Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime

by Joanne Drayton

Grave Mistake, London, Collins, 1978; Boston, Little, Brown, 1978.

  Photo-Finish, London, Collins, 1980; Boston, Little, Brown, 1980.

  Light Thickens, London, Collins, 1982; Boston, Little, Brown, 1982.

  SHORT STORIES

  Death On the Air: And Other Stories, (foreword by Susan Howatch), London, HarperCollins, 1995.

  ‘Moonshine’, in Yours and Mine: Stories by Young New Zealanders, ed. W. Lawrence, New Plymouth, N.Z., 1936.

  ‘Morepork’, in Verdict of Thirteen: A Detective Club Anthology, ed. Julian Symons, London, Faber & Faber, 1978; New York, Harper & Row, 1979.

  The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh, ed. Douglas G. Greene, New York, International Polygonics, 1989.

  NON-FICTION

  A Play Toward: A Note on Play Production, Christchurch, N.Z., Caxton Press, 1946.

  Black Beech and Honey dew: An Autobiography, Boston, Little, Brown, 1965; London, 1966; revised edition, Collins, Auckland, 1981; London, 1982.

  New Zealand (with R.M. Burden), London, Collins, 1942.

  Perspectives: The New Zealander and the Visual Arts, Auckland Gallery Associates, 1960.

  Play Production, Wellington, N.Z., School Publications Branch, Education Department, 1948; revised 1960.

  ARTICLES

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Outward’, The Press, 1 September 1928, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim’, The Press, 22 September 1928, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Durban’, The Press, 20 October 1928, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Cape Town’, The Press, 17 November 1928, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Last Stages’, The Press, 1 December 1928, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Vignettes of London’, The Press, 15 December 1928, p. 17.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Meandering at Monte’, The Press, 22 December 1928, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: More London Vignettes’, The Press, 26 January 1929, p. 15.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Overture and Beginners Please’, The Press, 13 April 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: A Church, A Market, and a Dinner Party’, The Press, 20 April 1929, p. 15.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Pictures, Broadcasting and the Great Cold’, The Press, 27 April 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Houses, People, and Lanes’, The Press, 18 May 1929, p. 15.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Some First Impressions’, The Press, 25 May 1929, p. 15.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Oddments and Marionettes’, The Press, 6 July 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Soldiers and Politicians’, The Press, 17 August 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: The Old Canterbury Pilgrimage’, The Press, 31 August 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Vignettes of Paris’, The Press, 28 September 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: More Parisian Vignettes’, The Press, 19 October 1929, p. 13.

  ‘A New Canterbury Pilgrim: Paris: Final Vignettes’, The Press, 9 November 1929, p. 17.

  ‘The Background: The Novelist’s Problem’, The Press, 22 December 1934, p. 19.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Before the Coronation’, The Press, 29 May 1937, p. 14, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Departure…and Sydney’, The Press, 18 September 1937, p. 13, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Call at Hobart’, The Press, 25 September 1937, p. 18, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Vignettes of Melbourne’, The Press, 2 October 1937, p. 18, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Colombo’, The Press, 9 October 1937, p. 18, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: More of Colombo’, The Press, 16 October 1937, p. 18, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Journey into the Past’, The Press, 29 January 1938, p. 18, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘The Canterbury Pilgrim Again: Across Belgium’, The Press, 12 February 1938, p. 20, Reference No: 91-051, ATL, Wellington.

  ‘Detective Fiction: “It’s Tough That’s What It Is,” Says Ngaio Marsh’, New Zealand Listener, 16 August 1940, p. 15.

  ‘Commentaries: Ngaio Marsh, Theatre, A note on the status quo’, Landfall, No. 1, March 1947, pp. 37-43.

  ‘Shakespeare in New Zealand’, Education, No. 1, 1948, pp. 226-30.

  ‘National Theatre’, Landfall, No. 3, March 1949, pp. 66-69.

  ‘A Note on a Production of “Twelfth Night”’, Shakespeare Survey, No. 8, 1955, pp. 69-73.

  ‘Achievement in Fine Arts’, The Times Supplement on New Zealand, 6 February 1963, p. vi.

  ‘The Quick Forge’, Landfall, No. 18, 1964, pp. 32-40.

  ‘Stratford-on-Avon’, The Atlantic Monthly, February 1967, pp. 116-18.

  ‘Birth of a Sleuth’, The Writer, April 1977, pp. 23-25.

  ‘Roderick Alleyn’, in The Great Detectives, ed. Otto Penzler, Boston and Toronto, Little, Brown, 1978, pp. 3-8.

  ‘Portrait of Troy’, in Murderess Ink, ed. Dilys Winn, New York, Workman, 1979, pp. 142-43.

  ‘Women on Women’, Landfall, No. 130, June 1979, p. 101.

