Ruth Rendell Obituary

BBC news this morning carries obituary of Ruth Rendell, dead at age 85. She was a much beloved and highly successful mystery author, but I have to say that I loved hearing that her career as a novelist started when her career as a journalist ended with a huge FAIL:

"Rendell began her writing career as a reporter on an Essex newspaper. However, she was forced to resign after filing a story about a local sports club dinner without attending. Her report failed to mention that the after-dinner speaker had died half-way through the speech."

Okay, bit sorry for her that people STILL going on about it 50 years later, because really, after 60 novels, I think you should have earned the right to have lived that down. But on the other hand, pretty much best example ever of god telling a writer to stop messing around with the day job and get writing.....