Dorothy L Sayers wrote some of the great detective stories of the 1930s. Her books hinge on a series of conventions – ingenious murders, clues that fit together like pieces in a puzzle, a closed circle of suspects and an attractive amateur sleuth called Lord Peter Wimsey. But Sayers also injected humour, powerful descriptive writing and challenging ideas into her tales and, according to P.D. James, Sayers transformed the comforting genre of Agatha Christie into a serious literary form. Jenni talks to P.D. James about how Dorothy L. Sayers has influenced her own work.
