No ? I plot and plan with great care.
Mary Wilkinson What is your hit rate for spotting the killer in the works of other writers? Do you think you might be better than the ordinary reader at literary detection?
PDJ As I have been reading crime novels ? mostly detective stories ? for 80 years, I can spot most of the tricks ? particularly those of Agatha Christie. I am also quite likely to hit upon the killer in more modern novels. But spotting the murderer is probably less important in modern detective stories. The pure puzzle ? as with Agatha Christie ? although ingenious, is probably less important today than the examination of motive, the interest of setting and distinction of writing. The detective novel has moved closer to mainline fiction.
Shellshocked Were you annoyed by the Guardian?s description of Adam Dalgliesh as ?lugubrious??
PDJ Not annoyed, as that is obviously how they see him, but I would rather describe him as reticent.
Kate Kellaway Is it really true, as I have read somewhere, that your first editor at Faber said he would try and get WH Auden to write a few poems for Dalgliesh for you to slip into your novels?
PDJ Yes, though whether Auden would have done it is another matter. It was Charles Monteith who said: ?We?ll get Wystan to write some poetry for Dalgliesh.?
KK Wouldn?t that have been fantastic ? but he died before he got the chance. Might Monteith have persuaded him?
PDJ He might, because Auden loved detective stories ? he always read my books.
Heather87 I am a budding crime writer. What would your main tips for me be?
PDJ Increase your word power. Increase your vocabulary. Words are our raw materials. Practise writing. Read widely, particularly of the best writing. Learn to try and understand and sympathise with other people. Go through life always open to experience. Nothing that happens to a writer, good or ill, is ever lost.
Hertfordbridge Was Dorothy L Sayers an influence on you?
PDJ Yes, I would say that she was. She showed me that crime fiction and good writing are compatible. Although she is, of course, very much of her time and there was a sort of snobbishness that went with those days.
Tippisheadrun What would Adam Dalgliesh?s reaction to the phone-hacking scandal be and how would Kate Miskin feel (she always seems to be suffering a crisis in confidence about the Met)?
PDJ Dalgliesh wouldn?t be surprised. He would assume that, unfortunately, this sort of thing has, although he deplores it, probably always gone on. As a private person, he has always hated the lack of privacy in modern life. And Kate would agree with him.
Gwyneth Boswell Do you feel that the BBC has become any less like the unwieldy ship you described when you interviewed its DG, Mark Thompson?
PDJ I should say that both the chairman of the Trust and the director general are determined on reform but that, largely due to the financial crisis, the waters ahead are bound to be stormy. I should probably also say I am a strong supporter of the BBC.
Quelquechose Are you the ?buxom grandmother? who writes detective fiction in A Taste for Death??
PDJ Now that I am a great grandmother, I am less buxom ? or buxom in the wrong places [laughs]. This seems inseparable from old age. Everything falls down. I am like the Queen ? the same shape all the way down. You know what I mean. Your bosom goes and your bottom goes.
Q For all the influence of Jane Austen on your work, there is a clear stylistic divergence between you when it comes to descriptive density. Did that bother you while writing Death Comes to Pemberley?
PDJ We don?t get detailed descriptions of the countryside or houses in Jane Austen as we do in my work but because I was trying to write in her style in Death Comes to Pemberley, I had to exercise some discipline.
Grazina McCarthy Why is it that most of your stories start in autumn? Do you think the season lends the right atmosphere for murder?
PDJ Yes, I agree. Aautumn lends itself to the detective story through the dying light, which is useful in plot making. People can be concealed by darkness and there is a certain melancholy in the dying of the year.
Pirkko Mahlamaki What are your views on the right to die with dignity?
PDJ I think a person whose life, perhaps through appalling pain, has become intolerable has the right to end it. But I am less assured of the right of other people to indulge in mercy killing. I think murder has to remain the unique?crime. And many old people would feel that they ought to end their life perhaps to benefit their children, if the practice were to become commonplace and other elderly people were doing it.
Jeanette Winterson What do you love best?
PDJ Some people ? including members of my family. The security of my home. The English spring. Walking by the sea in Suffolk. [she has a house in Southwold]. And the solace of reading.
Peter Lant What is the best thing about being a nonagenarian?
PDJ [There is a prolonged silence during which she admits that her silence might serve as an answer in itself.] Oh dear, what can one say for it? One has learnt what is important and what is unimportant. At least, I hope I have learned the difference. I agree with Keats that the most important thing in life is the ?holiness of the heart?s affections?.
Kate Kellaway Do you feel lucky in the life you have had?
PDJ I feel incredibly fortunate and blessed, for which I nightly give thanks. I have worked hard and tried to do my best but many other people do that without the good fortune that I have enjoyed.
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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