secretary to Victor, Lord Rothschild, worked for the London theatrical firm H. M. Tennent. In the 1950s, he began work in the theatre in London as a scriptwriter and also began having his humorous books published. He adapted the novel Every Third Thought by American writer Dorothea Malm into the play Season of Goodwill. This starred Sybil Thorndike and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, but was not a success. He also wrote the British version of the French play Fleur de Cactus which had been adapted for the American stage by Abe Burrows as Cactus Flower. This starred Margaret Leighton and Tony Britton and was a hit on the West End stage, until Leighton left to go to Broadway. As he became better known he appeared on radio and television (although his first radio broadcast had been in 1934), and then in 1979 began his time as a regular team captain on Call My Bluff, which continued until shortly before his death. Marshall took over from Patrick Campbell. They had been friends for many years, ever since they both used to write, from around 1948 onwards, for Lilliput. Marshall was also a newspaper and magazine columnist, writing for The Sunday Telegraph in the 1970s and 1980s. His association with the New Statesman ended in 1981 when he was sacked from its "First Person" column by editor Bruce Page, allegedly for being overtly sympathetic to Margaret Thatcher. He had been writing the column since January 1976, when then-editor Anthony Howard asked him to replace Auberon Waugh, who had gone to The Spectator. During that time Marshall also compiled several collections of the best entries from the weekly New Statesman literary competition, embracing parodies and pastiches. Having retired to Devon in 1970, he lived in Christow for the last fifteen years of his life, where he shared a cottage with Peter Kelland, a former schoolmaster. Their home, Pound Cottage, was the 'Myrtlebank' from which he sent dispatches to the New Statesman and Sunday Telegraph. He suffered a minor heart attack in 1988; he began writing the second part of his autobiography, but died shortly after a more serious illness. He made a cameo appearance in "Crossroads" (circa 1985) the British television serial based in the Midlands as himself. As a guest at the Crossroads Motel, he was instantly recognised by one of the main characters, Jill Chance (played by Jane Rossington). Personal life In his