Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE (née:Grasemann; 17 February 1930:– 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.
Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford. A second string of works was a series of unrelated crime novels that explored the psychological background of criminals and their victims. This theme was developed further in a third series of novels, published under the pseudonym Barbara Vine.
Contents
- 1 Life
- 2 Awards
- 3 Death
- 3.1 Legacy
- 4 Developing the thriller genre
- 5 Adaptations of her works
- 6 Awards and honours
- 7 Bibliography
- 7.1 Inspector Wexford series
- 7.2 Standalone novels
- 7.3 Novellas
- 7.4 Written as Barbara Vine
- 7.5 Short story collections
- 7.6 Uncollected short stories
- 7.7 Uncollected round-robin short stories to which Rendell was a contributor
- 7.8 Non-fiction
- 7.9 Children's Books
- 8 References
- 9 Further reading
- 10 External links
Life
Rendell was born Ruth Barbara Grasemann in 1930, in South Woodford, Essex (now Greater London). Her parents were teachers. Her mother, Ebba Kruse, was born in Sweden to Danish parents and brought up in Denmark; her father, Arthur Grasemann, was English. As a result of spending Christmas and other holidays in Scandinavia, Rendell learned Swedish and Danish. Rendell was educated at the County High School for Girls in Loughton, Essex, the town to which the family moved during her childhood.
After high school she became a feature writer for her local Essex paper, the Chigwell Times. However, she was forced to resign after filing a story about a local sports club dinner she hadn't attended and failing to report that the after-dinner speaker had died midway through the speech.
Rendell met her husband Don Rendell when she was working as a newswriter. They married when she was 20, and in 1953 had a son, Simon, now a psychiatric social worker who lives in the U.S. state of Colorado. The couple divorced in 1975 but remarried two years later. Don Rendell died in 1999 from prostate cancer.
She made the county of Suffolk her home for many years, using the settings in a number of her novels. She lived in the villages of Polstead and later Groton, both east of Sudbury. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1996 Birthday Honours and a life peer as Baroness Rendell of Babergh, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk, on 24 October 1997. She sat in the House of Lords for the Labour Party. In 1998 Rendell was named in a list of the party's biggest private financial donors. She introduced into the Lords the bill that would later become the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (the intent was to prevent the practice).
In August 2014, Rendell was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.
Awards
Baroness Rendell's awards include the Silver, Gold, and Cartier Diamond Daggers from the Crime Writers' *ociation, three Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America, The Arts Council National Book Awards, and The Sunday Times Literary Award. A number of her works (see the section below) have been adapted for film or television. She was also a patron of the charity Kids for Kids which helps children in rural areas of Darfur. There is a blue plaque on one of her homes, 45 Millsmead Way, in Loughton. This was unveiled by her son Simon on 24 February 2016. Four of her novels appear on the British-based Crime Writers *ociation Poll (1990) of the best crime fiction novels ever written: two under the Rendell name and two under her pen name of Barbara Vine.
Death
Rendell had a stroke on 7 January 2015 and died on 2 May 2015.
Legacy
The Ruth Rendell award was introduced in 2016 by the National Literacy Trust. It is awarded to authors for their work in inspiring children and improving their literacy.
Developing the thriller genre
Rendell wrote two unpublished novels before the 1964 publication of From Doon with Death, which was purchased for £75 by John Long; it was the first mystery to feature Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford. Rendell said that the character of Wexford was based on herself. The Monster in the Box, released in October 2009, was widely suggested to be Wexford's last case. This was incorrect; however it was the final novel featuring Wexford as an employed policeman. In the two following novels, The Vault and No Man's Nightingale, he was retired but was still involved in police investigations as a "consultant".
