WHO KILLED BETH MARCH?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 728, 26 June 1953, Page 16

WHO KILLED BETH MARCH?

/HO killed Beth March? If you have read, and remember, Louisa May Alcott’s books Little Women, Good Wives and Little Men, the question may startle you a little-enough to make you want to hear an NZBS programme which both asks the question and gives an answer. This literary detective story Little Murderesses, will be heard from 3YC at 8.0 p.m. on Monday, June 29 When The Listener asked G. C. A. (Arneld) Wall, who wrote Little Murderesses, what first aroused his suspicion he recalled a hectic Air Ministry conference at the time that flying bombs were falling in Britain. Then an R.A.F. officer, Mr. Wall was at that conference when a "very senior officer" quoted from Little Women. "He was capped by a very senior civil servant, and a delightful five minutes’ discussion followed," he said. "The question was: What did Beth March die of? And no one knew. It was a time when one sought any-

thing as a distraction, so I bought the Louisa Alcott books to find out the cause of Beth’s death and jotted down some notes. A few months ago I took them out-and Little Murderesses is the result." Little Murderesses, which Alan Morris produced in the Christchurch Studios of the NZBS, takes the form of a court of inquiry in which the voices of the president, a narrator, a prosecutof, and various witnesses are heard. For listeners unfamiliar with the books or who have forgotten the details there is a short synopsis in which the March family-Mr. March, Marmee, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy-are introduced. Listeners are then taken as far as Beth’s fatal illness in Chapter 17 of Good Wives. After that Miss Alcott’s "hypothesis that Beth died from natural causes" is examined, a disturbing alternative is suggested, the suspects are lined up-and a verdict is returned.