Time to be Earnest : A Fragment of Autobiography

James, P.D.

ISBN 10: 057120094X / ISBN 13: 9780571200948

Published by Faber and Faber, 1999

About this Item

Signed by Author(s)jacket is shelf rubbed, a bit chipped and tape bound. edge wear on boards. ownership and gift inscriptions. signed by author. good copy and jacket.[S.N]. Our orders are shipped using tracked courier delivery services. Seller Inventory # bczc

Bibliographic Details

Title: Time to be Earnest : A Fragment of ...

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Publication Date: 1999

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Good

Signed: signed

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

Part diary and part memoir, this is the author's account of the 12 months of her life between her 77th and 78th birthdays. In writing it she simultaneously remembers her long and remarkable career, from 1920s Cambridge schoolgirl to Governor of the BBC to best-selling author.

Review:

"At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest," wrote Samuel Johnson, and bestselling crime writer P.D. James took this maxim as a challenge, setting out to record "one year that otherwise might be lost." The result is a fascinating and reflective account, part diary and part memoir, of one very full year of Baroness James's life, interspersed with her memories and intelligent analysis of "what it was like to be born two years after the end of the First World War and to live for seventy-eight years in this tumultuous century." P.D. James grew up in Cambridge, England, between the wars and worked in the home office of the forensic and criminal justice departments, which sparked her interest in that area, though she did not become a published novelist until 1962 with Cover Her Face. She began to write full-time after her "retirement" in 1979, and along the way became a governor of the BBC before taking a seat in the House of Lords in 1991. Time to Be in Earnest is a lucid and penetrative work by one of the most influential figures currently involved with the arts in Britain. James reveals her vast scope for enjoyment, interest, and simply getting on with life (her husband, Connor White, died at the age of 44 in 1964 after years of mental illness), whether it be spending time with her children and grandchildren, musing on the hideous British architectural mistakes of the 1960s, or giving her view of the controversies continually surrounding the running of the BBC. At an age when many people would be considering slowing down, James seems constantly on the move, recording her day-to-day existence and her past with an alert and judicious eye. "I am sustained by the magnificent irrationality of faith," she states. "I inhabit a different body, but I can reach back over nearly 70 years and recognise her as myself. Then I walked in hope--and I do so still." --Catherine Taylor, Amazon.co.uk