Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (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.
Life
Rendell was born as 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 several 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 on 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.
Rendell was a vegetarian who was described as living mostly on fruit. She described herself as "slightly agoraphobic" and slept in a specially made four-poster bed because "I like to feel enclosed."
Awards
Baroness Rendell's awards include the Silver, Gold, and Cartier Diamond Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association, 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 Association Poll (1990) of the best crime fiction novels ever written: two under the Rendell name and two under her pen name of Barbara Vine.
Her Crime Writer’s Association Dagger wins (four Gold, one Silver and one Cartier Diamond) remains unmatched, as does her record of being the first author to be nominated and win under multiple names. Her unparalleled Edgar and Dagger finalist nominations include: A Judgement In Stone (1977 Gold Dagger finalist), A Sleeping Life (1979 Edgar finalist for Best Novel), Make Death Love Me (1980 Edgar finalist for Best Novel), The Speaker Of Mandarin (1983 Gold Dagger finalist), An Unkindness Of Ravens and The Tree Of Hands (both 1986 Edgar finalists for Best Novel), A Dark-Adapted Eye (as Barbara Vine, 1986 Gold Dagger finalist), A Fatal Inversion (as Barbara Vine 1988 Macavity Award finalist for Best Novel), and Going Wrong (1990 Gold Dagger finalist.) Additionally, she was nominated four times in the Edgar “Best Short Story” category (in 1976 for The Fall Of The Coin and 1977 for People Don’t Do Such Things) winning twice for The Fallen Curtain (1975) and The New Girlfriend (1984).
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 Trespass, 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. title, 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 title 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 Claude 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. title: "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. François 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
1975 - Current Crime's Silver Cup for Best Crime Novel: Shake Hands Forever
1976 - Gold Dagger for Fiction: A Demon In My View
1980 - Martin Beck Award for Best Crime Novel: Make Death Love Me
1981 - Arts Council National Book Award for Genre Fiction: The Lake Of Darkness
1984 - Mystery Writers of America Best Short Story Edgar: The New Girlfriend
1984 - Silver Dagger for Fiction: The Tree Of Hands
1986 - Gold Dagger for Fiction: Live Flesh
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
1997 - Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award
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 title: 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 (1978)
Put on by Cunning (1981) (American title: 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 (1966) (American title: In Sickness and in Health)
The Secret House of Death (1968)
One Across, Two Down (1971)
The Face of Trespass (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 Strawberry Tree (1995). Collected in Blood Lines.
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)
Gallowglass (1990)
King Solomon's Carpet (1991)
Asta's Book (1993) (American title: Anna's Book)
No Night Is Too Long (1994)
The Brimstone Wedding (1995)
The Chimney-sweeper's Boy (1998)
Grasshopper (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 Peacock (1991)
Blood Lines: Long and Short Stories (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
"Paradise", in The Strand Magazine #11, 2003
"The Martyr", included in Midsummer Nights (ed. Jeanette Winterson), Quercus, 2009
Uncollected round-robin short stories to which Rendell was a contributor
"Death in the Square", co-authored 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) .
External links
Gusworld Ruth Rendell information site with detailed bibliography
Ruth Rendell at Random House Australia
Fatal Inversions detailed Barbara Vine information site with bibliography
Baroness Rendell of Babergh at TheyWorkForYou.com
Ruth Rendell in a video interview on The Interview Online talking about Sherlock Holmes
1930 births
2015 deaths
21st-century English novelists
20th-century English novelists
People from Loughton
20th-century English women writers
21st-century English women writers
Anthony Award winners
Cartier Diamond Dagger winners
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Edgar Award winners
English crime fiction writers
English mystery writers
English people of Swedish descent
English women novelists
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Labour Party (UK) life peers
Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Literary peers
Members of the Detection Club
People from Aldeburgh
People from Woodford, London
Pseudonymous women writers
Writers from London
Women mystery writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers
21st-century pseudonymous writers