In Introducing Chief Inspector Wexford by Daniel Mallory he says (based on a 1990 interview with Rendell by Marilyn Stasio) that Rendell refers to the hated Agatha (Christie) and that awful Marple woman; and says of St. Mary Mead that she can hardly bear to say the name of that village where one finds a lot of normal, law-abiding people living ordinary, blameless lives, who suddenly decide to murder their aunt. Well, I don’t believe that. (Introducing Chief Inspector Wexford by Daniel Mallory; from 1990 Rendell interview with Marilyn Stasio)
In addition to these police procedurals starring Wexford, Rendell wrote psychological crime novels exploring such themes as romantic obsession, misperceived communication, the impact of chance and coincidence, and the humanity of the criminals involved. Among such books are A Judgement in Stone, The Face of Tresp*, Live Flesh, Talking to Strange Men, The Killing Doll, Going Wrong and Adam and Eve and Pinch Me. For the last novel published in her lifetime, The Girl Next Door, she returned to the Loughton of her childhood, with an implied comparison of the moral climate of wartime England and 2014.
Rendell created a third strand of writing with the publication in 1986 of A Dark-Adapted Eye under her pseudonym Barbara Vine (the name was derived from her own middle name and her great grandmother's maiden name). King Solomon's Carpet, A Fatal Inversion and Asta's Book (alternative U.S. *le, Anna's Book), among others, inhabited the same territory as her psychological crime novels while further developing themes of human misunderstandings and the unintended consequences of family secrets and hidden crimes. The author was noted for her elegant prose and sharp insights into the human mind, as well as her cogent plots and characters. Rendell injected the social changes of the last 40 years into her work, bringing awareness to such issues as domestic violence.
Adaptations of her works
The Inspector Wexford series was successfully televised, starring George Baker as Inspector Wexford and Christopher Ravenscroft as Detective Mike Burden, under the *le The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, with 48 episodes from 1987 to 2000. Rendell praised Baker's performance, stating "It was a marvellous achievement as an actor to make him more and better than the author intended." Many of her other works have been adapted for film and television. She said that Chabrol's 1995 version of A Judgement in Stone, La Cérémonie with Sandrine Bonnaire, was one of the few film adaptations of her work that she was happy with. The novel was also filmed in 1986 with Rita Tushingham. Chabrol made La Demoiselle d'honneur in 2004, based on The Bridesmaid.
Other adaptations are Diary of the Dead (1976), from the book One Across, Two Down; the 1997 Pedro Almodóvar film Live Flesh; The Tree of Hands, directed by Giles Foster for Granada with Lauren Bacall (U.S. *le: "Innocent Victim"); and another version of The Tree of Hands, Betty Fisher et autres histoires (2001, a.k.a. Alias Betty), with screenplay and direction by Claude Miller. Francois Ozon's 2015 film The New Girlfriend was based on Rendell's short story of the same name. Two episodes of Tales of the Unexpected were based on Rendell's short stories - "A Glowing Future" (series 4, episode 15) and "People Don't Do Such Things" (series 8, episode 1).
Awards and honours
- 1975 – Mystery Writers of America Best Short Story Edgar: The Fallen Curtain
- 1987 – Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award: A Dark-Adapted Eye
- 1987 – Gold Dagger for Fiction: A Fatal Inversion
- 1988 – Angel Award for Fiction: The House of Stairs
- 1990 – Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence
- 1991 – Gold Dagger for Fiction: King Solomon's Carpet
- 1991 – Cartier Diamond Dagger for a Lifetime's Achievement in the Field
- 1996 – Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
- 1997 - Life Peer as Baroness Rendell of Babergh
- 2004 – Mystery Ink Gumshoe Award for Lifetime Achievement
- 2005 – CWA Dagger of Daggers (best crime novel to have won the Gold Dagger award (shortlist)): A Fatal Inversion
- 2007 – Gumshoe Award for Best European Crime Novel (shortlist): The Minotaur
