Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime
The Empress of Crime's life was the ultimate detective story – revealed for the first time in this forthright and perceptive biography.While Ngaio Marsh had a flamboyant public persona, she was fiercely protective of her private life. And no one knows better how to cover tracks with red herrings and remove incriminating evidence than a crime fiction writer…This fascinating biography of Ngaio Marsh pieces together both the public and private Marsh in a way that is as riveting as a crime novel. Through her writing and her theatre work, Joanne Drayton assembles the pieces to the puzzle that is Marsh, proving that life can be as thrilling as fiction. Marsh wrote her first detective novel in a London flat in the depths of the 1930s Depression, bringing life to Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn in her first book, A Man Lay Dead. Through 32 novels he would establish himself as one of the great super-sleuths, and Marsh as one of the four Queens of Golden Age detective fiction, alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham.In 1932, a family tragedy brought Marsh home to New Zealand, to a life divided - between hemispheres, between passionate relationships at home and abroad, and between the world of publishing and her life as a stage director. In 1949 her writing would earn her the ultimate distinction when Penguin and Collins released the 'Marsh Million': 100,000 copies each of ten of her titles on to the world market. The popular appetite for classic whodunits was insatiable and Ngaio Marsh was one of the best. But her greatest love was the stage - or was it?
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Ngaio Marsh
˜ HER LIFE IN CRIME ˜
Joanne Drayton
For Suzanne Vincent Marshall
in memory of my fatherMalcolm Drayton(1933-2007)
and sincerest thanks to the staff ofAlexander Turnbull Libraryand National Library of New Zealand
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE A Cradle in a Grave
CHAPTER TWO The Theatre of Death
CHAPTER THREE Companions in Crime
CHAPTER FIVE A Stage Set for Tragedy
CHAPTER SIX The Marsh Million Murders
| 1895 | Born 23 April, Christchurch, New Zealand (birth not registered until 1899). |
| 1910-14 | Secondary education at St Margaret’s College. |
| 1915-19 | Studied painting at Canterbury College School of Art, Christchurch. |
| 1920-22 | Toured with the Allan Wilkie Shakespeare Company and then with the Rosemary Rees Comedy Company. |
| 1922-28 | Painted, freelance journalist and began working with repertory companies and Unlimited Charities to produce amateur theatrical productions. |
| 1928 | Travelled to England. |
| 1928-32 | Lived with the Rhodes family first at Gerrards Cross, then in London. Wrote articles for the Christchurch Press under the title ‘New Canterbury Pilgrim’ and opened a design shop with Nelly Rhodes in Knightsbridge. |
| 1931-32 | Wrote first detective fiction novel, which was submitted to literary agent just before being called back to her mother’s sickbed in New Zealand. Rose Marsh died 23 November 1932. |
| 1932-37 | Established herself as one of the four Queens of Crime; exhibited paintings with the Christchurch Society of Arts and The Group; and produced plays. |
| 1937-38 | Trip to Britain and tour of Europe with Betty Cotterill and Jean Webster. |
| 1938 | Returned to New Zealand and became a Red Cross ambulance driver during the war. |
| 1943 | Directed Shakespeare’s Hamlet for the Canterbury University College Drama Society. |
| 1944-45 | Toured New Zealand with Hamlet and Othello under the aegis of Dan O’Connor. |
| 1948 | Awarded OBE for services to drama and literature. Henry Marsh died 4 September. |
| 1949 | Toured Australia with Six Characters and Othello under the aegis of Dan O’Connor. |
| 1949-51 | Trip to England. Collins threw ‘Marsh Million’ party to celebrate the release of her books. Gathered a company for the British Commonwealth Theatre Company tour, which toured Australia and New Zealand before disbanding. |
| 1952-54 | Writing and directing in Christchurch. |
| 1954-56 | Travelled to England on board the cargo ship Temeraire, which was the inspiration for Singing in the Shrouds. |
| 1956-60 | Writing and directing in Christchurch. |
| 1960-61 | Promotional tour of East Asia, North America and Britain, and lived for over a year in London. |
| 1962-65 | Wrote libretto for A Unicorn for Christmas, which was performed in front of Queen Elizabeth II. Delivered the Macmillan Brown Lectures (1962), and was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by the University of Canterbury (1962). |
| 1966 | Travelled to England, and while there was awarded DBE. Delayed her departure to attend investiture at Buckingham Palace in November. |
| 1968 | Stayed in Rome with Doris and Alister McIntosh. Tour of northern Italy with Pamela Mann, followed by five weeks in London. |
| 1971 | Six-month stay in Britain, with promotional trip to Denmark and visit to Elsinore. |
| 1974-75 | Six-month stay in Britain extended to 18 months by cancer operation. This was her last trip to England. |
| 1976 | Directed last production—Sweet Mr Shakespeare. |
| 1978 | Received the Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America Award. Travelled to Australia to see John Dacres-Mannings and his family. |
| 1982 | Finished Light Thickens, her 32nd novel, just weeks before dying at home on 18 February, aged 86. |
Rain beat incessantly against the window. All weekend she had been alone in her flat, immersed in books and distracted imaginings. The late afternoon light was almost gone as she reached decisively for her mackintosh and umbrella. She was ready, as ready as she would ever be. Up the basement steps she hurtled and onto the London street. The last stragglers of the day dashed purposefully past her, as she pulled the collar of her coat tight around her neck and bent into the weather. She moved swiftly, a tall, dark figure etched by streetlamps against unfolding blackness. Outside the local stationer’s she hesitated for an instant before thrusting into the smell ‘of damp newsprint, cheap magazines, and wet people’. She bought ‘six exercise books, a pencil and pencil sharpener and splashed back to the flat’. Against the wind that threw itself at walls and fingered its way around cracks, she heaped the coal fire in the grate and drew her chair closer. With pencil posed, and exercise book in her lap, she was prepared—for murder.