  ‘Remembering John Schroder 1885-1980’, Landfall, No. 136, December 1980, pp. 406-07.

  PLAYS PUBLISHED

  The Christmas Tree, London, SPCK, 1962.

  PLAYS UNPUBLISHED

  Little Housebound, New Zealand, 1922.

  Exit Sir Derek (with Henry Jellett), New Zealand, 1935.

  The Wyvern and the Unicorn, 1955. The libretto for A Unicorn for Christmas, produced in New Zealand in 1962, was based on this play.

  False Scent (with Eileen Mackay), produced 1961, United Kingdom.

  Murder Sails at Midnight, produced 1972, United Kingdom.

  Sweet Mr Shakespeare (with Jonathan Elsom), produced 1975, New Zealand. Produced for Norwegian Television in 1985 as Gentle Master Shakespeare.

  TELEVISION SCRIPT

  ‘Evil Liver’, part of the Crown Court series, first broadcast 1975, Granada, United Kingdom and published in The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh, ed. Douglas G. Greene, New York, International Polygonics, 1989.

  BROADCASTS

  Radio and televsion broadcasts of Ngaio Marsh are held in the archives of the BBC London, Alexander Turnbull Library Oral History Centre, Radio New Zealand Sound Archives, and New Zealand television.

  UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL

  St Margaret’s College exercise book titled: ‘Ngaio Marsh, Form V, Composition’, Reference No: MSX-4075, ATL, Wellington.

  Handwritten speech in exercise book entitled ‘The Queerest Party: a meeting of the Detective Club’, Reference No: 77-067-3/4, ATL, Wellington.

  Handwritten speech in exercise book entitled ‘Detective Fiction’, Reference No: 77-067-3/4, ATL, Wellington.

  Secondary Works

  BOOKS

  Acheson, Carole and Carolyn Lidgard (eds), Return to Black Beech: Papers from a Centenary Symposium on Ngaio Marsh 1895-1995, Christchurch, University of Canterbury, 1996.

  Allingham, Margery, The Crime at Black Dudley, London, Heinemann, 1929, this edition, 1967.

  Bowen, Stella, Drawn from Life: A memoir, 1940, this edition (introduction by Julia Loewe), Sydney, Picador, 1999.

  Brabazon, James, Dorothy L. Sayers: A biography, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981.

  Brown, John Russell (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 1995.

  Capote, Truman, In Cold Blood: A true account of multiple murder and its consequences, Australia, Penguin, 2006.

  Christie, Agatha, Agatha Christie: An autobiography, London, HarperCollins, 1993.

  Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, London and Glasgow, Fontana, 1978.

  Christie, Agatha, The Murder at
the Vicarage, London and Glasgow, Fontana, 1963.

  Coleman, Terry, Olivier: The authorized biography, New York, Henry Holt, 2005.

  Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, New York, Gramercy Books, 2002.

  Curnow, Allen, Look Back Harder: Critical writings 1935-1984, (ed. Peter Simpson), Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1987.

  Gatrell, V.A.C., The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English people 1770-1868, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 1994.

  Grayland, Eugene, More Famous New Zealanders, Christchurch, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1972.

  Hale, Kathleen, A Slender Reputation: An autobiography, London, Frederick Warne, published by the Penguin Group, 1994.

  Haycraft, Howard, Murder for Pleasure: The life and times of the detective story, London, Peter Davis, 1942.

  Haycraft, Howard (ed.), The Art of the Mystery Story: A collection of critical essays, New York, Biblo & Tannen, first published 1946, 1976.

  Herbert, Rosemary (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.

  Hill, Reginald and H.R.F. Keating (eds), Crime Writers: Reflections on crime fiction, London, BBC, 1978.

  Holmes, Richard, Footsteps: Adventures of a romantic biographer, London, Flamingo, 1986.

  Holmes, Richard, Sidetracks: Explorations of a romantic biographer, London, HarperCollins Publishers, 2000.

  Holroyd, Michael, Works on Paper: The craft of biography and autobiography, London, Little, Brown, 2002.

  Hume, Fergus, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (introduction by Simon Caterson), Melbourne, Text Publishing, 1999.

  Keating, H.R.F., The Bedside Companion to Crime, London, Michael O’Mara Books, 1989.

  Kirker, Anne, New Zealand Women Artists: A survey of 150 years, Sydney, Craftsman House, 1993.

  Lewis, Margaret, Ngaio Marsh: A life, Wellington, Bridget Williams Books, 1991.

  Malcolm, Janet, The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, London, Picador, 1994.

  Mann, Jessica, Deadlier Than the Male: An investigation into feminine crime writing, Newton Abbott, David & Charles, 1981.

