Helen Montressor

In the novel One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Helen Montressor is a second cousin of Alistair Blunt. She is his last surviving relative and, not being very well off, Alistair allowed her to live at a cottage free of rent on the grounds of his estate of Exsham in Kent. There she helps with the gardening and landscaping of the grounds.

Helen is described as being a "sturdy woman", "black browed, with short cropped black hair". She is of Scottish origin.

Investigations by Poirot revealed that in reality, Helen Montressor died in Canada some seven years before the events in the book. The Helen Montressor whom Poirot met at Exsham was in fact Gerda Blunt, living under one of her many personas.

Portrayals
In ITV's 1992 adaptation of the novel, Helen Montressor is portrayed by Joanna Phillips-Lane. As in the original, Helen is only a persona adopted by Gerda Blunt but the details are different. Here, she is not Alistair Blunt's second cousin. She is his secretary, and in this role, she replaces Mr Selby in the original novel. She does not, therefore, live in a cottage in Exsham, but she does get invited down to the estate for the weekend because, according to Alistair, he had a lot of work to do.