Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography - Hardcover

James, P.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0676972772 ISBN 13: 9780676972771

Publisher: Knopf Canada, 2000

Synopsis

Originally loathe to embark on a full autobiography, P.D. James decided to chronicle a year in her life - the twelve months between her 77th and 78th birthday - and in so doing found the daily events and reflections of the present a springboard into the past. The result is a unique and very personal book - part diary, part memoir - that spans almost the full century.

She recalls, with insight and warmth, what it was like to grow up in post-Victorian England in a poor family, to be a schoolgirl in the 1930s. She recreates memories of giving birth to her daughter during the Doodlebug bombardment of London; struggling to support her family while trying to write; working in the Home Office in the forensic and criminal justice departments; serving as the Governor of the BBC, and eventually entering the House of Lords. And she explores the craft of the classical detective story of which she is a master.

Through a life of hard work, creativity and public service her reputation grew. During the busy year in which this memoir was penned, she published the #1 bestseller, A Certain Justice.

About this title

Review

"At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest" wrote Samuel Johnson, and bestselling crime writer P.D. James took this maxim as a challenge, setting out to record "one year that otherwise might be lost". The result is a fascinating and reflective account, part diary and part memoir, of one very full year of Baroness James' life, interspersed with her memories and intelligent analysis of "what it was like to be born two years after the end of the First World War and to live for seventy-eight years in this tumultuous century". P.D. James grew up in Cambridge between the wars and worked in the Home Office in the forensic and criminal justice departments, which sparked her interest in this area, though she did not become a published novelist until 1962 with Cover Her Face. She began to write full time after her "retirement" in 1979 and along the way became a Governor of the BBC, before taking a seat in the House of Lords in 1991. Time to be in Earnest is a lucid and penetrative work by one of the most influential figures currently involved with the Arts in Britain. P.D. James reveals her vast scope for enjoyment, interest and simply getting on with life--her husband Connor White died aged 44 in 1964 after years of mental illness--whether it be spending time with her children and grandchildren, musing on the hideous British architectural mistakes of the 1960s or giving her view of the controversies continually surrounding the running of the BBC. At an age when many people would be considering slowing down, P.D. James seems constantly on the move, recording her day-to-day existence and her past with an alert and judicious eye. "I am sustained by the magnificent irrationality of faith" she states, "I inhabit a different body, but I can reach back over nearly 70 years and recognise her as myself. Then I walked in hope--and I do so still". --Catherine Taylor

Review

"Deeply moving . . . . Page after page recalls a vanished world."-- "The New York Times Book Review""A cornucopia of discernment, judgment, and wisdom." --"San Francisco Chronicle""James neither overintellectualizes nor sentimentalizes. . . . Writing about commonplace events, [she] gives them weight and substance and so confirms their reality, investing them with a radiance that illuminates this fragment of autobiography." --"The Washington Post"

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Canada
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0676972772
• ISBN 13: 9780676972771
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288