P. D. James1:Inside the Head of a Criminal Mastermind

Kate Kellaway

At 10 o’clock P. D. James—or Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE—walks into her sitting room.2. baroness： 女男爵；OBE： Order of the British Empire，大英帝國(guó)勛章。We last met almost 20 years ago in the same room and there is, along with the deja vu3. deja vu： 似曾相識(shí)的感覺(jué)。, a sense of wonder at seeing her again. At 91, she is remarkable4. remarkable： 卓越的，非凡的。. She is looking marvellous in an elegant powder-blue jacket of oriental cut, offset by a narrow silk scarf decorated with flowers.5. marvellous： 絕妙的；powder-blue： 粉藍(lán)色；oriental： 東方的；cut：（衣服的）款式，樣式；offset： 把……并列以襯托。She is frailer than when last we met (she has survived heart failure and had a hip replaced in 2007) but otherwise is unchanged and in no way extinguished.6. 相比上次見(jiàn)面，現(xiàn)在的她顯得有些虛弱（她從心力衰竭中逃過(guò)一劫，2007年時(shí)還經(jīng)歷了髖部置換手術(shù)），其他方面沒(méi)什么變化，還是那么神采奕奕。frail： 虛弱的；extinguished：（生命等）消亡的。She is as kind,civil and forthright as I remember.7. civil： 有禮貌的，客氣的；forthright： 直率的。Her secretary, friend and all-round prop8. prop： 支持者，擁護(hù)者。, Joyce McLennan, has tea and biscuits ready on the table. Everything is in order—above all,P. D. James’s shipshape mind.9. above all： 尤其是；shipshape： 井然有序的。Incidentally10. incidentally： 順便提一句。, P and D stand for Phyllis and Dorothy.

It is splendid11. splendid： 極好的。, she volunteers, to be answering

questions from readers and fellow authors. She avoids being insulting yet her view is implicit: journalists are less likely to be armed with surprising questions.12. 她沒(méi)有使用侮辱性的字眼，表達(dá)的觀點(diǎn)十分含蓄：記者很少會(huì)提令人驚訝的問(wèn)題。insulting： 侮辱的，無(wú)禮的；implicit：含蓄的。As a crime writer, surprise is P. D. James’s forte13. forte： 長(zhǎng)處。. Her ability to keep readers guessing has not failed her in half a century. And it is characteristic that, towards the end of her writing life, she should elect to spring a new surprise on us.14. elect to do sth.： 選擇做某事；spring： 涌出。It would have been pardonable—admirable indeed—to have published another novel starring policeman poet Adam Dalgliesh.15. 這也難怪——也的確讓人佩服——她能以警察詩(shī)人亞當(dāng)·代格里斯為主角，又出版了另一部小說(shuō)。pardonable： 難怪的；star：v. 由……主演。ButDeath Comes to Pemberley(now out in paperback) is a plucky new adventure, a sequel to Jane Austen’sPride and Prejudicethat doubles as a murder novel.16. Death Comes to Pemberley： 《彭伯里謀殺案》，號(hào)稱是《傲慢與偏見(jiàn)》的續(xù)集，講述達(dá)西與伊麗莎白結(jié)婚6年后發(fā)生的故事。paperback： 平裝本；plucky： 大膽的；sequel： 續(xù)集；Pride and Prejualice：小說(shuō)《傲慢與偏見(jiàn)》，是簡(jiǎn)·奧斯汀的代表作。小說(shuō)生動(dòng)地反映了18世紀(jì)末到19世紀(jì)初處于保守和閉塞狀態(tài)下的英國(guó)鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)的生活和世態(tài)人情。

2014年11月底，英國(guó)著名犯罪小說(shuō)家P.D.James與世長(zhǎng)辭。消息一經(jīng)傳開(kāi)便引起轟然。一位才華橫溢、傳奇卓越的女作家就這樣離開(kāi)了我們。除了其經(jīng)典小說(shuō)外，你可曾真正了解她？就讓我們通過(guò)這篇英國(guó)《觀察家報(bào)》的專訪，走進(jìn)P. D. James的世界。

P. D. James has been an Austen devotee17. devotee： 愛(ài)好者。all her life.She can hear Austen’s voice with her inner ear, become her echo on the page.Death Comes to Pemberleyis a masterly pastiche.18. masterly： 巧妙的；pastiche：（文學(xué)、音樂(lè)或電影的）模仿作品。It is more streamlined19. streamlined： 精簡(jiǎn)的。than her other fiction,involving only one murder and one suspect, but it fills us in on Elizabeth and Darcy and their marriage and satis fies that curiosity one has as the reader of a classic romance: did they live happily ever after?

