Ngaio Marsh - Benedict Cumberbatch - Scales of Justice - Audiobook 1 / 2 - Dark Screen for Sleep
Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh, also known as Ngaio Marsh, (April 23, 1895 - February 18, 1982) was a famous New Zealand writer who created many mystery novels with Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard as the main character. In some of her later books, his wife Troy also appeared.
Marsh was a painter, an actress, and a theatre producer in her native country before she moved to England in 1928. There, she published her first book, A Man Lay Dead (1934), which introduced Inspector Alleyn to the readers. She came back to New Zealand in 1933 and continued writing more novels. She also staged and directed many Shakespearean plays. She was one of the founders of a theatre guild in 1944 that became a vital part of New Zealand’s culture. Marsh kept producing plays both in New Zealand and overseas, mainly in England, for the rest of her life.
Marsh contributed to the development of the detective genre in the 1930s by writing books that combined a refined literary style with realistic characters and settings. Many of her novels, which numbered more than 30, were set in the world of art and theatre, where she had personal experience. Some of these novels were Artists in Crime (1938), Final Curtain (1947), and Opening Night (1951), which all featured Inspector Alleyn. Along with other books such as Overture to Death (1939), A Surfeit of Lampreys (1941), Death of a Fool (1956), Dead Water (1963), Black as He’s Painted (1974), and Light Thickens (1982), they are considered classic examples of the conventional detective story, offering readers a smartly crafted mystery with vivid characters and a believable backdrop. Marsh also wrote about her homeland and the theatre.
Benedict Cumberbatch is an English actor who was born on 19 July 1976. He has a Master of Arts in classical acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and started his career in Shakespearean theatre. He made his West End debut in 2005 in Hedda Gabler, directed by Richard Eyre. He has also performed in several Royal National Theatre productions, such as After the Dance (2010) and Frankenstein (2011), for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. He played the title role in Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre in 2015.