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In 1997, P. D. James, the internationally acclaimed author of mysteries, turned seventy-seven. Taking to heart Dr. Johnson's advice that at seventy-seven it is "time to be in earnest," she decided to undertake a book unlike any she had written before: a personal memoir in the form of a diary. This enchanting and highly original volume is the result. Structured as the diary of a single year, it roams back and forth through time, illuminating James's extraordinary, sometimes painful and sometimes joyful life. Here, interwoven with reflections on her writing career and the craft of crime novels, are vivid accounts of episodes in her own past--of school days in 1920s and 1930s Cambridge . . . of the war and the tragedy of her husband's madness . . . of her determined struggle to support a family alone. She tells about the birth of her second daughter in the midst of a German buzz-bomb attack; about becoming a civil servant (and laying the groundwork for her writing career by working in the criminal justice system); about her years of public service on such bodies as the Arts Council and the BBC's Board of Governors, culminating in entry to the House of Lords. Along the way, with warmth and authority, she offers views on everything from author tours to the problems of television adaptations, from book reviewing to her obsession with Jane Austen.
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Previews available in: English Italian French
Subjects
Detective and mystery stories, English Novelists, Diaries, Authorship, Biography, Large type books, Mystery and detective stories, Journal intime, Romanciers anglais, Mystery fiction, Technique, Authors, biography, Detective and mystery stories, authorship, Women authors, Authors, english, English Women novelists, Fiction, science fiction, general, BiographiesTimes
20th centuryShowing 7 featured editions. View all 21 editions?
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Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography
February 27, 2001, Ballantine Books
Paperback
in English
0345442121 9780345442123
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Time to be in earnest: a fragment of autobiography
2000, Knopf
in English
- 1st American ed.
037541066X 9780375410666
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Il serait temps d'e tre se rieuse: Fragment d'autobiographie
2000, le Grand livre du mois
in French
2702854397 9782702854396
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Time to be in earnest: a fragment of autobiography
2000, Thorndike Press, Chivers Press
in English
0786228318 9780786228317
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Book Details
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Includes index.
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- Created April 1, 2008
- 15 revisions
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May 16, 2025 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 20, 2023 | Edited by bitnapper | Merge works |
December 20, 2023 | Edited by bitnapper | Merge works |
January 24, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |