6. Why do women make such good crime novelists?
I am not sure whether women would still be pre-eminent if we examined the whole spectrum of crime writing, but they certainly do excel in the traditional classical detective story. This may be because women have an eye for detail and clue-making demands attention to the minutiae of everyday living. Women, too, are interested in emotions and motives rather than in fast action and weaponry. It may be that women find the formal construction of the detective story psychologically supportive, so that we are able to deal within this structure with violent events which we might not so confidently tackle in the so-called straight novel.
7. What is your method of working?
First comes the idea which, as I have said, usually arises from the setting. There is then a period of plotting and planning which may take many months, sometimes as long as the actual writing. During this period I am never without a notebook. When the book is plotted I begin writing, but seldom at the beginning of the novel. It is rather as if I am making a film. I write the sequences out of order and then put the book together at the end. I write by hand and then dictate to my secretary who types it into the computer.
8. How did you create your hero/detective Adam Dalgliesh?
Adam Dalgliesh is not drawn from any person I know but does, I suppose, represent the qualities I most admire in a man, i.e. sensitivity, courage and intelligence. I began with a professional detective attached to New Scotland Yard because I was setting out to write what I hoped would be a fairly realistic detective story and thought that this required a professional detective. Later I created Cordelia Gray, my private eye.
9. How has the detective story changed since the last war?
The detective story is far closer to the straight novel than were the rather cosy mysteries of the 1930s when setting, characterisation and, sometimes, psychological truth were all sacrificed to ingenuity of plot. The modern mystery (as the Americans call it) is often more violent, more sexually explicit, less confident in its affirmation of law and order and far more concerned with character and motive than with the ingenuity of the murder itself.
10. Why are detective stories so popular?
The critics have forecast the death of the classical detective story at every decade, but the form remains remarkably resilient. There are the attractions of a strong plot, a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. There is the challenge of a puzzle for those who like following clues. The detective story, like other forms of crime novel, provides vicarious excitement and danger. But there are other interesting psychological reasons. The classical detective story is rather like the modern morality play. It can provide catharsis, a means by which both writer and reader exorcise irrational feelings of anxiety or guilt. The basic moral premise, the sanctity of life, is also an attraction as is the solution of the plot at the end of the book. The classical detective story affirms our belief that we live in a rational and generally benevolent universe.
"It will be a tragic day for mankind if books, like so many old churches, become objects of interest only to antiquarians or those with minority and eccentric tastes. The printed book is essential to our understanding of ourselves and our heritage, and to the heritage which we in turn shall bequeath to future generations. It is not too much to say that civilisation itself rests on the book, that fragile but resilient artefact whose frail pages have borne down the centuries the weight of the human heart. And in celebrating books we celebrate libraries, the place where they find their natural home and where they are loved, revered, cared for and used with profit and delight."
Editor's Note: Above, an ending quote from Dame James' inauguration speech at the Portsmouth University Opening of Library, England, 2007
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