The P D James Fund

Baroness James of Holland Park was an Honorary Fellow of the College, as well as a frequent guest of honour at the annual St Hilda’s Mystery and Crime Conference and the Barbara Pym Society events. The P D James Fund has been established in her memory to support the work of the English School and students at St Hilda’s College.

The Fund helps secure a number of subject-specific initiatives within the English School, including their annual Speaker & Subject Dinner. This is named as the P D James Event and student attendance is subsidised through the P D James Memorial Fund.

More widely, the English School currently uses the Fund to help promote a love of literature and the arts throughout the College community by underwriting St Hilda’s Gold Membership at the Oxford Playhouse. This provides a number of free and subsidised tickets for college students and non-academic staff. Feedback from college users has been extremely positive.