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| Interview with P D James by Melanie Ashby IT'S the place that sets P D James off. ‘I can be on a lonely beach, a sinister old house or a community of people, and I’ll get very exited. I think, “this is where I want to set my next novel”’. So to James’ own setting. Baroness James of Holland Park has a house on a once-stately two-lane urban clearway. But the rumble of London traffic is cut to nothing as Joyce, her secretary, ushers me through to the double-glazed reception room. Not even the ticking of a clock disturbs. Everything is just so. James, upstairs in her study, leaves exactly the right amount of time for me to look around. It’s in the style of an 18th-Century drawing room, antique furniture, china statuettes on the mantelpiece, portrait of a lady above, and an etching that must be of James’ favourite author, Jane Austen, set on a museum-piece writer’s desk. Massive reference books are on display. The set-up of this, her London residence (she has a second home in Oxford) screams ‘this is the house of a writer’. The grand-dame of British detective fiction (a moniker that fits equally her friend and rival Ruth Rendell), welcomes me and settles into a sofa. Her white hair is swept neatly back, and she wears an unusual modern silver pendant that contrasts with the sedate surroundings; she’s ready for a day of business, for the meetings and greetings of a busy woman. I wonder how she fits it all in: the duties of a Baroness (my original meeting had to be re-scheduled when she was called to the Lords after the Queen Mother died), innumerable literary functions, Conservative Party lunches, talks for members of the Anglican Church – and her writing career. ‘I write early in the morning before the world becomes busy and the telephone starts ringing… For the whole interview, read Issue 14 » Subscribe! Go to » P D James' Method |
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For more on BARONESS P D JAMES, go to www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames
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