3.5
Time to Be in Earnest
ByPublisher Description
In 1997, P. D. James, the much loved and internationally acclaimed author of mysteries, turned seventy-seven. Taking to heart Dr. Johnson's advice that at seventy-seven it is "time to be in earnest," she decided to undertake a book unlike any she had written before: a personal memoir in the form of a diary. This enchanting and highly original volume is the result. Structured as the diary of a single year, it roams back and forth through time, illuminating James's extraordinary, sometimes painful and sometimes joyful life.
Here, interwoven with reflections on her writing career and the craft of crime novels, are vivid accounts of episodes in her own past — of school days in 1920s and 1930s Cambridge . . . of the war and the tragedy of her husband's madness . . . of her determined struggle to support a family alone. She tells about the birth of her second daughter in the midst of a German buzz-bomb attack; about becoming a civil servant (and laying the groundwork for her writing career by working in the criminal justice system); about her years of public service on such bodies as the Arts Council and the BBC's Board of Governors, culminating in entry to the House of Lords. Along the way, with warmth and authority, she offers views on everything from author tours to the problems of television adaptations, from book reviewing to her obsession with Jane Austen.
Written with exceptional grace, this "fragment of autobiography" has already been received with enthusiasm by British reviewers and readers. The thousands of Americans who have enjoyed P. D. James's novels will be equally charmed. Diary or memoir or both, Time to Be in Earnest is a delight.
Here, interwoven with reflections on her writing career and the craft of crime novels, are vivid accounts of episodes in her own past — of school days in 1920s and 1930s Cambridge . . . of the war and the tragedy of her husband's madness . . . of her determined struggle to support a family alone. She tells about the birth of her second daughter in the midst of a German buzz-bomb attack; about becoming a civil servant (and laying the groundwork for her writing career by working in the criminal justice system); about her years of public service on such bodies as the Arts Council and the BBC's Board of Governors, culminating in entry to the House of Lords. Along the way, with warmth and authority, she offers views on everything from author tours to the problems of television adaptations, from book reviewing to her obsession with Jane Austen.
Written with exceptional grace, this "fragment of autobiography" has already been received with enthusiasm by British reviewers and readers. The thousands of Americans who have enjoyed P. D. James's novels will be equally charmed. Diary or memoir or both, Time to Be in Earnest is a delight.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesTime to Be in Earnest Reviews
3.5
“P D James is one of my favorite authors, I was enthralled with her 'Shroud for a nightingale', ' Devices and desires' and never did look back.
So when Sujata, a good old GR friend recommended this slice of her autobiography , I pounced upon it.
However I couldn't fully fathom the incidents, places and people mentioned herein. What I enjoyed most is description of other authors, other books and some real life crimes.
I was glad to know James and Rendell were good friends. But there is no personal mention of Agatha Christie at all, who would have been sort of a Contemporary, though an older one”
“This is a small jewel of a memoir. Set up int the form of a diary for one year, it allows the author to digress into her past using a current event in her life as a jumping-off place. The book is a marvel of construction, as her life seems to unfold in chronological order. Her book is terse but touching and full of dry British humor and some astute observations on life. I just loved it.”
About P. D. James
P. D. James is the author of fifteen books. Her most recent novel, A Certain Justice, was published in 1997. She spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Divisions of the Home Office, and has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC. In 1991, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park. P. D. James lives in London and Oxford.
Other books by P. D. James
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