‘Looking back on my life I do know myself to be greatly blessed… And I have my work. I shall continue to write detective stories as long as I can write well… It gives pleasure to me and thousands of readers. No other justification is needed.’

P. D. James, Time to Be in Earnest

‘With the detective story there is horror – I think one needs to make the murder realistic. But I think the main attraction isn’t the horror, it’s the puzzle, the bringing of order out of disorder.’

P. D. James

‘That is the thing I always will most remember about her: what a kind woman she was, how she did her very best to make you feel good.’

Ruth Rendell on P. D. James