Forthcoming Lunch

Join us for our third WoW Literary Lunch of 2010, with Eve Pollard in conversation with P.D. James as she talks about her life and latest book - Talking About Crime Detective Fiction.

Tuesday 19th October, 2010.

Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL, commonly known as - PD 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.

She began writing in the mid-1950s, with many of her mystery novels take place against the backdrop of the UK's bureaucracies, arenas in which she had worked for decades.  Her first mystery, Cover Her Face, was published in 1962 and introduced readers to her most famous character, Scotland Yard's poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh, who appears in most of her subsequent books.

During the 1980s, many of PD James's mystery novels were adapted for television and broadcast in the UK and other countries including the USA.  The BBC has since adapted Death in Holy Orders (2003) and The Murder Room (2004) as one-off dramas. Her 1992 novel The Children of Men served as the inspiration for Children of  Men, a feature film released in 2006.

PD James is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of the Arts and has served as a Governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, where she was Chairman of its 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. 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 and in 2008, she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the innaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards.

So why not join us for this fascinating lunch as we explore the life and works of the PD James on 19th October 2010 in St. James's Restaurant, Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER.

Tickets are £75 to include a 2 course lunch and a glass or two of wine.
Tickets for this event are already selling fast, so with limited spaces available, we encourage you to book straight away! There will also be an opportunity to purchase copies of PD James books and have a personailsed message signed by PD james herself.

To enquire about this event or purchase a ticket please call Chantelle Morgan on 020 7772 6400 or email: cmorgan.wellbeingofwomen@rcog.org.uk by 11th October.

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