Author Ruth Rendell dies aged 85

Crime writer Ruth Rendell has expired aged 85, her publisher says.

She wrote more than 60 novels in a profession straddling 50 years, her best-known creation being Inspector Wexford, which was turned into a highly successful TV series.

Rendell, one of Britain's best-selling current authors, also wrote under the pen-name Barbara Vine.

Born in Essex, she is attributed with bringing a social and psychological dimension to crime fiction.

Publisher Penguin Random House alleged Rendell, who suffered a stroke in January, died in London on Saturday morning.

"We are overwhelmed by the forfeiture of one of our best-loved authors," the publisher said in a statement.

Penguin Random House president, Baroness Gail Rebuck, said Rendell was admired throughout publishing for her "brilliant body of work".

"An insightful and elegant observer of civilization, many of her award-winning whodunits and psychological murder mysteries highlighted the causes she cared so deeply about."

Rendell's first Wexford volume, From Doon with Death, was published in 1964, beginning a series of more than 20 starring Inspector Reginald Wexford, played in the TV series by George Baker.

Numerous of her works were decoded into more than 20 languages and adapted for cinema and TV, attracting worldwide sales of 60 million.

She was the essayist of more than 20 standalone novels, whose protagonists were often on the margins of society, and was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for excellence in crime writing.

Her final novel, Dark Corners, is due to be printed in October. Rendell initiated 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 that she hadn't joined. Her report failed to indication that the after-dinner speaker had died half-way through the speech.

Rendell, whose writing brought her significant wealth, was made a Labor life peer in 1997 and is reputed to have given bigheartedly to charity. She was a uttered campaigner against female genital mutilation.

Labor leader Ed Miliband tweeted she would be missed greatly by the party.

She existed born Ruth Barbara Grasemann in 1930 in South Woodford to a Swedish mother and British father.

Rendell married Don Rendell, a reporter, in 1953. Theydivorced 22 years later but remarried each other within two years. She is enduredby their son.