Sunday, October 15, 2006

Research in Miss Marple's past

I've been away for months, as you probably have (not) noticed. Conducting research into Miss Marple's past. For months I have been re-reading Agatha Cristie's novels, looking for clues ; to no avail. Then I heard of the discovery of a yet unpublished manuscript, which contains revealing clues about Miss Marple's past. Apparently, as the story goes in Once in a chapel, Miss Marple once confided to one of her closest friends that she had had an unfortunate love affair with a young deacon in the church where her father was a vicar. He took advantage of her and left her with child; it was born out of wedlock and given away for adoption. Having left the church to pursue a more racy life, he was stabbed and died in a fight in a bar. The child grew up in a convent and never got to know its real mother. Maybe in another story... who knows...