Ruth Rendell

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Lore & Background

Rendell was born as Ruth Barbara Grasemann in 1930, in South Woodford, Essex (now Greater London). Her parents were teachers. Her mother, Ebba Kruse, was born in Sweden to Danish parents and brought up in Denmark; her father, Arthur Grasemann, was English. As a result of spending Christmas and other holidays in Scandinavia, Rendell learned Swedish and Danish. She was educated at the County High School for Girls in Loughton, Essex, the town to which the family moved during her childhood. After high school, she became a feature writer for her local Essex paper, the Chigwell Times. She submitted a story narrating a local sports club dinner she had not attended. Because of her absence from the dinner, she did not know that the after-dinner speaker had died midway through the speech, and she failed to report it. She was subsequently forced to resign. Rendell met her husband Don Rendell when she was working as a newswriter. They married in 1950, when she was 20, and in 1953 had a son, Simon, now a psychiatrist-social worker who lives in Colorado. The couple divorced in 1975 but remarried two years later. Don Rendell died in 1999 from prostate cancer. She made the county of Suffolk her home for many years, living in the villages of Polstead and later Groton. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1996 Birthday Honours and a life peer as Baroness Rendell of Babergh, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk, on 24 October 1997. She sat in the House of Lords for the Labour Party. In 1998, Rendell was named in a list of the party's biggest private financial donors. She introduced into the Lords the bill that would later become the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. Rendell was a vegetarian who was described as living mostly on fruit. She described herself as 'slightly agoraphobic' and slept in a specially made four-poster bed because 'I like to feel enclosed.' She was a patron of the charity Kids for Kids.

Reader's Guide

Rendell's significance lies in her three distinct strands of crime writing: the police procedurals featuring Chief Inspector Wexford, beginning with From Doon with Death (1964); standalone psychological crime novels exploring obsession, chance, and criminal psychology; and works under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, which deepened themes of family secrets and unintended consequences. She won multiple awards, including Silver, Gold, and Cartier Diamond Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association, three Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America, and The Sunday Times Literary Award. Her record of four Gold Daggers, one Silver, and one Cartier Diamond remains unmatched, as does being the first author nominated and winning under multiple names. Four of her novels appear on the Crime Writers Association Poll (1990) of the best crime fiction novels ever written: two under the Rendell name and two under her pen name of Barbara Vine. The Inspector Wexford series was televised as The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987–2000), with 48 episodes. She praised George Baker's performance as Wexford, stating 'It was a marvellous achievement as an actor to make him more and better than the author intended.' She said that Claude Chabrol's 1995 French version of A Judgement in Stone, La Cérémonie, was one of the few film adaptations of her work that she was happy with. The Ruth Rendell Award was introduced in 2016 by the National Literacy Trust, awarded to authors for their work in inspiring children and improving their literacy.

Did You Know?

• Rendell learned Swedish and Danish from spending Christmas and other holidays in Scandinavia.
• She was forced to resign from the Chigwell Times after failing to report that an after-dinner speaker had died midway through his speech at a dinner she did not attend.
• She introduced into the House of Lords the bill that later became the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.
• Rendell slept in a specially made four-poster bed because she liked to feel enclosed, describing herself as 'slightly agoraphobic'.
• Her record of four Gold Daggers, one Silver, and one Cartier Diamond from the Crime Writers' Association remains unmatched.