P.D.+James

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 * Photo and Biography **

Photo and Biography Phyllis Dorothy James was born in Oxford, England on August 3, 1920. She attended Cambridge High School for Girls from 1931 until she graduated in 1937. Though she married C.B. White, a medical practitioner, in 1941, she held many jobs both before and after, including assistant stage manager at the Festival Theatre in Cambridge, Red Cross nurse during WWII, and principal administrative assistant with the NW Regional Hospital Board in London before becoming a senior civil servant in the Home Office in 1968 and then transferring to the crime department in 1972. She was married for 23 years and had two daughters before her husband passed away in 1964. After she retired in 1979, James began writing full time, though her first novel, __Cover Her Face__, was published in 1962. To date, she has written 20 novels-- 16 of which are mysteries featuring either Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard or Cordelia Gray, a private detective. Several of her novels have been adapted for television and her 1992 novel, __The Children of Men__, was the inspiration for the 2006 movie __Children of Men__ starring Clive Owen, Michael Caine, and Julianne Moore.