Ngaio Marsh

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Ngaio Marsh, ca.1935

Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh DBE (born April 23, 1895 in Merivale , Christchurch , † February 18, 1982 in Christchurch, New Zealand) was a New Zealand writer , actress and theater director .

Marsh is considered one of the more important authors of the classic detective stories , as they were written mainly by British authors in the period between the two world wars. Marsh wrote 32 detective novels between 1934 and 1982 . Many of them are set in the theatrical environment, often they revolve around Shakespeare 's dramas. The serial hero of Ngaio Marsh is Roderick Alleyn , like the prototype of many English authors of noble descent, but at the same time inspector at Scotland Yard . The Mystery Writers of America (MWA) nominated Marsh twice for the Edgar Allan Poe Award . In 1978, Marsh received MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award , for her achievement in crime fiction.

Marsh personally, her work as a theater director and mentor to actors was more important than her writing career. She worked for several decades to establish a permanent acting group in New Zealand. One of the first permanent theaters in Christchurch was named after her Dame Ngaio Marsh Theater . In 1966 Marsh was ennobled "for her achievements in the theater sector" by Queen Elizabeth II as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire .

Life

Family and childhood

Ngaio Marsh with two dolls, ca.1905
Ngaio Marsh as a prefect in the uniform of St. Margaret's College, around 1910-1914

Marsh's father, Henry Edmund Marsh, came from a British family that traced its origins to both the de Marisco family, a pirate family on Lundy Island , and Richard Stephen March, a courtier from the time of Charles II . The family was impoverished; her father had completed a banking apprenticeship in London and emigrated to New Zealand in 1888. His professional career was not particularly successful, however: he remained one of the lower employees of the Bank of New Zealand throughout his life .

Ngaio Marsh's maternal grandfather Edward Seager had held various public offices in Christchurch , Rose Elizabeth Seager - the mother of Ngaio Marsh - was the fifth of a total of eleven siblings and had stood on stage as a young woman. She gave up her stage career when she married Henry Marsh in 1894.

Marsh learned to read when she was around four years old and attended private elementary school from the age of six or seven, graduating in 1907. Her parents then hired a governess for their only daughter, whom she introduced to Shakespeare, among other things. She was also taught piano and took drawing and painting lessons. When she was enrolled in St. Margaret's College, a secondary school, in 1910, it was also with the expectation that Ngaio Marsh would pursue an artistic career.

First successes as a director and author

St. Margaret's was a new and expensive private school for girls run by nuns from an Anglican religious community . Marsh only later realized the financial sacrifice her parents made when they enrolled their only child in this school, which was famous for its education. Marsh succeeded at this school: Her fascination with Shakespeare was further strengthened, she became co-editor of the school's literary magazine, was recognized in a national essay competition and was elected prefect. The school also encouraged her enthusiasm for the theater. Ngaio wrote and directed a short play for the lower grades when it was performed. The Moon Princess , a play that was also written by her and performed with friends, even received reviews in the local newspaper. As a recognition, Marsh received from her grandfather a velvet jacket, among other things, which supposedly belonged to the great Shakespeare mime Edmund Kean . Many years later, Marsh presented this jacket to Sir Laurence Olivier on the occasion of the performance of his Richard III. in Christchurch.

After she had successfully completed the upper school of St. Margaret's, she enrolled in 1913 at the New Zealand art academy "Canterbury College School of Art". The education of the students followed a curriculum that was closely based on the British Royal Academy of Arts . The focus on traditional and European art ideas corresponded to Marsh's artistic ideas. She won several awards and scholarships that made her study possible. In 1919 she finished her studies and initially lived with her parents again. During her studies she had occasionally made money by tutoring and doing some minor journalistic work. The performances of the "Allan Wilkie Shakespeare Company", a touring theater group that made guest appearances in Christchurch and which performed, among other things, the Shakespeare plays Hamlet , A Midsummer Night's Dream , As You Like It and What You Want , inspired them, a melodramatic piece entitled The To compose a medallion which she sent to the artistic director Allan Wilkie. He then asked them to meet. A few weeks later, Wilkie offered her to take on smaller roles in his ensemble if the theater company returned to New Zealand to show more modern plays.

actress

Marsh made her stage debut as a professional actress in April 1920. Together with the theater company, she toured all of New Zealand and performed in numerous town halls. In the months that followed, she learned a lot about theater work: how actors cooperate, how they work towards a climax, how they take breaks, but also how a close group gets along. The crime novel Champagner-Mord (Vintage Murder) , which Marsh published 18 years later, is dedicated to the Wilkie couple, to whom she and her parents remained friends for many years.

