Ruth Rendell

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RR established herself as a leading crime novelist of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To the intricacies of plot characteristic of the genre, she adds a capacity to scare her readers, and a sophisticated focus on the psychological and emotional aspects of criminal minds and the minds of those committed to the notion of justice. She is also attentive to contemporary English life and keenly interested in books and language, which feature importantly in her fictional worlds. She published sixty novels and was translated into twenty-five languages.
  • BirthName: Ruth Barbara Grasemann
    Who’s Who. Adam and Charles Black, 1849–2025, Annual Volumes.
    Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research, 1981–2025, Numerous volumes.
    52: 369

  • Married: Rendell
  • Pseudonym: Barbara Vine
  • Titled: Baroness Rendell of Babergh
Colour photograph of Ruth Rendell, seated at a table with a microphone and a glass of water. She is wearing a fawn jacket, white shirt, and brown trousers. Her is short and blonde.

Milestones

17 February 1930

Ruth Barbara Grasemann (later RR ) was born in Leyton in East London.
Benstock, Bernard, and Thomas F. Staley, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 87. Gale Research, 1989.
306
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research, 1981–2025, Numerous volumes.
52: 369
Brooks, Libby. “Ruth Rendell: Dark lady of whodunnits”. The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2002, pp. 16-19.
18

October 1964

RR published her first novel, From Doon with Death, featuring the character Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford; she had written at least six novels before her first acceptance.
Benstock, Bernard, and Thomas F. Staley, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 87. Gale Research, 1989.
307
The British National Bibliography. Council of the British National Bibliography; British Library, Bibliographic Services Division, 1950.
Klein, Kathleen Gregory, editor. Great Women Mystery Writers: Classic to Contemporary. Greenwood, 1994.
295-6
Brooks, Libby. “Ruth Rendell: Dark lady of whodunnits”. The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2002, pp. 16-19.
18

By September 1993

RR published The Crocodile Bird, a novel portraying a murderess who is simultaneously a loving mother.
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop. http://Bookshop.Blackwell.co.uk.
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research, 1981–2025, Numerous volumes.
52: 370-1

2 May 2015

RR died. She had suffered a stroke in January, [s]uddenly incapacitated
Lawson, Mark. “Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell review—a spookily perfect farewell”. guardian.com, 22 Oct. 2015.
soon after she finished work on her final book, Dark Corners.
“Obituary. Ruth Rendell”. BBC News, 2 May 2015.

22 October 2015

RR 's final book, the psychological thrillerDark Corners, reached print less than six months after her death.

Biography

17 February 1930

Ruth Barbara Grasemann (later RR ) was born in Leyton in East London.
Benstock, Bernard, and Thomas F. Staley, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 87. Gale Research, 1989.
306
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research, 1981–2025, Numerous volumes.
52: 369
Brooks, Libby. “Ruth Rendell: Dark lady of whodunnits”. The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2002, pp. 16-19.
18
Although RR was born and brought up in an English home, her maternal grandparents were Swedish and Danish, and her mother was born in Sweden and brought up in Denmark. These grandparents moved in 1905 from Copenhagen to England, where RR sometimes felt that foreigners were not welcome.
Parker, Peter, editor. A Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers. Oxford University Press, 1996.
626
Brooks, Libby. “Ruth Rendell: Dark lady of whodunnits”. The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2002, pp. 16-19.
18
Her father was English, but his name made many suppose the family to be German. The family belonged to the middle class.

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