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    Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime
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    Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime
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    Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime
    Ebook532 pages11 hours

    Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime

    By Joanne Drayton

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Which was the real Ngaio Marsh - Dame of the British Empire or the dame who wrote detective novels?
    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateMay 1, 2010
    ISBN9780730445661
    Unavailable
    Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime
    Author

    Joanne Drayton

    Joanne Drayton is Associate Professor in the Department of Design at UNITEC, Auckland, where she lectures in art history and theory. Her critically acclaimed Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime was a Christmas pick of the Independent when it was released in the United Kingdom in 2009. She was awarded a National Library Fellowship in 2007 to write her biography of Marsh, and lives in Auckland with her partner and two cats.

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    Reviews for Ngaio Marsh Her Life in Crime

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      I had not enjoyed Joanne Drayton's biography of Anne Perry so I approached her biography of Ngaio Marsh with some trepidation. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised! Perhaps because I am more familiar with Ms Marsh's detective fiction, or perhaps because Ms Marsh's life was understandably broader than Anne Perry's, this book is a more rounded look at a woman who led a full public life despite her rather private personality. There was probably a little too much rehashing of the plots of her novels but it didn't dominate the book the way it did in the Anne Perry book - and it was fascinating to see how much of Marsh's travels and friendships went into the background of her crime fiction. It was also fascinating to find out more about her life as an aspiring artist and successful theatre producer and to see how this life is a bridge between her 1930s heyday and current artists such as Sam Neil (who as a young actor had a small role in a play she produced) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (whose family she had long been friends with and who were the model for the charming and feckless Lampreys of her fiction). The book also gave some insight into the last generation of colonials who still regarded England as "home". An enjoyable read, particularly for those familiar with her work.