Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime
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Product Description
Product Description
One of the celebrated 1930s and 40s Queens of Crime' Ngaio Marsh was probably our first million copy author. Her tightly written stylish whodunits were perennial favorites rating alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. She was also seriously in love with the theatre and her triumphant return to New Zealand to establish the Court Theatre in Christchurch saw her feted and honored with the title dame of the British Empire. With her coterie of 'luvvies' the handsome gay boys who were a part of her entourage and her proteges in many fields of the arts and her impeccable landed gentry upbringing Dame Ngaio dominated the News Zealand performing arts scene for many years before her death. A biography was produced to no great acclaim and it was a tedious hagiography of Dame Ngaio the woman of stature. Dr Jo Drayton award winning art historian and writer was awarded the Alexander Turnbull fellowship for 2007 and has used the time to complete the research and writing of this her most exciting book to date. There was another story to be told a much more textured rich and fascinating story of a young woman of ambiguous sexuality who reveled in the abandon of the Bohemian Riviera whose spurned suitor committed suicide and whose scintillating murder mysteries all took their inspiration setting or characters from the heady life she enjoyed as a member of the in set in England where one moved between town house and country estate. In what will be one of the most read and most significant biographies of 2008 Ngaio Marsh comes to life and finally steps out from behind the cardboard cutout of respectability and decorum.
About the Author
Dr Joanne Drayton is the author of Edith Collier Her Life and Work, 1885-1964 (1999); Rhona Haszard: An Expatriate New Zealand Artist (2002) and Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing (2005) and contributed a chapter to Between the Lives: Partners in Art (2005). She has curated exhibitions of Collier, Haszard, Hodgkins, and D. K. Richmond's work, and publishes in art history and theory. In 2007, she was awarded a National Library Fellowship to write a biography of Dame Ngaio Marsh.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but could be better,
By
This review is from: Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (Paperback)
I have read all of Ngaio Marsh's detective novels and enjoyed the varied backgrounds for each. This biography shows the basis for many of the books and the way in which Marsh used her experiences to create a great sense of place even in novels with less than perfect plots. Most of her books are good stories and are well worth reading as normally the plots are clever and the writing is witty and erudite.
Marsh herself comes over as a private woman with a huge love of the arts, being herself artist, writer, actor and director. She drove the development of New Zealand theatre in the mid 20th century and got a well deserved damehood for both writing and theatre. This biography draws a lot of information from letters and her own autobiography, together with articles and interviews given by Marsh. In respect of being a good source of information on Marsh, it is fine. However it could have done with a darn good edit, as information is repeated, the order of events is confused with some duplications and some gaps. There is a huge focus on her theatrical productions, with discussion on their merits or otherwise, reviews, thoughts on the production itself. The books are merely described. There seemed to me to be a lot of judgementalism in the author's view of Marsh, speculating constantly about her sexuality and relationships with women. The main evidence for her supposed lesbianism appears to be because she wore mannish outfits. As a six foot rail thin woman these clothes probably suited her! Still worth a read as a glimpse of this fascinating woman, but I didnt feel that I knew her much better at the end.
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book makes sense,
By
This review is from: Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (Paperback)
I had read Ngaio Marsh's Black Beech and Honeydew and found it a big disappointment as half the book told about her childhood and the other half was all about theatre(the childhood part was intesting though). Her books were mentioned in a couple of sentences. This book explains her reticence and gives depth to her as a person.And most of all:it tells us about her books and the way they interacted with her life. Thank you,Ms Drayton!
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Neglected Writer from the Golden Age of detective Fiction,
By
This review is from: Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (Paperback)
Ngaio Marsh is one of those female writers who follows in the wake of Agatha Christie and yet developed the police procedural novel far more through her series of 32 books about Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his team. She ranks in the top four Queens of the Golden Age detective fiction alongside Christie,Sayers and Allingham. As a New Zealander with a great love of the theatre and as a Stage Director she moved between the worlds of writing and theatre successfully. Collins and Penguin in 1949 published what was known as the "Marsh Million": 100,000 copies of each of ten of her titles on to the world market. The popular interest for the classic whodunit was insatiable and Dame Ngaio Marsh was one of the best. This detailed biography out on the 75th Anniversary of her first novel is published at the same time as a reissue of all 32 novels in the Inspector Alleyn series together with her Short Stories and autobiography "Black Beech & Honeydew". Time for a fresh look at "Her Life in Crime" I think.
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