New play based on book about Norwood murder

A new based on a book about a murder in Norwood in 1910 is about to be presented on a Peterborough stage.

The Peterborough Theatre Guild and Trent Valley Archives present a staged reading of Geoff Hewitson’s play, Young Enough to Die, based on the book of the same name by local author and retired Examiner managing editor Ed Arnold.

The reading takes place Sunday at 7 p.m. in the Gwen Brown Studio at the Peterborough Theatre Guild in East City.

Young Enough To Die, published in 2016, is the story of the murder of Margaret McPherson, a spinster living at Old Maid’s Corner east of Norwood.

She died from an axe blow to the head in February of 1910. A teenaged orphan from England named Robert Henderson was tried, convicted and hanged for the crime in Peterborough’s old county jail yard later that year.

Arnold’s book followed Henderson’s journey from England to Quebec to Peterborough, and looked at his “career” as a minor fraud artist, and the path that took him to Norwood and the events took led to her death. The story then explores the trial and Henderson’s eventual hanging.

Trent Valley Archives’ Elwood Jones described the book, in a 2016 review in The Examiner, as “an admirable book that allows the reader to see the world of 1910 mostly from journalists' perspective.”

The Peterborough Theatre Guild is at 364 Rogers St. It’s a free event, with coffee and cake served.