Earlier this year I had the distinct privilege of being the only New Zealand journalist to interview legendary crime writer Phyllis Dorothy "PD" James (Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL) in the lead-up to her 90th birthday on 3 August. In a year filled with many highlights, talking to Baroness James about her life, crime writing, and other related things, was a true 'treat' that will stick in my memory.
I must confess to a few nerves prior to picking up the phone to call the Baroness (which is very unlike me - and I've interviewed a range of people, from All Blacks and former Prime Ministers, to Super Bowl winning former NFL stars to top businesspeople, to authors who've sold tens of millions of novels), but she was an absolute delight to interview - polite yet opinionated, open and honest, incredibly intelligent, 'sharp as a tack' and not afraid to talk about all sorts of issues. It was an hour full of insights and anecdotes - an absolute goldmine for any interviewer, with the only disappointment being that there was way too much 'good stuff' to fit in the 1200wd feature I was writing for the September issue of Good Reading magazine.
You can also read the 9mm part of my interview with PD James here.
I will still try to share some more of the Baroness's other insights and comments at some point, but in the meantime I thought I'd direct your attention to a lengthy and very good feature article by Jan Moir in the Mail Online from this week, where PD James talks about her future writing plans, her thoughts on many social and other issues, and much more. It's interesting stuff.
You can read Moir's article, "Both barrels from the Baroness: PD James rails against overpaid BBC bosses and at 90 accepts that she may have written her last novel", here.
Comments welcome.
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