  Modjeska, Drusilla, Exiles at Home: Australian women writers 1925-1945, Sydney, Sirius and Angus & Robertson, 1981.

  Norman, Philip, Douglas Lilburn: His life and music, Christchurch, Canterbury University Press, 2006.

  Olivier, Laurence, Confessions of an Actor: An autobiography, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982.

  Orwell, George, Decline of the English Murder: and other essays, London, Penguin (first published 1946), 1965.

  Poe, Edgar Allan, Forty-Two Tales, London, Octopus Books, 1979.

  Poe, Edgar Allan, Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe, (ed. G.R. Thompson), New York, Harper & Row, 1970.

  Poe, Edgar Allan, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings, (ed. David Galloway), London, Penguin, 2003.

  Rahn, B.J. (ed.), Ngaio Marsh: The woman and her work, The Scarecrow Press, New Jersey and London, 1995.

  Sayers, Dorothy, A Matter of Eternity: Selections from the writings of Dorothy L. Sayers, (ed. Rosamond Kent Sprague), London, A.R. Mowbray, 1973.

  Sayers, Dorothy, Creed or Chaos? Why Christians must choose either dogma or disaster (or, why it really does matter what you believe), London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1940.

  Sayers, Dorothy and Robert Eustace, The Documents in the Case, London, Victor Gollancz, 1935.

  Sayers, Dorothy, The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1938.

  Sayers, Dorothy L., Whose Body? New York, HarperCollins, 1995.

  Seager, Madeleine, Edward William Seager: Pioneer of mental health, Waikanae, The Heritage Press, 1987.

  Slate McDorman, Kathryne, Ngaio Marsh, Boston, Twayne, 1991.

  Strachey, Lytton, Eminent Victorians, London, Bloomsbury, 1988.

  Strange, Glyn, The Little Theatre: Golden years of the New Zealand stage, Christchurch, Clerestory Press, 2000.

  Symons, Julian, Bloody Murder—From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: a history, London, Faber & Faber, 1972.

  The Listener: Bedside Book, (ed. Mary Crockett, Paul Little and Terry Snow), Auckland, Wilson & Horton, 1997.

  Thompson, Mervyn, All My Lives, Christchurch, Whitcoulls, 1980.

  Wagstaff, Vanessa and Stephen Poole, Agatha Christie: A reader’s companion, London, Aurum Press, 2006.

  Winn, Dilys (ed.), Murderess Ink: The better half of the mystery, New York, Bell Publishing, 1979.

  ARTICLES

  Acheson, Carole, ‘Cultural ambivalence: Ngaio Marsh’s New Zealand detective fiction’, Journal of Popular Culture, 19(2), 1985, pp. 149-73.

  Chandler, Raymond, ‘The simple art of murder’, The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CLXXIV, July-December 1944, pp. 53-59.

  Dart, William, ‘A Unicorn for Christmas: A right royal opera’, Music in New Zealand, 1988/89, Summer, pp. 6-13, 41.

  ‘Edward Seager—pioneer therapist’, New Zealand Heritage, Vol. 2, pp. 623-26.

  Greener, Leslie, ‘Rhona Haszard’, Art in New Zealand, No. 17, September 1932, pp. 18-21.

  Harding, Bruce, ‘In memoriam: Dame Ngaio Marsh 1899-1982’, Landfall, No. 142, June 1982, pp. 242-45.

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

  Harding, Bruce, ‘The New Zealand stories of Ngaio Marsh’, Landfall, No. 144, December 1982, pp. 447-60.

  Hearnshaw, Vickie and Julie King, ‘Ngaio Marsh painting’, Art New Zealand, No. 78, Autumn 1996, pp. 76-79.

  Hill, Richard S. ‘Worthington, Arthur Bently 1847-1917’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007, URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/

  James, P.D., ‘A life of crime’, Independent Magazine, September 1989, Vol. 56, pp. 50-53.

  James, P.D., ‘From puzzle to novel’, from Reginald Hill and H.R.F. Keating (eds.), Crime writers: Reflections on crime fiction, London, BBC, 1978.

  Mason, Bruce, ‘In memoriam: Dame Ngaio Marsh 1899-1982’, Landfall, No. 142, June 1982, pp. 241-42.

  Mason, Bruce (ed.), ‘Brigid Lenihan’, Act, Wellington, Downstage Theatre, Nov/Dec 1970, pp. 6-9.

  McCredie, Paul, ‘A literary life’, NZ House & Garden, April 1998, pp. 73-81.

  McEldowney, Dennis, ‘Black Beech and Honeydew: An Autobiography. Ngaio Marsh’, Landfall, No. 79, September 1966, pp. 294-96.

  Norman, Julie, ‘Mystery writer shifts to Othello: portrait of Ngaio Marsh’, Christian Monitor, 26 March 1949, p. 12.