PD James' success came late in life. She was 42 when her first crime novel, Cover Her Face, was published. Born in Oxford, Phyllis grew up mainly in Cambridge where she met her husband. That is why I chose it as the setting for An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. She enjoys reading the works of other women writers such as Barbara Vine, Iris Murdoch etc although not to the total exclusion of male authors like Graham Greene for her the greatest novelists of the era.

Reluctantly, she reveals that from a promising start, life has been hard, even tragic at times. Her Irish doctor husband returned from the Second World war, having served with the Medical Corps, a very sick man. 'I had to work long hours to support my family. The ideas were teeming in my head, but I could do practically nothing about it- I simply hadn't the time. My inlaws took my daughters under their wing'.

While working in administration for the National Health Services, she made good use of her organizational skills. Soon after five psychiatric outpatients' clinic came under her jurisdiction. She also served for 11 years at the Police Department doing administration for forensic research. It was there when she became 'quite accustomed' to the sight of corpses. But it was not fascination with death itself that inspired her. It was, rather, the shape and construction involved in the writing of a crime novel that appealed'. I have always enjoyed reading detective stories, and I always knew that wanted to be a writer. Writing detective stories, she says, is a way of bringing order out of disorder'. The solution of a crime confronts the sanctity of life-even if that life is un-loveable. Nobody really likes violence.

MCQ: 31.9k CQ: 724

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