《彭伯里謀殺案》封面

And what of P. D. James’s own happiness? Everything about the room and its occupant has a secure, reassuring feel: the William Morris upholstery, the trusty fireplace,the sage green walls, a flourishing orchid and statues—some of them religious.20. 威廉·莫里斯風(fēng)格的室內(nèi)裝潢、給人以可靠感的壁爐、灰綠色的墻面、盛開(kāi)的蘭花和雕像（部分宗教雕像），屋里的一切，包括屋主都給人一種安全舒心的感覺(jué)。occupant：居住者，William Morris： 威廉·莫里斯，1 9世紀(jì)英國(guó)知名設(shè)計(jì)師；upholster y：室內(nèi)裝潢；sage green： 灰綠色；orchid： 蘭花。She has a study lined with poetry,a garden busy with geraniums,21. study： 書(shū)房；geranium： 天竺葵。but the metal security bars on the windows introduce a different note. She prefers not to dwell on22. dwell on： 細(xì)想。her earlier life’s dif ficulties. But it is interesting that, asked about what matters, she talks—in a manner of which Jane Austen would have approved—about the importance of security and a good marriage when, for a while, she had neither.23. 但有意思的是，當(dāng)你問(wèn)她什么比較重要時(shí)，她會(huì)以一種簡(jiǎn)·奧斯汀可能會(huì)認(rèn)可的方式告訴你——是安全感和一段美好的婚姻，她曾有那么一段時(shí)間兩者皆無(wú)。

She was married to Connor Bantry White, an army doctor, and had two daughters by him: Clare and Jane.Tragically, her husband returned from the war mentally ill—and she had to support the family single-handedly.24. tragically： 不幸地；single-handedly： 獨(dú)自地。He died, aged 44, in 1964, two years after her first novel,Cover Her Face25. Cover Her Face： 《秘密殺戮》，P. D.James所著，全球最暢銷懸疑推理類小說(shuō)。, was published. It must have been extraordinarily hard. But P. D. James is, one surmises26. surmise： 猜測(cè)。,the sort of person who would only be made more determined by misfortune. Besides, she was not unused to being pitched into27. pitch into： 迫使處于。helping a family out. For, in a sense, history was repeating itself. She left school at 16 and helped bring up her younger siblings28. sibling： 兄弟姐妹。. Her family was short of money and her father, a tax inspector, did not approve of higher education for girls. And there was another reason too: her mother had been admitted to a mental hospital.

P. D. James has always been a powerhouse29. powerhouse： 精力旺盛的人。. As if it were not enough to be a living legend as a crime writer,she also worked (until 1979) in the NHS30. NHS： National Health Service，英國(guó)國(guó)民醫(yī)療服務(wù)體系。and Home Of fice police and criminal law department. She is a Conservative life peer and has been a magistrate, a BBC governor, on the board of the Arts Council, a chair of the Booker prize, a lay patron of the Prayer Book Society.31. Conservative： 保守派的；life peer： 終身貴族；magistrate： 地方法官；Booker prize： 布克文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)；lay： 非專業(yè)的，外行的；patron： 資助人。Idleness is alien to her.32. 她十分勤快。idleness： 懶散；be alien to： 與……相反。But P. D. James is, above all, an independent thinker.

On New Year’s Eve 2009, she attracted widespread attention by giving that independent thought air time. It was while guest editing the “Today” programme that she took on the BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, and politely asked him bullseye33. bullseye： 擊中要害的話。questions. She wanted to know why the BBC’s middle management were paid such overblown salaries and why creative people were not better recompensed.34. overblown： 過(guò)分的；recompense： 酬謝，付給……報(bào)酬。Thompson was not ready for her. The interview won the 2010 Nick Clarke Award35. Nick Clarke Award： 由BBC創(chuàng)立的新聞?lì)惇?jiǎng)項(xiàng)，以紀(jì)念已逝的英國(guó)著名廣播和電視節(jié)目主持人Nick Clarke。.

