
Sample of authors
James, P.D.
English crime writer born in Oxford as Phyllis Dorothy James. She graduated from the Cambridge High School for Girls in 1937. She served in the Red Cross during the war, and in 1941 she married Ernest Connor Bantry White. Although she dreamed of becoming a writer she helped her husband pass medical school while looking after the couple's daughters. After his return from the war, her husband...

Photo: Jean-Claude Deutsch/Paris Match via Getty Images (1977)
Sample of authors
Ayraud, Pierre
Pierre Ayraud, who published his books under the pseudonym Thomas Narcejac, and Pierre Boileau are two of the best known names in French crime writing. Together, they wrote a large number of detective novels signed Boileau-Narcejac, and they were prominent figures on the late 20th century literary scene. Ayraud was also a great connoisseur of crime writing, and he wrote several famous...