Book lovers sleuth out Marple’s links with Agatha Christie star
CRIME legend Agatha Christie and her creation Miss Marple were just two of the items on the agenda when hundreds of book-lovers came to the Marple Book Fair.
The event was held at St Martin’s Church and featured a number of guest authors including Brenda Burling who read extracts from their work.
James Shaw, director of Matthew James Publishing which sponsored and organised the event said it had been a great success.
He said: “We had about 100 people who came along on the day and although it rained on the day it didn’t stop people from coming along and enjoying it.
“Chris Simms was there and he read from some of his new ghost stories which was brilliant and we also had one of our authors there, Wendy Birling who also gave a reading.
“We also had a really interesting talk on Agatha Christie given by Chris Taylor who spoke for 20 minutes or so about her ties to the area.
“This was the first year we have done this and we are certainly going to be running it again, making it bigger and better.”
The event raised around £300 for Marple Cancer Charities which supports worthy causes including the Christie hospital, Cancer Research UK, St Ann’s Hospice and Macmillan Cancer among others. Miss Marple Factfile: JANE Marple, usually known as Miss Marple is the creation of crime writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976).
ALTHOUGH there has been no definitive account of what inspired Christie to come up with the name ‘Marple’ it is often said it was chosen after the writer passed through Marple Railway Station.
MISS Marple herself is an elderly spinster who appears in 12 of Christie’s novels and 20 short stories.
ALONGSIDE the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, she is one of Christie’s best-loved amateur sleuths who uses her brainpower to solve cases which have baffled the police.
SHE first appeared in a short story in 1927 entitled The Tuesday Night Club which later became the first chapter of the book The Thirteen