Ruth Rendell (February 17, 1930 - May 2, 2015)

We are devastated by the loss of one of our best-loved authors, the award-winning crime writer Ruth Rendell. 

Ruth was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own life-time. Her ground-breaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.

Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for 1976’s best crime novel with A Demon in My View; a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986 and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

David Sillito looks back at the life of Ruth Rendell.