I’m no Christie scholar, or even a Miss Marple one, but I am a Jane fan, much more so than an Hercule one as I found Poirot’s ego and affectations hard to take.* I’ve read all the Marple books and I think all the short stories. I’ve seen some of all the Marple television series but every single one of the episodes starring Joan Hickson multiple times.
This book is a worthy effort to collect all the stories around the Marple stories and put them into a timeline that lasts, good lord, nearly a century now. It includes interviews with friends and family and editors and agents, excerpts from the very few interviews Christie would consent to during her lifetime, and memories from casts and crews from almost all of the productions. There are lovely little discursions in the various chapters on the novels, as here from the story about At Bertram’s Hotel.
The real star of the novel is Bertram’s itself. It has often been argued that the hotel was based on Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, while Dorothy Olding thought it might have been the Connaught in the same area…One person who believed the hotel to be Brown’s was Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, who was inspired to stay in the hotel after reading the novel, where he encountered his own mystery: the sound of of footsteps in the corridor. Deciding to investigate, he then found himself locked out of his room.
Aldridge makes a solemn promise at the beginning not to spoil any of the plots and he doesn’t let the reviewers he quotes spoil, either, but you’ll still get a good picture of how Christie’s work was received at time of publication. There is also a sense of the evolution of how crime fiction was thought of then and now, from critics initially viewing it solely as frothy entertainment to accepting it as a respectable art form. Not to mention a cultural phenomenon.
*Always with the exception of my all time favorite Christie novel, Murder on the Orient Express, of course. If you haven’t seen the 1974 film starring the best ensemble cast of any film ever on any size screen, do so at once.
Book Review Monday Chatter Agatha Christie's Marple Mark Aldridge
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Miss Marple is my favorite, too, even though I took French in high school partly to understand Poirot. Joan Hickson is the best Jane ever on screen.
Agreed.
I Have to agree, Joan Hickson as Miss Marple equals superb casting, the best, but Albert Finney as Poirot in Murder on the Orent Express is really awful – he was absolutely hopeless and so contrived. The very best and atypical Poirot has to be David Suchet, he is just as I imagine Poirot? Have you ever managed to get to ‘Greenway’ Agatha Christie’s country home on the River Dart in Devonshire? It and its wonderful contents are her to a T. It is full of her belongings and is just as I imagined her to be.
I admit, the thing I like least about the film is Albert Finney. The rest of the cast is superb. And Joan Hickson will be always and ever the only Marple. I haven’t been to Greenway, but I remember what she said of it in her autobiography, that a house had to be big enough so as not to bump your bum on the furniture while cleaning it. I built my own house with that in mind.
Ah the Joan Hickson Marples are a total, utter joy. From the theme tune to the casting of each episode, to the careful adaptations. I think my favourite is “A Murder is Announced” – that was one of the few times I thought a TV show actually improved the book. I see that cast in my head when I re-read that book now 🙂 (And “Nemesis”, too, I thought they did a terrific job with that and again, I thought the changes enhanced the story.)
I too am a Marple fan. Have reread so many times and also have viewed episodes so many times have lost count.
I was watching At Bertram’s Hotel just the other night. “Americans have a lot to answer for.”
Big fan!!! Invested in BritBox just for the Agatha Christie series!! Thanks for sharing.