Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime (50 page)

Read Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime Online

Authors: Joanne Drayton

BOOK: Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime

8.53Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

37
is the biggest room
NCP,
9 Nov 1929, p. 17.

38
I have become a shopkeeper
NCP,
‘Shops, Houses and Theatres’, [undated cutting, c. 1930], MS-Group-1635, ATL, Wellington.

38
In respect of dogs
BB,
p. 211.

38
We became slightly less amateurish
Ibid, p. 212.

39
raked by a cold wind
NCP, 20 Apr 1929, p. 13.

39
I saw a dramatization
BB,
p. 202.

39
students, labourers
Ibid.

40
demand that the drama
Brown (ed.),
The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre,
p. 390.

40
smell of the West End
BB,
p. 196.

40
‘Uncles’ was the smart
Ibid, p. 202.

40-41
Sometimes the Prince of Wales
Ibid, p. 201.

42
a number of secretaryships
Ibid, p. 213.

43
at the top of his formidable
Ibid, p. 133.

43
[Tokareff’s death]
Peter Tokareff
, J 46, cor1919/1272, Archives New Zealand, Wellington.

Chapter Two
The Theatre of Death

44
cruelly and as excruciatingly
BB,
p. 220.

45
The roof leaked
‘Edward Seager—pioneer therapist’,
New Zealand Heritage,
Vol. 2, p. 625.

45
Puck-like
BB,
pp. 28-29.

47
‘They aren’t really fighting
Ibid, p. 32.

47
[International Exhibition]
The International Exhibition was held at Hagley Park, the venue costing £90,000 to construct, and the event attracting 1,900,000 visitors over a six-month period. The site included an art gallery, concert hall, machinery hall, fernery, and Maori pa complete with fortifications.

47 [Dickens books]
Harding, ‘The Janus Problem’, unpubl MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 1979, pp. 16-19.

48
From the beginning
BB,
p. 49.

49
How superb
Ibid, p. 37.

49
We bought a tin
Ibid, p. 53.

49
had a poor ear
Ibid, p. 62.

50
To say that I took
Ibid, p.71.

50
Eng. Lit.
Ibid, pp. 74-75.

51
To my amazement
Ibid, p. 76.

51
I showed it to my friends
Ibid, p. 81.

52
Is there such a thing
Ibid, p. 173.

52
Whatever I may write
Ibid, pp. 32-33.

52
on a warm evening
Ibid, p. 219.

52
Most of us
Ibid, p. 220.

53
with his hand shaking
Ibid, p. 220.

54
Mr. Marsh’s manipulation
Quoted in Bruce Harding, ‘Ngaio Marsh’,
Mystery and Suspense Writers: The literature of crime, detection, and espionage,
Vol. 2, (ed. Robin W. Winks), Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1998.

54
trying to get the smell
BB,
p. 220.

56
If you long above everything
Ibid, p. 215.

57
[When] we built a hut
Ibid, p. 221.

58
[The Canterbury Society of Arts]
Kirker,
New Zealand Women Artists,
p. 64.

58
[fellow pupils]
Canterbury College School of Art
: Evelyn Page enrolled in 1915, Rata Lovell-Smith in 1917, Rhona Haszard in 1919.

58
Life at an Art School
Southland Girls’ High School Magazine,
1921.

59
a lithe, slim figure
Greener, ‘Rhona Haszard—her tragic death: youth at the threshold of fame’,
New Zealand Free Lance,
4 Mar 1931, E. H. McCormick Research Library, AAG.

59
It had never occurred to me
BB,
p. 98.

59 [Ngaio’s awards]
Canterbury College School of Art Records, School of Fine Arts Library, University of Canterbury.

59 [Ngaio’s exhibitions]
Hearnshaw and King, ‘Ngaio Marsh painting’,
Art New Zealand,
No. 78, Autumn 1996, p. 79.

59
It was a
tiny
room
Extract from an interview conducted by Pricilla Pitts with Evelyn Page in May 1982 at the artist’s home in Thorndon, Wellington.

60
There [was no] deliberate attitude
Catchpole, ‘The Group’, unpublished MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 1984, p. 5.

60
We invited
Pitts interview with Page, May 1982. Quoted in Catchpole, ‘The Group’, p. 3.

61 [Ngaio’s exhibitions]
Hearnshaw and King, ‘Ngaio Marsh painting’, p. 79.

62
I spent three months
BB,
p. 221.

63
startlingly realistic
Ibid, p. 222.

63 An actress
Ibid, p. 223.

64
the imposing Temple of Truth
Richard S. Hill, ‘Worthington, Arthur Bently 1847-1917’,
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

65
To this day
BB
, p. 14

65
Death is never
James, ‘P.D. James on Ngaio Marsh’, an address given by Baroness James of Holland Park on the centenary of Ngaio Marsh’s birth, London, 27 Apr 1995, p. 3.

67
The opening night of
Hamlet
BB,
p. 123.

68
I obtained the address
Ibid, pp. 127-28.

68
Your father
Ibid, pp. 134-35.

69
On a warm autumn morning
Ibid, p. 136.

69
I learnt how actors
Ibid, p. 142.

69
Without knowing it
Ibid, p. 153.

69-70
I, however, persisted
Ibid, p. 147.

