Crime writer P. D. James dead at 94

Beloved British crime novelist P. D. James has died at the age of 94. The author, real name Phyllis Dorothy James, was best known for her detective stories featuring poetic policeman Adam Dalgliesh.
She passed away at her home in Oxford, England on Thursday (27Nov14).
Born in Oxford in 1920, James left school at 16 and worked in a tax office and as an assistant theatre stage manager, and also had jobs in a hospital and the U.K. Government’s Home Office.
She took up writing in the 1950s, and introduced detective Dalgliesh in her debut 1962 novel, Cover Her Face, and he featured in many of her subsequent stories.
James found a whole new audience in the 1980s when many of her novels were adapted for television for British network ITV, starring Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh, becoming a hit with viewers in the U.K. and U.S., and her 1992 book The Children of Men was the basis for the 2006 movie Children of Men.
She also penned short stories and thought pieces for various publications, and her final novel was 2011’s Death Comes to Pemberley, a murder-mystery continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
The writer was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1983, and was given a life peerage membership of Britain’s House of Lords in 1991.
James wed Ernest White in 1941 and they had two daughters, Claire and Jane, before he passed away in 1964.
Following news of her death on Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to James, writing in a post on Twitter.com, “Saddened to hear of the death of P.D. James, one of the UK’s greatest crime writers, who thrilled and inspired generations of readers.”