After working with the Wilkie theater company, Marsh focused mostly on painting. She exhibited with a group of friends from her academy days, wrote articles for newspapers, tried short stories and started a novel. She also played in amateur plays or worked as a director with amateur theater groups.

Stay in Great Britain

Ngaio Marsh with the Rhodes and Plunket families. Nelly Rhodes is in the middle of the group, Ngaio Marsh is second from the right

Close friends of the Marsh family included Tahu Rhodes, son of a wealthy and well-known Christchurch family, and his wife Helen or "Nelly". The couple lived with their five lively children on Meadowbank, a large sheep farm near Christchurch. Ngaio Marsh spent a lot of time with the Rhodes and was also godmother of the youngest Rhode offspring. In 1927, however, the couple sold their property in New Zealand and returned to Great Britain. They invited Marsh to follow them there. Marsh had saved some money from her journalistic work and from selling her paintings. She had also managed to get a few travel articles to be published in New Zealand. Encouraged by her parents, she left for Great Britain on board the cargo ship Balkanland in September 1928 , where she arrived 10 weeks later. For the next five years, Ngaio Marsh lived in the Rhodes area. Together with Nelly Rhodes, she opened a small craft shop in London's Brompton Road in 1929 , where they sold lampshades, lacquer trays and the like, among other things. Marsh even worked briefly as a model for a British fashion designer. In London, Ngaio Marsh not only found plenty of opportunities to see modern plays like Luigi Pirandello's Six People Are Looking for an Author , but also to devote more time to their writing.

The first detective novel

While she was still in Great Britain, Marsh, inspired by reading a detective novel, began to write her own. The setting is an English country house. A group of people come there to spend a weekend together. The characters are inspired by people Marsh met through the Rhodes. Even if Dubose Marsh's first detective novel Das Todesspirale (A Man Lay Dead) does not convincingly name because the plot has inconsistencies, he still followed the rules of classic detective stories, as they were written mainly by British authors between 1920 and 1940. Roderick Alleyn, their Scotland Yard inspector of noble descent, is the protagonist for the first time in this detective novel. Marsh gave the manuscript to Edmund Cork, who also looked after Agatha Christie and who placed it with the Blues publishing house, where it appeared in 1934.

Her mother's serious illness caused Marsh to return to Christchurch in August 1932. Her mother died three months later. While Marsh was starting to paint again, she learned from the UK that her publisher was interested in more books and she began writing more novels. Your next two books, shot in the theater (Enter a Murderer) and murder in hospital (The Nursing Home Murder) appeared in 1935. The latter novel was inspired by a gynecological operation, which had to undergo Marsh and made it impossible for her to get pregnant become. In 1937, after she had completed her first detective novel set in New Zealand (The Champagne Murder , original title Vintage Murder) , she returned to Great Britain for a short time. Immediately at the start of World War II , she returned to New Zealand and supported the Allied war efforts as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross.

Theater director

Marsh with actors from the University of Canterbury Drama Society in a Hamlet production. July 11, 1958

Marsh's career as a theater director, for which she was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth in 1966 with the title of Lady Commander of the Order of the British Empire , began rather casually. In 1941 she was approached by students at the Canterbury University College Drama Society, asking if she would produce a play with them. Despite the lack of equipment and only moderately talented actors, Marsh discovered how much she valued working with young actors and stage people. In 1943, students at this university theater approached them again and Marsh agreed to support them if the students opted for a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet . Although there was concern that New Zealand viewers would not be enthusiastic about this several hundred year old piece, the company achieved a great success with the performance. This first success was followed by other productions of Shakespeare plays such as Othello , Midsummer Night's Dream , Henry V and Macbeth , for the performance of which she toured New Zealand. She was known for her commitment to establishing a permanent theater company in New Zealand, and in recognition of her achievements, she was hired to give a series of workshops at Canterbury University College. She also ran New Zealand's first permanent drama school.

Marsh felt a particular connection to traditional British theater, while she was not very open to contemporary theater. However, she showed a sure hand in selecting actors; a number of them later had stage and film successes in London, New York and Hollywood. She financed her stage work with the successful marketing of other crime novels. The detective novels Color Scheme (dt. At risk Red ) and Died in the Wool (1945, no German translation) playing in New Zealand, where her protagonist works during the Second World War for the military intelligence.

