Crime novelist Peter James, author of Britain’s popular Roy Grace series, has penned 44 books, which have been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 21 million copies. He boasts 19 consecutive No.1. best-sellers and no fewer than four dozen prestigious awards.
But before reaching such lofty heights, the Brighton-born author briefly worked in the late 1960s as a housekeeper — for Orson Welles.
“He paid me 10 shillings an hour. I was 19, at film school, living in a tiny flat in London. My dad gave me enough for £8 rent, food and train fare,” James, 75, told The Telegraph in a recent interview. “I met this posh girl I wanted to invite out so I had to earn money. I saw an advert in a newsagent’s ‘CLEANER WANTED. APPLY MRS. WELLES’.”
Welles’ wife, Paola Mori, told James she had expected the applicant would be a woman, but he got the job.
“I was scrubbing the skirting board when all this mail arrived addressed to Orson Welles. Then the door opened and in he walked,” James recalled. “He looked down, said, ‘Good morning,’ and walked upstairs and shut the door.”
Two days later, James returned to work full of questions to ask the filmmaker, “but he’d gone to America.”
In an earlier interview with Trace Evidence, James said his career as a domestic worker was short-lived. “Mrs. Welles very sweetly told me she didn’t think I was really cut out for this job. I had to agree… But it taught me a lesson for the future — always grab an opportunity!”
Following his education at Ravensbourne Film School, James moved to North America, working as a screenwriter and film producer. He gained fame as a novelist in 1988 with the publication of Possession.
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