P. D. James has a special place in her readers’ lives.When I explain to a friend we cannot meet because I am interviewing her, his response is: “Excuses don’t come any better.”36. 沒(méi)有比這更好的推辭了。And I feel hugely indebted37. indebted： 受惠的，感激的。to her because it was the Dalgliesh novels that saw me through the sleepless months after my first son was born. That magni ficent narrative grip, the Victorian and the visceral together: the capaciousness coupled with violent detail… her books were powerful enough to keep even a shattered new mother reading.38. grip： 吸引力；visceral： 發(fā)自肺腑的；capaciousness： 容量大；shattered： 極其煩躁的，極度疲勞的。I had such an appetite for P. D. James’s novels at that time that I did not want to read anyone else. I am still grateful now.

I think I am ready for her. She watches with concern as I turn on the tape recorder, explaining that she and machines do not get on. As we sit side by side on the sofa,she is completely engaged: warm, careful and deliberate39. deliberate： 不慌不忙的，沉著謹(jǐn)慎的。.She speaks as if she were dictating to a secretary. She turns each answer over, sometimes returning to it for tailoring—to add an extra twist or subtract where necessary—but always determined to do each question justice.40. 她仔細(xì)考慮每一個(gè)問(wèn)題，有時(shí)候還要返回修改——在必要時(shí)添加一些轉(zhuǎn)折或者做出刪減——但總是公平對(duì)待每個(gè)問(wèn)題。 turn over： 仔細(xì)考慮；subtract： 去掉。

Ask PD James: readers’ questions

Jeffrey Archer:Are you a lark or an owl?41. lark： 百靈鳥(niǎo)；owl： 貓頭鷹。

PD James:I am a lark, we get up early in the morning,don’t we? I always have woken terribly early. Usually about 5a.m. I can—and do—work as early as that but then I sleep for an hour in the afternoon. I am a siesta42. siesta： 午睡。woman. I suppose you could say that, although I am a lark, I go back to the nest again in the afternoon.

JA:How many rewrites do you do?

PDJ:This is quite easy to answer: with some passages,absolutely none, whereas with others, I may have to rewrite a considerable number of times before I am satis fied. I know when a thing is not as good as I can make it. That is the point. Other people might be able to do it better but I have to make it the best I can do. And I sometimes feel it is not as good as I can make it. But when it is right you know.It is like with a painting: you know, don’t touch it again.

Paula Byrne, author of Jane Austen and the Theatre:With which character in Jane Austen do you identify yourself?

PDJ:It has to be Elizabeth Bennet. I share her humour and irony and interest in other people and her wish to be well married. I have a similar enthusiasm for the security that is offered by family. Because we are always aware inPride and Prejudicethat although Mrs Bennet is, in many ways, a dreadful43. dreadful： 糟糕的。mum and embarrasses her elder daughters to a terrible extent, she is absolutely right that if Mr Bennet were to have got pneumonia44. pneumonia： 肺炎?！獁hich they often did, the elderly—and if he had died of it in the winter or had fallen off his horse, the Bennets would have been thrown out of their house by the Collinses and would have had to live in a cottage on the estate. Mrs Bennet was absolutely right about security. I think I should also want the security of a prosperous marriage.

Nicci French, crime writer:Do crime novels always have a moral impulse45. impulse： 推動(dòng)力。?

PDJ:No, not the most violent and sadistic of the crime novels but detective stories do af firm the sanctity of each individual life and the possibility of human justice.46. sadistic： 殘酷成性的；sanctity： 圣神。

Peter Lant:What is the best thing about being a nonagenarian47. nonagenarian： 九十多歲的人。?

PDJ:(There is a prolonged48. prolonged： 持續(xù)很久的。silence during which she admits that her silence might serve as an answer in itself.)Oh dear, what can one say for it? One has learnt what is important and what is unimportant. At least, I hope I have learned the difference. I agree with Keats49. Keats： 濟(jì)慈（1795—1821），英國(guó)詩(shī)人，浪漫派的主要成員。that the most important thing in life is the “holiness of the heart’s affections”.