I didn't know this book existed - I'm so happy to have found out about it through goodreads. I attended an author reading with PD James and Ruth Rendall in Vancouver BC as part of the Writers' Festival. I was already a fan and it was such a pleasure to hear her talk about her books. Ruth Rendall was quite funny and I wasn't too sure about her books having read a few. But after 'meeting' her at this event I decided to give her books another go and I can say I enjoy her writing more. It was interesting to hear how different both authors approached their writing. Rendall and James are contemporaries and I'm trying to remember whether they are friends or just acquaintances. She recently (March 2010) was interviewed on CBC 1 Radio (Canadian Broadcasting Company) and the interview is available to download on a podcast on their website or through itunes. I didn't hear it at the time but plan to check it out soon. I'm sure she is talking about her new book about writing mysteries. I've got to add that one to my bookshelf as well!

Interesting and informative autobiography of P.D.James. She tells about herself, her writing, her thoughts on the detective genre, thoughts on mysteries in general. Whike a slower read for me, still enjoyable and learned lots about the author which will be most helpful duriing our coming discussion at local library's "Women Mystery Writers" series.

She's brilliant, literary, misanthropic, searingly sharp, and somehow modest to boot. Oh, and she's 88.

I started reading this memoir shortly after it came out, at least 20 years ago. I loved it, but somehow I stopped and never returned. Until now. The memoir is written semi-diary style in her 77th year...a time to be in earnest. When I finally picked it up last month, here I am at that same age. I always enjoyed PD's Dalgleish novels and even more, getting to know her through her little talks after episodes on PBS Mystery. Losing her is a sadness, as well as her friends and fellow mystery writers, often included in her memoir. I much enjoyed reading about her parents, the illness of her husband, her career that came from needing to support her two daughters, and her path into writing. At 77, she was a very active, involved woman. Her days were full with committee meetings, speaking engagements, family, friends, travels. She loved her cat dearly. I wasn't familiar with all her activities and issues she wanted so much to change, but her daily life and family history were a joy to read. I liked walking through the year with her.

This is a personal memoir, what James calls "a fragment of autobiography", that takes the form of a diary.

Written in a diary format from her seventy-seventh to her seventy-eighth year, it moves back and forth in time during which James shares many events and times in her life, some of which were filled with joy and others which were very painful.

She reflects on her extraordinary writing career, events from her youth and her school years, times during the war, her husband's mental health problems and her struggle to support a family alone.

A wonderful read.

Just started reading, but this author of mysteries is drawing in another writer (in various genres) (me) to the adventures of writing, and other aspects of life...

Alternately fascinating and dull. Ms James uses the days in one year of her life as the basis for her biography describing episodes of her 77 th year and remembering and describing past events. The now parts— lectures given and attended, social engagements, meals sometimes in detail did not sustain my interest. Remembrances of her interesting life did.

I have not read many PD James books, and certainly not any of her Dalgleish books. I was handed this by my Dad as a great biography.
First - the writing is excellent! 5 stars for that! And yes it has inspired me to want to read more of her usual fiction books. Her choice of words is always clearly thought out, the flow is somewhat interesting but always is interesting and smooth even when a little unexpected.
Second - it’s so very personal. I don’t know that I would want to have such a book about me come out in my lifetime. James shares her opinions on everything from the church to the royal family, the choice of English literature in schools to the best eateries. It’s very personal and opinionated.
Whilst James has every right to express her opinions and explain (or not) why she holds them, I found myself getting cross with her on some of them and wishing she were still alive so I could write and tell her so.
It’s not a autobiography of her life as it is a diary and memoir of a year of random jotting downs of things she did years past and things she was currently doing in 1997 - a hard year including the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and several real life nasty murder cases.

Overall beautifully written, challenging and thoughtful book that reveals just who PD James was - an incredibly talented writer, a loving mother and grandmother, a woman who didn’t take any nonsense but who would not let us say she lived a hard life because she wasn’t told to expect anything different!

This was a slow going book, but her early life memories and perspective on her responsibilities as an editor were interesting. By the end, I realised I enjoyed reading her fiction more than I did reading about her as an individual. However, I had the feeling that she felt similarly!

A slow-paced, out of date, reluctant autobiography by the somewhat cantankerous British Mystery Icon. I found it completely fascinating. I wish she'd do it again, now that she's added another 15 years to her already long and interesting life.

Great self-portrait of a mystery writer. Bravo, Miss James.

Brilliant, insightful, elegant and a wonderful, original memoir. I have read everything she ever wrote and am ready to reread her marvelous books. What a life and how modestly and appreciatively she lived it. Her take on popular culture, politics, the BBC, other authors, medicine, mental illness, justice, law, religion; it just covers any subject of interest to any thinking individual. And her feelings and beliefs are worth hearing. You will laugh out loud, recognize your own observations expressed, only far more eloquently. Hard to pick up another book until I have finished savoring this life well lived.