London and back to New Zealand

Marsh's father died in 1948 and Marsh, now 53, no longer had any family responsibilities in New Zealand. In mid-July 1949 she returned to London. Her publisher William Collins organized a Marsh Millions Party together with Penguin Verlag , because ten of her books had meanwhile reached a circulation of 100,000 copies each. The sale of her books and her repeated appearances on the BBC radio programs allowed her to live a more luxurious life. She bought the first of a line of jaguars and was known in the London neighborhood for walking smartly dressed with a Siamese cat on a leash. She was commissioned to stage a stage version of A Surfeit of Lampreys ( Death in the Lift , 1941). The production was received with little enthusiasm by the London theater critics. Her staging of the Pirandello play Six People Looking for an Author received better criticism .

In 1949 Marsh founded the British Commonwealth Theater Company to travel to the Antipodes with a troupe of young actors and perform plays there. The tour turned out to be a fiasco. Marsh, who returned to New Zealand in 1951, put the blame on unsuitable venues. But even in Christchurch, where the performance conditions were above average, the cast did not succeed in attracting sufficient audience interest.

The last two decades of life

Until 1974, Ngaio Marsh spent long periods of time in Great Britain. There and on her worldwide reading tours, she appeared as a glamorous and adaptable crime writer who was invited to drinks with Princess Margaret and dinner with Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quayle . In Christchurch, on the other hand, she was primarily perceived as a hard-working, carelessly dressed theater producer who enjoyed tinkering around her sprawling garden and working on her novels. Glamorous appearances were limited to official occasions and their occasional cocktail parties. In 1966 her autobiography Black Beach and Honeydew appeared , which she had written at the urging of her friend and publisher William Collins. She herself was not satisfied with her work, and neither her reading public nor the critics liked it.

In 1966, Ngaio Marsh was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DB E) by Queen Elizabeth . Denys Rhodes, son of her old friends Tau and Nelly Rhodes, who frequented the royal court, played a prank on her on the occasion of her solemn acceptance into this British knightly order. He sent a message to Queen Elizabeth that Ngaio Marsh had severe walking difficulties and preferred to be spoken to by Edith. Accordingly, it was arranged at court that Ngaio Marsh was brought to a side entrance of Buckingham Palace, where a servant with a wheelchair was waiting for them.

Towards the end of 1972, Ngaio Marsh directed her last Shakespeare play in New Zealand. The work on Henry V turned out to be extremely exhausting for her. A little later she fell heavily in her house and a little later a second time in her sloping garden. In 1974 she traveled to England for the last time. She now officially became a member of the Detection Club , which had existed since 1928 and whose founding members included such respected crime writers as Anthony Berkeley , Agatha Christie , Dorothy L. Sayers , Henry Wade and Freeman Wills Crofts . Together with Julian Symons and Harry Keating, she went on a reading tour, but ultimately had to admit that her health was not good. Shortly afterwards she was diagnosed with cancer and a little later she was operated on at London's King's College Hospital . She recovered only slowly from this operation and a little later she also suffered a hernia. She also suffered from gout, her hearing became increasingly impaired and, eventually, eye problems made her stop driving her Jaguar. In May 1977, when she was hospitalized for heart problems and thrombosis, an early obituary appeared in London for her. In June 1980, a heart attack forced her to be hospitalized again and a series of premature obituaries reappeared. Photo Finish ( applause for the bitter end , 1980), her latest crime novel, was also positively discussed. Her last detective novel Light Thickens (German murder in front of a full house ) was finished at Christmas 1981. The background of the novel is a Macbeth production. On February 3, her literary agent notified her that the novel had been accepted for publication, but did not tell her that the publisher had requested a major revision. A few days later, on February 18, 1982, Marsh died at her home in Christchurch.

Classification of the literary work

Ngaio Marsh in the 1940s

Few detective novelists have set their plot so often in the theater world. Five of the 32 detective novels are set in a theater: “A shot in the theater” (Enter a Murderer), “Champagne Mord” (Vintage Murder), “Thursday Premiere” (Opening Night), “Der Handschuh” (Death at the Dolphin) and her last detective novel “Murder in front of a full house” (Light Thickens). Three more revolve around stars of the stage: “Last Applause” (Final Curtain), “Miss Bellamy dies” (False Scent) and “Applause for the bitter end” (Photo Finish). In two of her other novels, the performance of an amateur drama group is essential for the plot: Overture to Death and "Death and the Dancing Footman". The New York Times critic wrote about Marsh that hardly any other author succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of a theater or conveying the technical framework conditions of a stage production. Her most important protagonist, Inspector Alleyn, also habitually quotes Shakespeare and solves cases, among other things, by reenacting the murder situation. Ultimately, her novels also follow a specific structure. Martha Halley Dubose also points out that each of her detective novels is, to some extent, a three-act drama: In the first act, a limited number of characters are introduced and a murder occurs. In the second act, a detective investigates and a variety of different motives for murder are uncovered. In the third act, the number of murder suspects decreases and finally the perpetrators are exposed at the height of the act. Dubose points out that this narrative style is generally not atypical for a detective novel. However, only a few authors succeed in distinguishing these three phases from one another so clearly. According to Dubose, Marsh also used this three-way division very specifically to create intelligent storylines. While writing dialogue and creating believable characters was easy for her, Marsh's greatest challenge in writing was drafting the plot.

