“(You)
learn to write by doing it. Read widely
and wisely. Increase your word
power. Find your own individual voice
through practicing constantly. Go
through life with your eyes and ears open and learn to express that experience
through words. Open your mind to new
experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer, however
happy, however tragic, is ever wasted.” – P.D. James
British author P.D. James didn’t
start writing as a profession until she was nearly 50, and she didn’t stop until she died late
in 2014 at the age of 94.
She rose to fame for her series of
14 detective novels starring police commander and poet Adam Dalgliesh – who she
named after one of her teachers at Cambridge High School. All told, she wrote 18 crime novels with a
remarkable 15 being made into movies.
The winner of many, many writing
awards, she was also selected by her peers to lead The Society of Authors – a
post she started “temporarily” in 1997 and reluctantly left due to failing
health in 2013. Forced to leave school
at age 16 because her family did not have much money and she needed to work,
and because her father did not believe girls needed an education, she finished
her life as the holder of 7 honorary doctorate degrees from some of the world’s
most prestigious institutions.
Asked about her writing and why she
chose the “detective” genre, she replied, “I don’t think writers choose the
genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote
out of the wish to create order out of disorder. The liking of a pattern.”
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