Ruth Rendell

Died: May 2, 2015.

RUTH Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, who has died aged 85 after suffering a serious stroke, was a prolific and best-selling author of more than 60 crime or mystery novels who became known as the Queen of Crime Fiction. Her books have sold more than 20 million copies in numerous languages in more than 30 countries.

Before her death, her friend and fellow crime writer, the Scot Ian Rankin of Rebus fame, described her as probably the greatest living crime writer. "If crime fiction is currently in rude good health," he said "its practitioners (like myself) striving to better the craft and keep it fresh, vibrant and relevant, this is in no small part thanks to Ruth Rendell."

A lifelong socialist, she was appointed to a seat in the House of Lords in 1997 as a Labour life peer, attending most days of the week and campaigning on such issues as female genital mutilation, homelessness and gay rights. She was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to the Guardian in August last year, urging voters in Scotland to stay in the UK.

As a writer, she was perhaps best-known for her 24 novels centred on Chief Inspector Reg Wexford, played for 10 years in the TV series The Ruth Rendell Mysteries by the late George Baker. Her last published novel was The Girl Next Door (2014) but, saying she had no plans to retire, she had recently finished another. "If I were to stop writing, which I will not do, I would hate it. I don't know what my life would be like without my writing. It's very important to me.'

Her career spanned half a century and to mark it, her publishers, Hutchinson - Penguin Random House, last year printed a 50th anniversary edition of her first Wexford novel From Doon with Death, for which she had originally been paid £75. She often described Wexford as a taciturn, "ugly" man but confessed that much of his character was based on herself. She also wrote several psychological crime thrillers using the pen name Barbara Vine, delving into the psychology of both criminals and victims, often mentally afflicted or socially isolated. These included A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986). Even her Wexford novels, as Ruth Rendell, gradually became deeper, darker, more topical and more psychological.

"Ruth and Barbara are two aspects of me," she once wrote. "Ruth is tougher, colder, more analytical, possibly more aggressive ... Barbara is more feminine ... For a long time I have wanted Barbara to have a voice as well as Ruth. It would be a softer voice, speaking at a slower pace, more sensitive perhaps, and more intuitive."

Whether writing as Rendell or Vine, she became noted for her blend of elegant prose, cogent plots, believable characters and insights into the human psyche. From the 1960s on, she also reflected fast-moving social changes, raising awareness of such issues as the status of women and domestic violence.

Ruth Barbara Grasemann was born in South Woodford, a suburb in north-east London, in 1930 to an English father, Arthur Grasemann and Swedish-born mother, Ebba Kruse, both of them teachers. Often holidaying in Sweden and Denmark, she learned both languages as well as English. Born in Sundbyberg, Sweden, her mother had moved to Denmark at the age of three and moved to England as a teenager. Her mother developed multiple sclerosis and died when Ruth was a child.

The young Ruth attended the Loughton High School for Girls in Essex (now the mixed Roding Valley High School). Sensing that words might be her vocation, she landed a job as a cub reporter on the local paper, the West Essex Gazette, and later as a feature writer for another Essex paper, the Chigwell Times.

Her editors soon noticed that she had a tendency towards fiction. Sent to write about an allegedly haunted house, she made up a story about the ghost of an old woman living there. The owners threatened to sue the paper for causing a plunge in their house's selling value. On another occasion when she was sent to write about the annual dinner of the local tennis club, she wrote an elaborate account - without actually attending. When her editor noted that she had not mentioned the rather obvious death of the after-dinner speaker in mid-speech, she quit before she could be fired. It was at the local paper that she met Donald Rendell, married him in 1950 and had a son, Simon, in 1953.

She put her vivid imagination to better use in her novels, starting with Wexford and From Doon with Death in 1964 although she also produced several non-fiction works including Ruth Rendell's Suffolk (1989), as well as short stories and the children's book Archie & Archie (2013). Her psychological thriller Live Flesh, featuring a psychopathic rapist called Victor, was turned into a film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in 1997.

Although a passionate socialist, she was good friends with the conservative peer and fellow crime fiction writer P.D. (Phyllis) James, who died last November. After the latter's death, Baroness Rendell wrote in the Guardian: "We never talked abut crime - because it is what we both wrote about - and we never talked about politics ... Once we were in for a vote and crossed paths going to the two division lobbies, she to the "content" lobby and I to the "not content" - and we kissed in the chamber, which caused some concern and amazement."

Baroness Rendell was appointed CBE in 1996 and life peer the following year, taking the title Baroness Rendell of Babergh (in the County of Suffolk) and using her favourite animals - polar bears - on the coat of arms of her formal Lords attire. "She was active in the CND during the 1980s and her royalties allowed her to become one of the Labour party's biggest private financial donors. But she also gave freely to charity, with donations estimated at £100,000 a year, including to children in troubled Darfur, Sudan.

Baroness Rendell had lived her latter years in Maida Vale, in the Little Venice area of north-west London, and in a cottage in Groton, Suffolk. She had been hospitalised in January after a major stroke. Her husband Don died in 1999 and she is survived by their son Simon, who lives in Colorado, and grandchildren Philip and Graham, both students in the United States.

PHIL DAVISON