In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, Little Priors is a small Georgian house situated in twelve acres of land in the village of Marlingham in Sussex. George Barton bought the house on the spur of the moment, saying that it had just come onto the market. He and his household moved there for some months during the events in the book, but returned to their London house in Elvaston Square later. During the move, the parlour-maid Betty Archdale refused to follow the household to Marlingham on the grounds that it was too inaccessible. She was given notice and found employment elsewhere.
George had left most of the work of redecorating the house to his secretary Ruth Lessing. She had done a good job but still Iris Marle thought that the house was horrible. The house felt "vacant" -- they did not live there, they "occupied" it.
The house was just next to the neighbouring property of Fairhaven Manor which was the country residence of the Farradays. George told Colonel Race that he had bought Little Priors in order to be near to the Farradays. He suspected that Stephen Farraday had something to do with the death of his wife Rosemary and bought the house to be near him in order to find out more about him.