P D James

Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh. Many of James's mystery novels take place against the backdrop of UK bureaucracies, such as the criminal justice system and the National Health Service, in which she worked for decades starting in the 1940s. She was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the inaugural inaugural Crime Thriller Awards in 2008. She died from cancer at her home in Oxford on November 27, 2014, aged 94. She is survived by her two daughters, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Her novels were adapted for television by Anglia in 1980s and 1990s, and many of her novels have been made into a film and a TV series. She also wrote many essays and short stories for periodicals and anthologies, which have yet to be collected. Her last novel, The Private Patient, was published in 2011.