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Agatha Christie's Marple: The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple

Anne Hart

Start date: October 12, 2017

Finish date: November 12, 2017

Discussion: Buddy reads

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What Members Thought

Sep 26, 2017 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This short book makes a nice companion to the Miss Marple series; acting as something of a fictional biography of the character and bringing together all the elements that can be gathered from the novels to explain her background, her career as an unlikely amateur detective and the settings for her adventures. Indeed, Anne Hart becomes something of a sleuth herself, as she tries to recreate Miss Marple from the hints in the books and stories. These can, sometimes, be conflicting. In the earliest This short book makes a nice companion to the Miss Marple series; acting as something of a fictional biography of the character and bringing together all the elements that can be gathered from the novels to explain her background, her career as an unlikely amateur detective and the settings for her adventures. Indeed, Anne Hart becomes something of a sleuth herself, as she tries to recreate Miss Marple from the hints in the books and stories. These can, sometimes, be conflicting. In the earliest stories, Miss Marple is very elderly; dressed in black and draped in lace. However, by the time a body is discovered in the vicarage, she has become more sprightly and able to snoop quite effectively – bird watching and cutting hedges useful methods of employment for spying and eavesdropping…

From that missing ‘gill of potted shrimps,’ to the uncovering of murderers, Miss Marple investigated crimes in villages, on Caribbean holidays, in nostalgic London hotels, on bus tours and even in a juvenile delinquent treatment centre. We read of her friends, family and acquaintances; from Dolly Bantry, her thoughtful nephew, Raymond West, and all of the little maids that were trained in her neat little house in St Mary Mead.

With a bibliography and lots of information on Miss Marple in film, TV and radio, this is an interesting read. As I am reading all of the Miss Marple novels and stories for a reading challenge this year, I enjoyed having all of the clues about Miss Marple’s background brought together. The author carefully avoids spoilers, but I would still suggest this is best to read either after, or alongside, the novels themselves. If you have yet to read these yourself, then I envy you. There is no other character quite like the shrewd and intelligent Miss Marple – except, perhaps, Poirot; but, sadly, the two were never to meet on the page, even though it is often suggested that Miss Marple was based upon the sister of Roger Ackroyd. It is a nice thought to believe they are linked, beyond being the creations of the greatest crime writer of all time.
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Nov 10, 2016 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, non-fiction, books-about-books, mystery, bought-2014, mount-tbr-2016

Anne Hart has done an excellent job mining the Miss Marple series for details about our favorite sleuthing spinster. She carefully read all of the Marple stories and tells us every little tidbit that she has found--from who Miss Marple's relatives are to what might have been her very first case to what a day in the life of Miss Marple is like. Sprinkled throughout are bits of Marple wisdom on life, her fellow man....and the wickedness of the common man.

The trouble in this case is that everybody ...more

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Nov 17, 2017 Jan C rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

I have been re-reading Miss Marple this year. Tried this "biography" (she also has one on Poirot).

Best thing about it was the enlarged map of St. Mary Mead.

The book was interesting enough. However, it was pretty repetitive. Maybe she was being asked to stretch it out - it is only 143 pages, so it wasn't stretched that much. ...more

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Mar 03, 2020 Anissa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, cozy-mystery

This was a fun read and I'd recommend it to any Jane Marple fans. The author takes the reader on a tour of Miss Marple's world beginning in the village of St. Mary Meade. A locale with more than a fair number of murders, schemes and crimes. All of Jane's cases are referenced and the vast array of law enforcement, friends, maids, relatives and vicars pass through as they've been part of the landscape of Marpelian fiction.

There are an extensive bibliography and a list of film, tv and radio adaptat ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Teri-K rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z-open-library, senior-citizen-mcs, nonfiction-books-etc

A nice overview of all the things we can know about Miss Marple from Christie's books. Of course there are inconsistencies, which the author notes. There are also big holes and I appreciated that the author didn't fill in the missing years with guesses, though she does conjecture that MM stayed at home and took care of her aging parents. This is quite likely and may explain her reference to experience nursing, but it's also possible that she worked in some unskilled capacity during the war, I th ...more

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Jan 25, 2017 John Frankham rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-detective

A pleasant and amusing 150 page book summarising what we know about Miss Marple from the 12 novels and 21 short stories. Her early life, her home life during the time of the books, the village and its people, her relatives and friends, the maids, the detectives, etc. Good fun. While the books and their basic plots are referred-to, nothing here will spoil one's reading and one's failure to work out whodunnit! ...more

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May 26, 2016 Lillian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have to applaud the author in writing such a detailed biography about someone who never lived except inside the covers of several books. If you're a fan of Agatha Christie and more specifically, Miss Marple, you will love this short read. The author dissects each one of Christie's Marple novels and pulls out all the details about her life. Inconsistencies are pointed out and often times explained. I also appreciated the author taking the time to discuss and list the novels and short stories in ...more

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