In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors, stepping down from the post in August 2013. This slim volume contains four tales of murder, mystery and intrigue - The Mistletoe Murder / A Very Commonplace Murder / The Boxdale Inheritance / The Twelve Clues Of Christmas. She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991. Jamess understanding of human nature illuminates each of these stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. A most perfect compilation from the very talented pen of P. She 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). In 'The Mistletoe Murder,' her first and presumably only story collection ( James died two years ago, at the age of 94), a nod goes to the woman often called the best-selling mystery writer. She was an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of Arts and 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. All that experience was used in her novels. 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. P D James was born in Oxford and educated at Cambridge High School for Girls.

The mistletoe murder pd james