In literary history, Ngaio Marsh is classified very differently. Admirers of her works point out that she has helped detective novels develop into works in which psychology and characterization of the characters played a major role. Others point out that she does not manage to maintain the tension and that the plot after the murder incident is often dull and unnecessarily complicated. This was emphasized most strongly by Julian Symons, with whom she actually made good friends on a reading tour in 1974. As an example, he cited her detective novel Opening Night (German premiere Thursday ), the first half of which he called a brilliant drawing of the intrigues that take place before the premiere of a new production. The second half of the novel, which deals with solving the murder case, does not face real-life emotional problems, but adopts the official investigations and questioning the suspects. The novel loses its mood as a result. Symons added that this problem was not confined to a single work by Ngaio Marsh. Martha Halley Dubose supplemented this with the criticism that few criminal authors were able to draw as soon fascinating characters, and cites as an example the figure Bare in Black As He's Paintet (dt. Black as night ) and the opera singer Isabella Sommita in Photo Finish ( applause for the bitter end ). Marsh, however, has always stuck to the conventions of the detective novel and that is why, as a rule, she does not manage to maintain the arc of suspense.

Evaluation of one´s own writing achievement

Although she appreciated the relative wealth her writing brought her, Marsh always considered her theatrical work to be more accomplished. In New Zealand, she rarely commented on her detective novels and even recorded publicly:

"New Zealand intellectual friends tactfully avoid any consideration of my published works, and if they like me I can't help feeling that they like me despite their existence."

Martha Halley Dubose notes that Marsh has often been accused of snobbery because her crime novels seem to celebrate the British class system. Marsh's true snobbery is shown in reality in the disdain for the literary genre that has allowed her financially to pursue her passion for the theater.

Trivia

The British crime novelist Julian Symons dedicated his 1975 novel A three-pipe problem to Ngaio Marsh . Together with Marsh, he was on a reading tour of Great Britain in the early 1970s, during which they presented their respective books to interested readers. When he told Marsh, who was already very old at the time, during a train ride back to London that he was working on a new detective novel, the protagonist of which was closely based on Sherlock Holmes , she suggested the title to him. It's a quote from the Conan Doyle novel The Red-Headed League , a Sherlock Holmes short story.

Works

Autobiography and short stories

  • Black beech and honeydew. An autobiography . Collins, Auckland 1981, ISBN 0-00-216367-5 .
  • Death in the ether. Collected stories ("Death on the air and other stories"). Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-442-05177-0 .

Roderick Alleyn novels

  • The death game ("A Man Lay Dead"). 3. Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-04990-3 . Newly translated by Holger Hanowell: Das Todesspiel. A case for Inspector Alleyn. Bastei Lübbe, 2019, ISBN 978-3-404-17891-9 .
  • A shot in the theater ("Enter a Murderer"). Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-442-11589-2 . Newly translated by Holger Hanowell: A shot in the theater. A case for Inspector Alleyn. Bastei Lübbe, 202, ISBN 978-3-404-17977-0 .
  • Murder in the clinic ("The Nursing Home Murder"). Goldmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-05040-8 and ISBN 3-442-05040-5 .
  • Death in Ecstasy ("Death in Ecstasy"). Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-05016-2 .
  • The champagne murder ("Vintage Murder"). 3. Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-04917-2 .
  • Murder in the studio ("Artists in Crime"). 5th edition. Goldmann, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-442-05000-6 .
  • Death in tails ("Death in a White Tie"). 3. Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-04908-3 .
  • Overture to Death ("Overture to Death"). Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-442-11589-2 .
  • Death in the pub ("Death at the Bar"). 2nd Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-04904-0 .
  • Death in the lift ("Surfeit of Lampreys"). Goldmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-442-04980-6 (formerly the title of the Lamprey family ).
  • Death and the dancing servants ( "Death and the Dancing Footman"). Translation Ruth Feiner . Goldmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-442-04974-1 .
  • Red in case of danger (“Color Scheme”). Goldmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-442-04968-7 .
  • Died in the wool . New edition St. Martin's Press, New York 1998, ISBN 0-312-96604-0 .
  • Last applause (“Final Curtain”). Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-05008-1 .
  • My lord does not kill ("Swing, Brother, Swing"). 4th edition. Goldmann, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-442-04910-5 .
  • Thursday premiere ("Opening Night"). 3. Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-502-50932-8 .
  • The castle of Mr. Oberon ("Spinsters in Jeopardy"). 3. Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-04954-7 .
  • Mute witnesses ("Scales of Justice"). Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-05028-6 .
  • The Death of the Fool ("Off With His Head / Death of a Fool"). Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-04946-6 .
  • The Hyacinth Killer ("Singing in the Shrouds"). Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-05036-7 .
  • Miss Bellamy dies ("False Scent"). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-502-51154-3 .
  • If it falls into the ditch, it falls into the swamp ("Hand in Glove"). 3. Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-04912-1 .
  • Behind the Dead Water. Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-05033-2 .
  • The glove ("Death at the Dolphin"). Goldmann, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-442-04934-2 .
  • Death on the River ("Clutch of Constables"). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-502-50814-3 (former title The portrait is missing in the profile ).
  • Dying included (“When in Rome”). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-502-50814-3 (former title The price includes death ).
  • The death of a snowman ("Tied up in Tinsel"). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-502-50829-1 .
  • Black as the night ("Black as He's Painted"). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-502-50851-8 .
  • A keen ear for false tones (“Last Ditch”). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-502-50973-5 .
  • Between the coffin and the pit (“Grave Mistake”). 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-502-51008-3 .
  • Applause at the bitter end (“Photo Finish”). Scherz Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-502-50898-4 .
  • Murder in front of a full house ("Light Thickens"). 2nd Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-04994-6 .

