I have just read P. D. James’ Talking About Detective Fiction. I went on line to send her the following comment ~ and the one website/email connection I could find didn’t work. So - here it is for you to read and pass on if just happen to know P. D. James.
Dear Ms. James ~
Your wonderful novels are among my favorites and so it was with pleasure that I have just found and read Talking About Detective Fiction. At the end you say,
"We do not expect popular literature to be great literature, but fiction which provides excitement, mystery and humour also ministers to essential human needs. . . . The detective story at its best can stand in such company, and its popularity suggests that in the twenty-first century, as in the past, many of us will continue to turn for relief, entertainment and mild intellectual challenge to these unpretentious celebrations of reason and order in our increasingly complex and disorderly world."
Yes! When I was only 55 my first husband died very suddenly and unexpectedly. My world became chaotic and challenging. And I could not read. My soul would withdraw from the page in front of me as if away from some horror. It did not matter what the book or the subject matter. Finally after several months, I pulled out an old Agatha Christie book of short stories, mostly Miss Marple I believe, and began to read again. Slowly I was able to enter that well-ordered, calm world allowing her and later Poirot to solve the problems. Having them solve their problems gave me the ability to face mine a little more easily. Gradually I moved to her novels, then to other writers of mystery with whom I was familiar. Eventually I bought a brand new mystery I had not read before and felt a part of my healing was done.
Thank you again for your novels and insights into other writers of detective fiction ~
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