Ruth Rendell, 1930-2015
British crime writer Ruth Rendell was born Ruth Barbara Grasemann in London on February 17, 1930. Her paren'ts were both teachers. Their marriage was tempestuous and as a result Rendell's childhood was not a happy one. After completing studies at County High School for Girls in Essex, she became a newspaper reporter but resigned after it was uncovered that she fabricated a story. (She reported on a local tennis club's annual dinner without attending and without realizing that one of the speakers had died during the event.)
She married fellow journalist Don Rendell in 1950. Their son Simon was born three years later. They divorced in 1975 but later remarried and remained together until his death in 1999. She had a number of relationships as a widow, including two marriage proposals, but said that she had all the companionship she needed from her cats.
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Her first novel, From Doon with Death was published in 1964 and introduced her beloved detective Inspector Wexford. Wexford would appear in 24 books including the 2013 release No Man's Nightingale.
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She also wrote numerous stand alone novels under her own name and psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Her most recent releases are the stand alone novels The Girl Next Door (2014), The Saint Zita Society (2012), and the 2013 children's book Archie and Archie all published under Ruth Rendell. A Barbara Vine novel The Child's Child was released in 2012.
Stephen King has written that "[n]o one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, instability, and malignant coincidence".
Ruth Rendell died on May 2, 2015. She had been ailing since suffering a stroke in January.
(Photo Credit: Crime writer Ruth Rendell was at the Helsinki Book Fair 2005 by Anneli Salo, Creative Commons Licence)
One thought on “Ruth Rendell, 1930-2015”
It’s been a tough while for lovers of British Mystery and Suspense writers. Interesting to compare the lives of Rendell and P.D. James, who wrote from very different perspectives, agreed to disagree, but who were both independent, strong, resilient women. They didn’t write from a gender perspective, though. James’ Adam Dalgliesh and Rendell’s Wexford were two sensitive, intuitive, persuadeable men of integrity and honour. Both authors wrote powerful and empathetic male characters.
Thanks for the great blog post, and I’ll have to revisit both James and the great Rendell.