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Reasons for writing

Christian Century, Sept 27, 2000 by Trudy Bush

ONE OF contemporary England's celebrated writers, P. D. James has published 14 novels and three works of nonfiction. Adam Dalgliesh, the main character of her detective fictions, has become a favorite of readers of mysteries and many TV watchers as well. Original Sin (1995) and A Certain Justice (1997) are the two most recent Dalgliesh novels that have been dramatized on the TV series Mystery. James's novel The Children of Men (1992), which she calls "a Christian fable," has won acclaim in both critical and religious circles. A devoted churchwoman, James discusses her religious formation and her faith in her recent memoir, Time to Be in Earnest (2000). Now retired, she worked for 30 years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Divisions of the Home Office. She was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991, and has taken seriously her consequent duties in the House of Lords. I spoke to her soon after the publication of her memoir.

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You say in your autobiography that you don't intend to uncover topics "over which memory has exercised a self-defensive censorship." You don't want to awaken those "dangerous and unpredictable beasts [that] lie curled in the pit of the subconscious." The conviction among many memoirists these days seems to be that awakening and confronting those beasts is the proper task of autobiography--only by confronting them can we become whole. What do you think of the therapeutic approach to writing?

I think that writing is therapeutic. I agree with the psychologist who said that creativity is the successful resolution of internal conflict. But when it comes to autobiography, I myself don't want the beasts roaring around. It's not that I'm suppressing them. I know who and what they are. But I think there's something a bit self-indulgent in feeling that we can say absolutely everything. I think there are things that have happened in our lives that we have to accept and come to terms with, but I don't think that we necessarily have to write about them.

I don't like the kind of autobiography in which people complain bitterly about their childhood, or about the way they were brought up, or about their parents' lives. I find that rather distasteful. It seems a fashionable thing to do, but I don't think that I would ever want to do it.

Your memoir deals more with ideas than with emotions or personalities. Does this reflect your character and your way of life?

Through fiction I can deal with strong emotions by letting my characters feel them. But when it comes to autobiography, I prefer to deal with ideas. I prefer to be reasonably discreet, and I try to be as honest as I can. I think I say in the book that all fiction is to a certain extent autobiographical, and all autobiography is to a certain extent fiction. We can never be sure how accurately we remember. If I had written this book 30 years ago, I might have seen things quite differently. An autobiography is a picture of how one sees one's life at one moment in time. But since I was getting on to 80 (my 80th birthday was this summer), I thought that it was probably a good time to take a look at my life.

You have said that the motive for murder that interests you most is that arising from disordered love--from the misguided attempt to protect or avenge someone one loves. What makes this motive especially rich?

I think it's particularly rich because it arises from something that in itself is good. Other motives for murder, such as selfishness, greed, lust, anger and envy, are sins. The love and protection we feel for someone else is in itself good, but even that good, if taken to excess, can result in this terrible crime. What makes someone who is essentially good, who is educated, who is law-abiding--someone who should be able to understand his motives and perhaps have more insight into himself and others than most people do--what makes him cross that invisible line that divides the murderer from the rest of us? That's an interesting and complex puzzle.

When you portray young people who commit a murder, you don't focus on the environmental factors that might explain their actions.

Undoubtedly, environment is significant. I don't think there are any serious child criminals who come from a stable, happy background. They don't all, of course, come from economically deprived backgrounds. We know there have been horrid cases of very wealthy young men who have done terrible things, but on the whole these criminals have not had happy or stable homes, and obviously that plays a part. But the fact remains that millions of children who live in deprivation or poverty or have great difficulties don't grow up to be callous murderers. If crime just arose from deprivation, we'd only have to do away with the deprivation in order to have a law-abiding and healthy society. I tend to believe in original sin, and in the need for grace. We are all capable of criminal and dreadful behavior.

Reasons for writing

Christian Century, Sept 27, 2000 by Trudy Bush

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