Film adaptations of individual works

  • Sarah Pia Anderson (Director): A man lay dead . 1993 (based on the novel Das Todesspiel ).
  • Martyn Friend (Director): Final curtain . 1993 (based on the novel Last Applause ).
  • Martyn Friend (Director): Hand in glove . 1994 (based on the novel If he falls in the ditch, he falls in the swamp ).
  • Silvio Narizzano (Director): Artists in Crime . 1990 (based on the novel Murder in the Atelier ).
  • Silvio Narizzano (Director): The nursing-home murder . 1993 (based on the novel Murder in the Clinic ).
  • Michael Winterbottom (Director): Death at the bar . 1993 (based on the novel Death in the Pub ).
  • John Woods (Director): Death in a white tie . 1993 (based on the novel Death in Tails ).

literature

  • Joanne Drayton: Ngaio Marsh. Her life in crime . HarperCollins, Auckland 2008, ISBN 978-1-86950-635-3 .
  • Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery - The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists . Thomas Dunne Books, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-312-27655-3 .
  • Margaret Lewis: Ngaio Marsh. A life . Poisoned Pen Edition, Scottsdale, Ariz. 1998, ISBN 1-890208-05-1 .
  • Kathryne S. MacDorman: Ngaio Marsh . Twayne Publ., Boston, Mass. 1991, ISBN 0-8057-6999-4 .
  • Otto Penzler et al. (Ed.): Detectionary. A biographical dictionary of leading characters in detective and mystery fiction . Overlock Press, Woodstock 1977, ISBN 0-87951-041-2 .
  • BJ Rahn (Ed.): Ngaio Marsh. The woman and her work . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Ma. 2007, ISBN 978-0-8108-5939-5 (commemorative publication on the occasion of her 100th birthday).

Web links

Commons : Ngaio Marsh  - Collection of Images

Single receipts

  1. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 246.
  2. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 227.
  3. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 229.
  4. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 229.
  5. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 231.
  6. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 231.
  7. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 229.
  8. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 233.
  9. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 234.
  10. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 235.
  11. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 237.
  12. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 239.
  13. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 239.
  14. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 241.
  15. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 244.
  16. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 243.
  17. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 245.
  18. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 246.
  19. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 248.
  20. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 250.
  21. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 252.
  22. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 253.
  23. ↑ quoted from Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 235. In the original the quote is; ... no other writer evokes the incense of the playhouse or Describes the technical details of stage production with the degree of authenticity did Dame Ngaio Achieved ... .
  24. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 235.
  25. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 236.
  26. ↑ Julian Symons : Bloody Murder. From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel; a history . Pan Books, London 1994, ISBN 0-330-33303-8 .
  27. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 254.
  28. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 246. The original quote is: Intellectual Neu Zealand friends tactfully avoid all mention of my published work, and if the like me, do so, I cannot but feel, in spite of it.
  29. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 247.
  30. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery. 2011, p. 225.
personal data
SURNAME Marsh, Ngaio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marsh, Edith Ngaio (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand writer, actress and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Merivale , Christchurch
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1982
Place of death Christchurch , New Zealand