70
On a wet night
Ibid, p. 154.

70
It wasn’t easy
Ibid, pp. 155-56.

70
I heard myself saying
Ibid, p. 156.

70
She was unable to discover
Ibid, p. 157.

71
My mother must have
Ibid, p. 161.

71
Jimmy discovered
Ibid.

71
There were to be other tours
Ibid, p. 154.

71-72
[Susan Max]
‘Dame Ngaio: detective fiction writer’.

73
Readers in the golden years
James, ‘P.D. James on Ngaio Marsh’, p. 2.

73
On my return
Ibid, p. 228.

Chapter Three
Companions in Crime

76
It started off rather grandly
91-051, ATL, Wellington.

78
I get a feeling
‘A Passionate Affair: Ngaio Marsh’, 29 May 2001, BBC, British Sound Archives, British Library, London.

78
talk about ‘well-written’
mysteries Wilson, ‘Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?’,
The New Yorker,
20 Jan 1945; quoted in Haycraft,
The Art of the Mystery Story,
p. 395.

78
There must be no
Wright, ‘Twenty rules for writing detective stories’,
The American Magazine,
Sep 1928; quoted in Haycraft,
The Art of the Mystery Story,
pp. 189-90.

80
I always tried
Winn (ed.),
Murderess Ink,
p. 142.

80
I wanted to be told flatly
BB,
p. 99.

82
I enjoyed best the nights
Ibid, pp. 100-01.

83
Mr Wallwork was pushing
Olivia Spencer Bower Papers, Archives, CAG Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

84
On the road outside Camberley
NM, ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Before the Coronation’,
The Press, 29
May 1937, p. 14.

86
Where Conan Doyle
Hume,
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab,
pp. xiii-xiv.

88 [execution information]
Gatrell,
The Hanging Tree,
pp. 589-611, 618-19.

89
Death in a White Tie
might have been
called Winn,
Murderess Ink,
p. 143.

90
this officer is keen
Edward Griffith Bristed, WW1 6/1786, Archives New Zealand, Wellington.

91
We said at the beginning [and following]
‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Journey into the Past’,
The Press, 29
Jan 1938, p. 18.

92
It is difficult to order [and following]
‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Across Belgium’,
The Press,
12 Feb 1938, p. 20.

95
They even bathed to orders
Manuscript for radio broadcast, St Margaret’s College Archive, Christchurch.

96
Miss Marsh is a novelist [and following reviews]
MSX-2741, ATL.

97
a terrible bore [and following quotes]
Ibid.

97
a series hero
Mann,
Deadlier Than the Male,
p. 109.

99
She has excelled herself
Wagstaff and Poole,
Agatha Christie: A reader’s companion,
p. 137.

101-02
Although I would have considerable difficulty [and following reviews]
MSX-2741, ATL.

103
not Miss Marsh’s metier
MSX-2741, ATL.

103-104
Fox represents
Slate McDorman,
Ngaio Marsh,
p. 92.

104
For days on end
BB,
p. 232.

105
The itch for travel
Manuscript for radio broadcast, St Margaret’s College Archive, Christchurch.

Chapter Four
Death Down Under

107
There can be no doubt
BB,
p. 164.

108
‘Poor lassie!
Seager,
Edward William Seager,
p. 27.

108
carriages and gigs
BB,
p. 36.

108-09
After the final performance
Ibid, p. 166.

109
lived on a scale
Ibid, p. 167.

109-10
While the Lampreys
Ibid, p. 169.

114
Her strongest card
MSX-2741, ATL.

115
Her own personal performances
‘Lords of lethal weapons: Ngaio Marsh meets the Detection Club,’
NZL, 29
Mar 1940, p. 55; ‘Detective fiction: “It’s tough, that’s what it is,” says Ngaio Marsh’,
NZL,
16 Aug 1940, p. 15.

115
Miss Marsh is Detected
‘Miss Marsh is Detected…’,
NZL, 9
Aug 1940, p. 31.

115
Not only will this detective novel
‘Ngaio Marsh to read her new thrill at 2YA,’
NZL, 7
Feb 1941, p. 9.

115
Surfeit of Lampreys
was played to 2YA:
‘Around the Nationals’,
NZL, 27
Jun 1941, p. 24.

115
a new series of talks
‘Crime is her subject: a parlour game began it’,
NZL,
4 Dec 1942, p. 13.

117
She was a strong woman
Crabtree interview with author.

118
Although the puzzle is intricate [and following reviews]
MSX-2741, ATL.

119
there are no dull
Chandler, ‘The simple art of murder’,
The Atlantic Monthly,
vol. CLXXIV, Jul-Dec 1944, p. 57.

119
It is the same careful
Ibid., p. 56.

120
Hammett took murder
Ibid., p. 58.

120
ran about the hills
BB,
p. 234.

120
I could see
Ibid, p. 235.

120-21
Why have they left NM
with Burden,
New Zealand,
p. 13.