Google Doodle Honours Detective Novelist Ngaio Marsh

New Zealand-born crime writer and theatre director Dame Ngaio Marsh who wrote during the “golden age” of detective novels was celebrated on 23 April 2015 with a Google Doodle.

Marsh, born in Christchurch, would have turned 122 on 23 April. She is best known for her series of crime novels about Inspector Roderick Alleyn, a fictional detective with London’s Metropolitan Police. Marsh became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.

Marsh studied at St. Margaret’s College in Christchurch from 1910 to 1914, “where she showed talent for writing poetry, prose and plays as well as acting,” according to the Ngaio Marsh House & Heritage Trust’s website.

She was awarded a Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement as a detective novelist in 1978 from the Mystery Writers of America (joining Truman Capote, Roald Dahl, Graham Greene and Daphne du Maurier).

Marsh lived at 37 Valley Rd, Cashmere, off Sherwood Lane, Christchurch for 76 years. The house is open from October to May every Sunday.

Original article by Tom Cleary, Heavy, April 22, 2015.

Photo by Wikipedia.