- 2007 – Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (longlist): End in Tears
- 2010 – Lost Man Booker Prize (longlist): A Guilty Thing Surprised
Bibliography
Inspector Wexford series
- From Doon with Death (1964)
- A New Lease of Death (1967) (American *le: The Sins of the Fathers)
- Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
- The Best Man to Die (1969)
- A Guilty Thing Surprised (1970)
- No More Dying Then (1971)
- Murder Being Once Done (1972)
- Some Lie and Some Die (1973)
- Shake Hands Forever (1975)
- A Sleeping Life (1979)
- Put on by Cunning (1981) (American *le: Death Notes)
- The Speaker of Mandarin (1983)
- An Unkindness of Ravens (1985)
- The Veiled One (1988)
- Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (1991)
- Simisola (1994)
- Road Rage (1997)
- Harm Done (1999)
- The Babes in the Wood (2002)
- End in Tears (2005)
- Not in the Flesh (2007)
- The Monster in the Box (2009)
- The Vault (2011)
- No Man's Nightingale (2013)
Standalone novels
- To Fear a Painted Devil (1965)
- Vanity Dies Hard (1965) (American *le: In Sickness and in Health)
- The Secret House of Death (1968)
- One Across, Two Down (1971)
- The Face of Tresp* (1974)
- A Demon in My View (1976)
- A Judgement in Stone (1977)
- Make Death Love Me (1979)
- The Lake of Darkness (1980)
- Master of the Moor (1982)
- The Killing Doll (1984)
- The Tree of Hands (1984)
- Live Flesh (1986)
- Talking to Strange Men (1987)
- The Bridesmaid (1989)
- Going Wrong (1990)
- The Crocodile Bird (1993)
- The Keys to the Street (1996)
- A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998)
- Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (2001)
- The Rottweiler (2003)
- Thirteen Steps Down (2004)
- The Water's Lovely (2006)
- Portobello (2008)
- Tigerlily's Orchids (2010)
- The Saint Zita Society (2012)
- The Girl Next Door (2014)
- Dark Corners (2015)
Novellas
- Thornapple (1982). Collected in The Fever Tree
- Heartstones (1987). Uncollected
- The Thief (2006). Collected in A Spot of Folly
Written as Barbara Vine
- A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)
- A Fatal Inversion (1987)
- The House of Stairs (1988)
- Gallowgl* (1990)
- King Solomon's Carpet (1991)
- Asta's Book (1993) (American *le: Anna's Book)
- No Night Is Too Long (1994)
- The Brimstone Wedding (1995)
- The Chimney-sweeper's Boy (1998)
- Gr*hopper (2000)
- The Blood Doctor (2002)
- The Minotaur (2005)
- The Birthday Present (2008)
- The Child's Child (2012)
Short story collections
- The Fallen Curtain (1976)
- Means of Evil and Other Stories (1979) (five Inspector Wexford stories)
- The Fever Tree (1982)
- The New Girlfriend (1985)
- The Copper Pea* (1991)
- Blood Lines (1995)
- Piranha to Scurfy (2000)
- Collected Short Stories, Volume 1 (2006)
- Collected Short Stories, Volume 2 (2008)
- A Spot of Folly (2017)
Uncollected short stories
- "The Martyr", included in Midsummer Nights (Ed Jeanette Winterson), Quercus, 2009
- "Paradise", in The Strand Magazine #11, 2003
Uncollected round-robin short stories to which Rendell was a contributor
- "Death in the Square", co-aut*d with Peter Levi, Roald Dahl and Ted Willis, Daily Telegraph, 1988
- "Web of Intrigue", co-written with members of the public. Daily Telegraph, 1997
Non-fiction
- Ruth Rendell's Suffolk (1989)
- Undermining the Central Line: giving government back to the people (with Colin Ward, 1989) a political tract
- The Reason Why: An Anthology of the Murderous Mind (1995)
Children's Books
- Archie & Archie (2013)
References
Further reading
A critical essay on Rendell's crime novels appears in S. T. Joshi's book Varieties of Crime Fiction (Wildside Press, 2019) ISBN:978-1-4794-4546-2.
External links
- Baroness Ruth Rendell at British Council: Literature
- Gusworld Ruth Rendell information site with detailed bibliography
- Ruth Rendell at Random House Australia
- Fatal Inversions detailed Barbara Vine information site with bibliography
- Ruth Rendell at IMDb
- Baroness Rendell of Babergh at TheyWorkForYou.com
- Ruth Rendell in a video interview on The Interview Online talking about Sherlock Holmes
- Portraits of Ruth Rendell at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Works by Ruth Rendell at Open Library