Ruth Rendell

She decided to continue writing fiction and published From Doon with Death in 1964, the first of her works to feature the popular Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford.

In addition to the popular Wexford novels, Rendell also writes psychological crime novels, and in a separate, third strand, she also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, publishing novels such as A Dark Adapted Eye and A Fatal Inversion. In addition, she is also a life peer in the House of Lords (her full title is Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE,), and her most recently published novels are The Minotaur and The Water's Lovely.

On the programme, Ruth discusses her exceptionally full life, balancing countless bestsellers - under her own name and the pseudonym - with her family and her work in the House of Lords with the simple acknowledgment, "I'm a busy person". She also feels strongly that women have a tendency to become invisible in society as they get older; not something, evidently, she feels has happened to her, but something she has observed elsewhere and hopes to change.

She discusses her latest novel, The Water's Lovely and approves of the term 'whydunnits', as opposed to 'whodunnits' for her novels. For her, the psychological element is an important one: "I would very much like to think that I'm giving a picture of Britain today - very much in the here and now." She also discusses what drives her to write - an innate passion she says, that means "I really do write about what I want to write about" and comments on her four decades-long relationship with her creation, Inspector Wexford: "I don't think I have a relationship with him in the same way that many of my readers do".

The Water's Lovely is priced £17.99, as is available from all good bookshops now.