Ruth Rendell
Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBEwas an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth17 February 1930
people whom
I am curious about people. I want to know their secrets... because I am the last person to whom I would tell a secret; people tell me their secrets.
columns interested run
I am interested in names and what they say; it is true. I like to look at the columns of baby names in the newspapers. But I don't run out of new ones for my characters.
believe happens novel reader
I believe the most important thing you can do in any kind of novel is to make your reader want to go on with it and want to know what happens next.
difference famous knock work writer
You don't knock television, even if you don't always like what they make of your work. It makes all the difference between being an also-ran writer and very famous.
articulate death horrible lose move properly several speak strokes unable vigorous wheelchair
My father had several strokes and heart attacks. I was with him when he died, and it was a horrible death. He had been a very articulate man, and to lose that, never to be able to speak properly and to be unable to move - he had always been a very vigorous man, so to be in a wheelchair and mumbling - was terrible.
hope nobody shakespeare time unless
Nobody will go on being remembered for a very long time, unless you're Shakespeare or Milton. I have no hope of being remembered at all.
people
People want to marry me for companionship. No thanks! I've got my cats for that!
books carefully characters exciting favourite ford good love studied
My favourite book - 'The Good Soldier' by Ford Madox Ford, which I have read about 20 times - is different from my favourite author, who is Iris Murdoch. I find her books exciting and unputdownable. Her characters are so carefully studied and in-depth; I love that.
age
I was imbued from a very early age with a sense of doom.
pretend sweetness
I wouldn't be young again even if it were possible, but I am not going to pretend that growing old is all sweetness and light.
job people
Many people have a profession or a job - most people do, I should think. And they do it. And that's what I did.
biggest gets ignored introduce knows parties people picked surrounded until women word
Old women especially are invisible. I have been to parties where no one knows who I am, so I am ignored until I introduce myself to someone picked at random. Immediately, word gets round, and I am surrounded by people who tell me they are my biggest fans.
episodes history patients treatment
The treatment of patients with contaminated blood has been described as one of the most tragic episodes in the history of the NHS.
good kept lose nicer none others people tried turning various wrote
I started by writing short stories, but they weren't very good; I tried them on various magazines, and none of them was published. People were nicer then about turning you down, and so I didn't lose heart - I kept on writing and wrote a lot of books, one or two of which I finished, and others I didn't.