Sunday 27th May.

Behind the scenes on the BBC recording of a Ruth Rendell murder mystery. To be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8th June.

RT @LanguageFoundry: Photos from the 3rd Ruth Rendell Short Story Award Ceremony. #RuthRendell

LONDON: Endemol Worldwide Distribution has picked up the rights to distribute the two-part psychological thriller Thirteen Steps Down, which is based on the best-selling novel by Ruth Rendell.

A shelfload of top-selling authors were at the annual Hatchard party in Piccadilly last night. Fellow peers PD James and Ruth Rendell sat in a huddle talking, while Rachel Johnson and Victoria Hislop were fixing up when they should next play tennis.

Lady Rendell is a member of the APPG on Social Tourism and asked this question following the recent publication of the group's inquiry into social tourism Giving Britain a Break.

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will incorporate social tourism policies, such as the provision of holidays by the Family Holiday Association for people living on a low income, in future tourism strategies.

Including the Ruth Rendell short story 'Catamount'.

Although he did not invent the police-procedural novel, Hillary Waugh, who has died aged 88, defined this sub-genre of the detective story, in which the puzzle of the criminal's identity is sublimated to the unfolding police work. Waugh's 1952 novel Last Seen Wearing is generally considered the finest early example of the police procedural; the British critic Julian Symons included it in his list of the 100 greatest crime novels, on Raymond Chandler's recommendation.

Barbara Vine, otherwise known as Ruth Rendell, meets James Naughtie and a small audience at a Readers' Day in Scunthorpe to talk about her haunting novel A Dark Adapted Eye.

ITV has announced a two-part dramatisation of Ruth Rendell’s chilling thriller, Thirteen Steps Down.

An ITV commissioned, two-part drama based on Ruth's 2004 standalone novel, 'Thirteen Steps Down', is now in production. The drama is being produced by Neil Zeiger and directed by Marek Losey with a screenplay by Adrian Hodges.

Lady Rendell is the latest Labour peer to clash with Black Rod, who is responsible for security at the House of Lords, who some believe has been acting like a “dictator”.

I had a long conversation with Ruth Rendell about the joys, woes and compulsion of writing, and also about supernatural thrillers. She told me a curious phenomenon - that although she resolutely does not believe in ghosts, she gets scared witless by ghost stories!

The Labour revolt against the Queen’s representative in Parliament grew last night after it was revealed that crime writer Ruth Rendell is the latest peer to fall foul of his iron rule.

The distinguished crime writer Ruth Rendell was so frightened after she read it she had to keep her bedside lamp on all night.

Many recent retirees will understand why Ruth Rendell's familiar protagonist, Reg Wexford, is feeling a bit aimless in the early pages of The Vault.

His oldest friend in the business is the crime writer Ruth Rendell, who sparkled in a gallery of literary celebs: historian Lady Antonia Fraser (Harold Pinter's widow), model Marie Helvin, fashion designer Bruce Oldfield, royal biographer Hugo Vickers, actor Nigel Planer, theatre publisher Nick Hern... and comedian Arthur Smith.

Names already confirmed include crime writers PD James and Ruth Rendell, who will appear together at Winchester Guildhall on Friday, June 1 for an event entitled Queens of Crime.

Life in the well-manicured London locale of Hexam Place is not as placid and orderly as it appears. Behind the tranquil gardens and polished entryways, relationships between servants and their employers are set to combust.

Henry, the handsome valet to Lord Studley, is sleeping with both the Lord’s wife and his university-age daughter. Montserrate, the Still family’s lazy au pair, is helping to hide Mrs. Still’s illicit affair with a television actor—for a small fee. June, the haughty housekeeper to a princess of dubious origin, is hard at work forming a “society” for servants to address complaints about their employers. Meanwhile, a disturbed gardener, Dex, believes a voice in his cellphone is giving him godlike instructions—that could endanger the lives of all who reside in Hexam Place.

12:30PM on 23/11/2011

Random House is launching a company-wide, new digital short story brand, called Story-cuts, with more than 150 e-books, comprising 243 stories, by authors including Julian Barnes and Ruth Rendell.

Ruth Rendell in conversation with Lucey Jarrett.

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Ruth Rendell talks about her craft in this original video from Open Road Media.

Celebrated author, Ruth Rendell, will be visiting Ipswich County Library on Saturday 26 November. Full details of the visit are still to be finalised so please look out for more information about this exciting event soon! 

Ruth Rendell once lived in this house in Shelley Grove, Loughton.

M R James’s spine-chilling stories of encounters with ghosts and ghouls still have the power to make us pleasantly uncomfortable a century after they were written, says Tim Martin.

