Ruth Rendell, on reading:

Some say life is the thing,

but I prefer reading.

- Ruth Rendell.

Born on this day – Ruth Rendell:

Ruth Rendell

Writer

February 17, 1930 – May 2, 2015

Credits:

Books:

13 Steps Down (2004); A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986); A Demon in My View (1976); A Fatal Inversion (1987); A Guilty Thing Surprised (1970); A Judgement in Stone (1977); A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998); A Sleeping Life (1978); A Spot of Folly (2017); Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (2001); An Unkindness of Ravens (1985); Archie and Archie (2013); Asta's Book / Anna's Book (1993); BBC Radio Drama Collection (2019); Birthday Present (2008); Blood Lines (1995); Collected Short Stories (1989); Collected Stories Vol 1 (2006); Dark Corners (2015); Death Notes / Put On By Cunning (1981); End in Tears (2005); From Doon With Death (1964); Gallowglass (1990); Ginger and the Kingsmarkham (1992); Going Wrong (1990); Grasshopper (2000); Harm Done (1999); Heartstones (1987); In the Time of His Prosperity (1995); King Solomon's Carpet (1991); Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (1992); Live Flesh (1986); Long Live The Queen (1991); Make Death Love Me (1979); Master of the Moor (1982); Means of Evil (1979); Minotaur (2005); Murder Being Once Done (1972); No Man's Nightingale (2013); No More Dying Then (1971); No Night Is Too Long (1994); Not in the Flesh (2007); One Across, Two Down (1971); Piranha to Scurfy (2000); Portobello (2008); Road Rage (1997); Ruth Rendell: Short Stories (2006); Ruth Rendell's Suffolk (1992); Shake Hands Forever (1975); Simisola (1994); Sins of the Fathers / A New Lease of Death (1967); Some Lie and Some Die (1973); Speaker of Mandarin (1983); Talking to Strange Men (1987); The Babes in the Wood (2002); The Best Man to Die (1969); The Blood Doctor (2002); The Bridesmaid (1989); The Brimstone Wedding (1995); The Child's Child (2012); The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (1998); The Convolvulus Clock (1985); The Copper Peacock and Other Stories (1991); The Crocodile Bird (1993); The Face of Trespass (1974); The Fallen Curtain (1976); The Fever Tree (1982); The Girl Next Door (2014); The House of Stairs (1988); The Keys to the Street (1996); The Killing Doll (1984); The Lake of Darkness (1980); The Monster in the Box (2009); The New Girlfriend (1985); The Reason Why (1995); The Rottweiler (2003); The Saint Zita Society (2012); The Secret House Of Death (1968); The Thief (2005); The Tree of Hands (1984); The Vault (2011); The Veiled One (1988); The Water's Lovely (2006); Thornapple (1998); Tigerlily's Orchids (2010); To Fear a Painted Devil (1965); Vanity Dies Hard (1966); Wolf to the Slaughter (1967).

Movies and television:

13 Steps Down (2012); A Dark Adapted Eye (1994); A Demon in My View (1991); A Fatal Inversion (1992); A Judgment in Stone (1986); A Pleasant Terror: The Life and Ghost of M.R. James (1995); A Sight for Sore Eyes (2003); Alias Betty (2001); Bestseller (2002); Bookmark (1986); Bouillon de culture (2000); Cover to Cover (1987); Daphne Du Maurier - A Loving Spirit (1997); Das Literaturmagazin (1990); Diary of the Dead (1976); Drama Trails (2008); Faulks on Fiction (2011); Forty Years at the I.C.A. (1987); George Baker: Wexford and Me (2008); Imagine (2012); Innocent Victim (1989); La Cérémonie (1995); Late Review (2011); Le masque (1989); Live Flesh (1997); Loopy (2004); M.R. James: The Corner of the Retina (2004); Mystery!: Gallowglass (1993); No Night Is Too Long (2002); Out on Four (1989); Permis de penser (2006); Profiling (2008); Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987–2000); Screen Two (1988); Sleuths, Sorcerers & Spies: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes (2016); Tales of the Unexpected (1981–1985); The Bridesmaid (2004); The Culture Show (2011); The Face of Trespass (1988); The New Girlfriend (2014); The South Bank Show (2004); The Write Stuff (1989); This Is Your Life (1995); This Morning (2008); Valentin Valentin (2014); Whodunnit? (1982); Without Walls (1992).

Recommended reading - One Across, Two Down (1971):

One Across, Two Down

By Ruth Rendell.

Filmed as Diary of the Dead (1976), directed by Arvin Brown.

Published by Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.

First published 1971.

ASIN: 0375704949

ISBN-10: 9780375704949

ISBN-13: 978-0375704949

Description:

Two things interest Stanley Manning: crossword puzzles, and the substantial sum his wife Vera stands to inherit when his mother-in-law dies. Otherwise, life at 61 Lanchester Road is a living hell. For Mrs. Kinaway lives with them now – and she will stop at nothing to tear their marriage apart. One afternoon, Stanley sets aside his crossword puzzles and changes all their lives forever...

In One Across, Two Down, master crime writer Ruth Rendell describes a man whose strained sanity and stained reputation transform him from a witless loser into a killer afraid of his own shadow.  Mischievously plotted, smart, maddeningly entertaining, One Across, Two Down is a dark delight – classic Rendell.

"The best mystery writer in the English-speaking world." – Time.