I’ve recently read three memoirs written by well known detective novelists. Both Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh are Golden Age crime writers, and Laura Thompson’s recent Substack post ‘A Taste for Death’ convincingly made the case for PD James as the last of the Golden Age writers. It was this post that sent me back to James’ memoir ‘Time to be in Earnest’.
‘Time to be in Earnest’ was published in 1999 and takes the form of journal entries, beginning in August 1997 on her 77th birthday and ending a year later. The diary element provides an insight into her life as a working writer as well as into other aspects of her life. Around this she skilfully weaves in autobiography, family history and writing practice. It’s a well crafted volume which allows the reader so far and no further into her private life but generously shares how her crime writing was shaped by her career in the NHS and the Home Office. For fans of the books, there is plenty to enjoy about how individual stories and settings came to be, along with the creation of her most famous character, Adam Dalgliesh. The settings of her novels often act like a character in their own right and are an important part of her appeal for me and many other readers. In some ways this element was less on display here, but the East Anglian sections of the diary shine. There is a very measured English sensibility in the writing which matches her fiction style.
‘Black Beech and Honeydew’ by contrast has much more energy. Marsh vividly describes her native New Zealand landscape, writing a straightforward chronological memoir of her life. It was originally published in 1966 and reissued in 1981 with some new material where she reflects on the intervening period and her life. British readers who know Marsh as the creator of the Inspector Alleyn novels may be slightly bemused to see the books dealt with as an aside for most of the memoir. Marsh originally went to art school and then toured as a theatre actor before becoming a director and a producer. There is more on Shakespeare and the business of making theatre than on crime fiction. Fans of the books will quickly spot how the artistic and theatrical sides of her career feed into the settings of the novels, as does New Zealand and her frequent travels by boat. Unlike PD James, very little of this is made explicit and there is nothing for readers interested in her writing process. She is even more guarded than PD James when it comes to her personal life but there are entertaining vignettes of friends and family. The chapters added in later do reflect more on her writing, presumably at the suggestion of her British publisher, but for Marsh detective fiction was clearly a means to an end – it allowed her the financial freedom to work with students to create theatre. It’s a sprightly read and recommended not just for fans of her fiction but for anyone interested in theatre, Shakespeare or the history of the period (1895-1966) covered in the main section of the book.
...it is the New Zealand novels which include some of her best descriptive writing: her native country seen through an artist’s eyes and described with a writer’s voice. (PD James on Ngaio Marsh, ‘Talking About Detective Fiction’, 2009)
Agatha Christie’s ‘Come, Tell Me How You Live’ has even less about detective fiction in it. This is deliberate – the subtitle of the book is ‘an archaeological memoir’ and it acts as an answer to the questions from friends about what it was like to accompany her husband Max Mallowan on archaeological digs in Syria and Iraq in the 1930s. It’s hugely entertaining, with a cast of eccentric characters as concisely and precisely drawn as you would expect from Christie. For fans of her work, it’s an insight into the novels and stories set in the Middle East. For other readers it’s a fascinating snapshot of how archaeology was done during this period, travel in the region, and how the English interacted with and viewed different cultures. We see Agatha Christie developing photographs in a makeshift darkroom and labelling finds rather than at her typewriter, but the keen observer of human nature is never far away and her interest in people and places shines through.
Yet I think to one engaged in digging, the real interest is in the everyday life – the life of the potter, the farmer, the toolmaker, the expert cutter of animal seals and amulets – in fact, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.’ (Agatha Christie in the Foreword to ‘Come, Tell Me How You Live’)
Thanks for the mention Shelly! I didn't know of Ngaio Marsh's book so thank you for that also...