Time to be in earnest

a fragment of autobiography

1st American ed.
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Last edited by MARC Bot
May 16, 2025 | History

Time to be in earnest

a fragment of autobiography

1st American ed.
  • 8 Want to read
  • 3 Have read

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.

Publish Date
Publisher
Knopf
Language
English
Pages
269

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Previews available in: English Italian French

Edition Availability
Cover of: Time to Be in Earnest
Time to Be in Earnest
2015, Faber & Faber, Limited
in English
Cover of: Il tempo dell'onestà
Il tempo dell'onestà
2001, Mondadori
in Italian
Cover of: Time to Be in Earnest
Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography
February 27, 2001, Ballantine Books
Paperback in English
Cover of: Time to be in earnest
Time to be in earnest: a fragment of autobiography
2000, Knopf
in English - 1st American ed.
Cover of: Il serait temps d'e tre se rieuse
Il serait temps d'e tre se rieuse: Fragment d'autobiographie
2000, le Grand livre du mois
in French
Cover of: Time to be in earnest
Time to be in earnest: a fragment of autobiography
2000, Thorndike Press, Chivers Press
in English
Cover of: Time to be in earnest
Time to be in earnest: a fragment of autobiography
1999, Faber
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes index.

Published in
New York
Genre
Diaries.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
823/.914, B
Library of Congress
PR6060.A467 Z468 2000

The Physical Object

Pagination
xii, 269 p. ;
Number of pages
269

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL51672M
ISBN 10
037541066X
LCCN
99057603
OCLC/WorldCat
42861879
LibraryThing
192512
Goodreads
1148267

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL510894W

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Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
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