The Children of Men

P. D. James was a bestselling and internationally acclaimed crime writer. She was the creator of Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray, and their long and successful series of mysteries. Her works include Cover Her Face (1962), An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972), Innocent Blood (1980), Children of Men (1992), and the Jane Austen-inspired Death Comes to Pemberley (2011).

James was born in Oxford in 1920. She won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award. She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and created a life peer in 1991. In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors, and stood down from this role in 2013.P. D. James - awarded an OBE in 1983 and made a life peer in 1991 - was the bestselling, internationally acclaimed author of eighteen crime novels including the Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray series, The Children of Men and two posthumously published collections of short stories. She won numerous awards for crime writing, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award and CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing.

ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'

The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction.

Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiat, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind.

The Children of Men is P.D. James's stand-alone dystopian novel of mass infertility and chilling mystery.