PD James remembered by Richard Coles

3 August 1920–27 November 2014
The crime writer was courteous and perspicacious – and alert for the gaps between what was said and what was done

• See the Observer’s obituaries of 2014 in full

• Stephen Sutton remembered by his mother

While studying for ordination at the College of the Resurrection in Yorkshire, the Reverend Richard Coles chaperoned the crime writer on one of her visits there.

“Call me Phyllis! While I’m here!” announced Baroness James of Holland Park on arrival at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, where I was studying for ordination. Better known as PD James, she had come to research life in such places for her murder mystery Death in Holy Orders. A clever choice, for life in religious communities is exacting and unsparing and as the Superior at the monastery we were attached to once said, “If there was a murder here there would be 50 suspects at least.”