Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography

click here for more details, find new or used items

P.D. James

Our price £6.99 (£9.99)

New from £2.85

Used from £1.22

Pages: 295 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0571203965

Pub: Faber and Faber

Pub date: 2000-11-06

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 30477

Editorial 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

Reader Reviews:

Thanks for the memories! (9/9 people found this helpful)

Reading this thoughtful, immensely readable book, appropriately subtitled "a fragment of autobiography", is like a personal invitation to a friendly, but never cozy, English cream tea prepared specially by the author. One comes away captivated by her honesty, humility, intelligence and wit, touched by her courage and fortitude in the face of troubles and sorrows, cheered by her masterful writing, grateful for her keen discretion in choosing to exclude the more sensitive areas of her personal life (an uncommon but wise option in this "confessional" age), and finally, satisfied but never satiated by the delicious repast. Thanks for the memories, P.D. James!

Similar Products

The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811

The Skull Beneath the Skin

Cover Her Face

Devices and Desires