With Matthew Bannister. Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died. 14/10/2011

RT @BucksWriter: New on my blog: P.D. James talks to Ruth Rendell

Author Ruth Rendell has admitted that her famous creation, Ch Insp Reginald Wexford, is based on her.

He was, according to Ruth Rendell, ‘not just an unforgettable actor, but the most wonderfully warm and vibrant person’.

RT @RickKleffel: New podcast of my interview with Baroness Ruth Rendell

After talking with Ruth Rendell, I can honestly say that she is the most civilized person who has ever robbed me of sleep.

Ruth Rendell reads from her new mystery The Vault.

“I had one inquiry in particular where I was asked to kill his wife so she could marry him,” says Rendell.

'It looks as if the NHS will gradually fade away' says crime writer and Labour peer Ruth Rendell.

RT @isleofislay: Reminder for Islay Book Festival next weekend Sep 3rd – 4th @ Port Ellen Primary with Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell raises question about social tourism in the Lords

The event was opened by crime novelist Ruth Rendell, who took time to enjoy the fete’s Punch and Judy show, along with the various stalls and games running during the day.

Crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell talks to Ruth Rendell about "Vault", her 23rd Inspector Wexford novel.

Author Ruth Rendell is set to attend a traditional garden fete hosted by St Gregory’s Church in Sudbury on Saturday.

LABOUR peer Baroness Rendell of Babergh – otherwise known as the thriller author Ruth Rendell, creator of TV cop Inspector Wexford – has revealed that, at 81, she is still receiving proposals of marriage.

Ruth Rendell at Montpellier Gardens: Saturday, October 8, 2011.

The prolific author of over seventy novels and creator of Inspector Wexford, Ruth Rendell is one of our most distinguished crime novelists. She joins us to discuss her latest book The Vault which sees the now retired Wexford return to take on a case of fiendish difficulty and danger.

Baroness Rendell of Babergh, better know as best-selling author Ruth Rendell, together with MPs Tony Baldry, Paul Maynard, Bob Russell and Anne-Marie Morris - all members of the APPG – attended.

Ruth Rendell is bidding fair to join Defoe and Dickens in creating one of the great criminal cities of literature. Her view of London is a similar murderous topography, less squalid, but with the same tentacles reaching out between rich and poor. The mapping of this novel began over a decade ago with the publication of her A Sight for Sore Eyes, which featured "Orcadia Cottage", a charming old house in St. John's Wood painted by a well-known artist as a backdrop for his portraits of a devoted young couple.

Unique works of art created by 100 celebrities will be auctioned by author Jeffrey Archer on the 15th September at the Drawn…to Darfur Celebrity Charity Art Auction in London to help the forgotten children of Darfur.

Lord Archer offered to help when he heard that nearly 100 celebrities – including Prince Charles, Prime Minister David Cameron, Melvyn Bragg, Martin Clunes, Rolf Harris, Anne Heche, Eamonn Holmes, Kelly Holmes, Ken Howard, Robert Lindsay, Julian Lloyd-Webber, Joanna Lumley, Ruth Rendell, Cliff Richard, Prunella Scales, Chris Tarrant and many more – have been drawing for Darfur as part of UK based charity Kids for Kids’ 10th Birthday celebrations.

Fans of mystery and intrigue are invited to join Ruth Rendell and PD James for a Read for RNIB Literary Reception at one of London's hottest venues The Ivy, 6 October 2011. Money raised from ticket sales will help the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) provide reading services and equipment to blind and partially sighted people.

Best-selling crime novelist Ruth Rendell CBE will appear at an exclusive literary lunch at The Ivy in London to raise funds for leading sight loss charity RNIB. From her award-winning Inspector Wexford series to novels written under her pseudonym Barbara Vine, Baroness Rendell will be sharing some of the highlights from her brilliant career and discussing her next eagerly-awaited Inspector Wexford novel, The Vault, out next month.

Ruth Rendell’s Wexford is now an OAP but, at 81, the author’s own life is far from quiet retirement, finds Jake Kerridge.

I was going to go off on one about how Ruth Rendell is FLAWLESS but then I remembered that she has got a flaw, which just comes of her age: she can’t incorporate the Internet convincingly into her recent stories. She is just not used to a world in which characters could find out information about each other, or about any topic they can think of, through Google, so they go ages not knowing things that real people nowadays would have found out within minutes.

Ruth Rendell has probably pulled more surprises on her readers than any other crime writer. But the one she produces with her latest novel is a little unusual even by her standards. Set in the present, The Vault (Hutchinson, £18.99) deals with the discovery of four corpses in the disused coal hole of a Georgian cottage in St John’s Wood. The main investigator is Rendell’s long-running series hero, Chief Inspector Wexford, now retired and living part-time in Hampstead.

