Literary Figures - Women's Biography, Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, Theater Biography - Producers, Directors, and Other Theater Professionals, General & Miscellaneous Women's Literary Biography, Fiction Writing, Australian & New Zealand Li
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Overview
This is the only biography of Dame Ngaio Marsh, a writer who along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers was recognized as one of the four Queens of Crime fiction. Written in cooperation with Dame Marsh's estate, this biography explores her fascinating and productive life. Readers will follow Marsh's trail from New Zealand to London, from an early career as a painter and fashion model to her acclaim as a theatrical director and producer and as a crime writer. They will meet Marsh's friends and colleagues, who inspired most of the characters in her 30-odd thrillers including series Detective Roderick Alleyn and his companion Agatha Troy. Lively, acute, and sympathetic, this biography presents a compelling portrait of an Edwardian woman who pursued her interests in a thoroughly modern manner.Editorials
Library Journal
Marsh (whose first name is pronounced nye-oh) penned more than 30 mystery novels before her death in 1982. Most of them featured series Detective Roderick Alleyn and have theatrical settings, with which Marsh was intimately familiar as a director and producer of plays in her native New Zealand. Biographer of mystery writer Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter: Ellis Peters, Dufour, 1994) and an author of crime fiction herself, Lewis was invited to write this biography by Marsh's estate. This enjoyable book, published in 1991 in the United Kingdom, gives the reader a good feel for Marsh's life while illuminating the ways certain events and circumstances inspired her fiction--as when she incorporated her direction of Macbeth into her mystery Light Thickens (Amereon, 1976). Considerable detail is also provided regarding her theatrical work. Recommended where there is a demand for literary biographies and an interest in golden-age mysteries--Denise Johnson, Bradley Univ. Lib., Peoria, ILBook Details
Published
March 28, 1993
Publisher
ISIS Large Print Books
Pages
448
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781850893271