Book description
At eighteen, Philippa Palfrey, the confident adopted daughter of a
celebrated academic, exercises her right to find the names of her real
parents. What she uncovers is a terrible secret that will for ever
change her life. 'Remarkable ... could be read as a mainstream novel,
and a considerable one.' The Times 'As suspenseful and tautly written
as any of her detective stories - the psychological twists and turns
will tantalize the reader as cunningly as a well-placed clue.' New
York Times
P. D. James was born in Oxford in 1920 and educated at Cambridge
High School for Girls. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National
Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the
Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. All
that experience has been used in her novels. She is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of Arts and has
served as a Governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, where
she was Chairman of the Literary Advisory Panel, on the Board of the
British Council and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London. She has
won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and
Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster
Award and the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature (US).
She has received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was
awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991. In 1997
she was elected President of the Society of Authors. She lives in
London and Oxford and has two daughters, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