6 October 2011, 2.00 - 4.30pm
The Ivy Restaurant, 1-5 West Street, London WC2H 9NQ
Tickets: £75 each
This is a unique opportunity to hear renowned authors Ruth Rendell and P D James talk about their lives in an intimate setting with a chance to ask them questions and purchase signed books.
All this is accompanied by canapés and a glass of bubbly in the restaurant's exclusive Private Dining Room, followed by tea and coffee. Please note that there are a limited number of places available.

But who, pray, is Detective Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford, and where on earth is Kings Markham? These answers will be found on Arts & Entertainment tomorrow night at 10, when the first hour of a three-part dramatization of Ruth Rendell's ''Shake Hands Forever'' is presented on the cable network's new ''Masters of Mystery'' series. (The subsequent episodes will be shown Feb. 12 and 19, in the same Monday-night slot.) ''Surely you Americans have heard of Wexford,'' Miss Rendell said, sounding slightly aghast in a recent telephone conversation from her home in the Suffolk district of England.

family Holiday Association patron, the well known author, Ruth Rendell took time out of her busy schedule on Wednesday 29 September to record the charity's Radio 4 Appeal.

Chester Zoo has named top-selling crime novelist Ruth Rendell as its new Vice President.

The elephant-loving Author has taken on the role having long supported the zoo and the conservation work it carries out both locally and internationally.

“I am simply delighted to become vice president of the North of England Zoological Society. It marks the beginning of a wonderful new chapter in my life.”

Sunday 25th September 2011 - 5:30pm

The top two British crime writers join forces to discuss crime writing, murder mysteries and psychological thrillers. Between them, they have written over 100 books and the names of their protagonists, such as Inspector Wexford, Adam Dalgleish and Cordelia Gray, are known world-wide. Many credit them for upgrading the entire genre of whodunit, shaping it more into a whydunit.

The Oldie magazine team is launching a new literary festival, based in London's Soho, with authors including Man Booker-winner Howard Jacobson and Michael Morpurgo set to appear.
The Soho Literary Festival will run from 23rd to 25th September 2011, comprising 40 events at The Soho Theatre. Philip Kerr, P D James, Ruth Rendell, Kate Summerscale, Gyles Brandeth, James Delingpole and A N Wilson are also among the names already signed up to appear at the event.

Both Benjamin Black and Ruth Rendell have written inviting new novels filled with nicely malevolent characters. It hardly seems sporting to relegate these books to the murder-story genre just because some of those characters wind up dead of unnatural causes.

No law prevents criminals from publishing their memoirs but there are restrictions on profiting from them, as enacted by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. This enables courts to recover any assets that a criminal has acquired as a result of writing about their crimes. That money then goes into something called the Consolidated Fund. Those still serving a sentence can be prevented from publishing while in custody, as happened to serial killer Dennis Nilsen, whose autobiographical manuscript was confiscated. During the debate on the bill Baroness Rendell of Babergh (aka Ruth Rendell) pointed out that Jean Genet's The Thief's Journal might have fallen foul of such a law. In fact, great train robber Bruce Reynolds called his own memoir Autobiography of a Thief as a homage to Genet, whom he admired.

"I thought I should retire him but not leave him out of the series all together," says Ms. Rendell, 81. "He's very aware that he's no longer what he was."

The visa system introduced to manage migration to the United Kingdom causes difficulty for travelling artists.

Trustees and members of English PEN were among the 120 prominent authors and artists to co-sign an open letter to Rt. Hon. Teresa May MP, Home Secretary...

The Westminster Society invites you to a literary evening with two successful and well know crime writers; PD James and Ruth Rendell. The evening's conversation will be chaired by a third writer; David Benedictus and there will be support from the Maurice Horhut Jazz Trio. Tickets cost £35 each and can be purchased by contacting the main office on 020 8968 7376.

Sherlock Holmes Society of London Annual Dinner 2010.

RT @LesleyPearse: Lesley, Joanne Harris, Fay Weldon and Ruth Rendell for BBC2 27th at 11pm

In the first ever Book Review Show, Kirsty Wark is joined by guests including Germaine Greer and John Mullan to discuss the state of women's literature. Topics include the shortlist for the Orange Prize and posthumous publications from Daphne Du Maurier and Beryl Bainbridge. There will also be an interview with Lionel Shriver, the adaptation of whose 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' has just premiered at Cannes, and a literary 'salon' with Fay Weldon, Kate Mosse and Ruth Rendell.