Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, is an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell's best-known creation, Chief Inspector Wexford, is the hero of many popular police stories, some of them successfully adapted for TV. But Ren...
Gold Dagger, Cartier Diamond Dagger, Edgar Award for Best Novel, Edgar Grand Master Award, Edgar Award for Best Short Story, Martin Beck Award
Nominations
Dagger of Daggers, Agatha Award for Best Short Story
Movies
The New Girlfriend, Trembling Flesh, La Cérémonie, The Bridesmaid, Alias Betty, Loopy, Valentin Valentin
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Quote
1
I think if you're a woman you are naturally a feminist. Unless you're hiding something.
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[on reading] Some say life is the thing. I prefer reading.
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Fact
1
She began her writing career as a reporter for an Essex newspaper. She was forced to resign after filing a story about a local sports club dinner that she hadn't attended. Her report failed to mention that the after-dinner speaker had died half-way through the speech.
2
She wrote more than 60 crime novels in a career spanning 50 years. Her best-known character is Inspector Wexford.
3
Her alternative pen name "Barbara Vine" comes from her middle name and one of her great grandmothers' maiden names.
4
The Rendells divorced in 1975 but remarried two years later and remained together until Don's death in 1999.
5
She used her Danish ancestry (on her mother's side) as the basis for her novel "Asta's Book" and her experience as a life peer in the House of Lords as the basis for "The Blood Doctor".
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Crime novelist since 1964.
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Educated at Loughton County High School.
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Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1996 and awarded life peerage as Baroness in 1997 for her services to literature.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Valentin Valentin
2014
novel Tigerlily's Orchids
Une nouvelle amie
2014
novel The New Girlfriend
13 Steps Down
2012
TV Series novel - 2 episodes
La demoiselle d'honneur
2004
novel
Loopy
2004/I
Short story
A Sight for Sore Eyes
2003
novel "A Sight for Sore Eyes"
No Night Is Too Long
2002
TV Movie as Barbara Vine
Alias Betty
2001
novel "The Tree of Hands"
Ruth Rendell Mysteries
TV Series novel - 48 episodes, 1987 - 2000 story - 34 episodes, 1987 - 1998 short story - 3 episodes, 1996 - 1997 two short stories - 1 episode, 1991 short story "Ginger and the Kingsmarkham Chalk Circle" - 1 episode, 1988
Live Flesh
1997
novel
La Cérémonie
1995
novel "A Judgment in Stone"
A Dark Adapted Eye
1994
TV Series novel - as Barbara Vine
Mystery!: Gallowglass
1993
TV Mini-Series from the novel by - 3 episodes
A Fatal Inversion
1992
TV Series novel - 3 episodes
A Demon in My View
1991
novel "A Demon in My View"
Le masque
TV Series novel "To fear a painted devil" - 1 episode, 1989 short story "Divided We Stand" - 1 episode, 1989
Innocent Victim
1989
novel
The Face of Trespass
1988
TV Movie novel
Screen Two
1988
TV Series novel "The Lake of Darkness" - 1 episode
A Judgment in Stone
1986
novel "A Judgement in Stone"
Tales of the Unexpected
1981-1985
TV Series story - 2 episodes
Diary of the Dead
1976
novel "One Across, Two Down"
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Imagine
2012
TV Series documentary
Herself
Late Review
2011
TV Series
Herself
Faulks on Fiction
2011
TV Series documentary
Herself
George Baker: Wexford and Me
2008
TV Series documentary
Herself
Profiling
2008
TV Series documentary
Herself
Drama Trails
2008
TV Series documentary
Herself
This Morning
2008
TV Series
Herself
The South Bank Show
2004
TV Series documentary
Herself
Bestseller
2002
TV Series
Herself - Author
A Pleasant Terror: The Life and Ghost of M.R. James
$20 Million
