Miss Marple Tells a Story is a radio play created by Agatha Christie for the BBC in 1934 which was converted into a short story published in Home Journal on May 25, 1935. In 1939, it was collected and formed the sixth story in the collection The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories.
Synopsis[]
Miss Marple is asked for help by an old friend of her solicitor, who is about to be indicted for his wife’s murder. She was stabbed to death in a hotel room but he swears that he is innocent. Can Miss Marple save him from the gallows?
Characters[]
- Miss Jane Marple
- Raymond West
- Joan West
- Gwen
- Mr Petherick Sr
- Mr Petherick Jr
- Mr Rhodes
- Mrs Rhodes
- Sir Malcolm Olde, K.C.
- Mary Hill, chambermaid at the Crown Hotel in Barnchester.
- Mrs Granby, an Anglo-Indian widow, staying at the hotel.
- Miss Carruthers, a rather horsey spinster, staying at the hotel.
Publication history[]
Miss Marple Tells a Story was specially commissioned by the BBC as a radio play. Some sources claim that the story was read by Christie herself, but it was read by actress Gladys Young[1]. The twenty-minute broadcast took place on Friday, 11 May 1934 at 9.20pm on the National Programme.
- 1935: Home Journal, vol. 3 issue 66, 25 May 1935 as "Behind Closed Doors".[2]
- 1939: The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories, Dodd, Mead and Company, Hardback, 229 pp
- 1946: Avon Books, Paperback, (Avon number 85)
- 1964: Dell Books, Paperback, (Dell number 7336), 192 pp
- 1943: The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories, Bestseller Mystery No 36 abridged version, Lawrence E. Spivak (New York).
- 1978: Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories
- 1978: Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-7089-2346-1
- 1979: Collins Crime Club (London), October 1979, Hardcover, 140 pp ISBN 0-00-231596-3
- 1980: Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback
- 1969: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, vol. 54 no.5, whole no. 312, Nov 1969.[3]
- 1984: Murder Most Foul, Octopus, 1984.
- 1985: Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, Putnam, 1985 and other editions.
- 2008: Miss Marple and Mystery: The Complete Short Stories, HarperCollins (London), 2008.
- 2023: Sinister Spring, HarperCollins (London), 2023.
References[]
- ↑ Mark Aldridge: Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness
- ↑ J. C. Bernthal, Agatha Christie: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2022), 608, ebook edition.
- ↑ See this listing at Galactic Central