In the novel By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Miss Nellie Bligh (the vicar of Sutton Chancellor says that her christian name is something like Gertrude or Geraldine) is a woman living in Sutton Chancellor. According to the vicar, Nellie is what people call Miss Bligh in the village, and the boys sing it after her sometimes. She is an active part of the Women's Institute and of the Girl Guides as well as the Boy Scouts and the Conservative Ladies Union. She is the kind of person who prides herself on "knowing all about everyone".
Miss Bligh arranges the flowers in the church, and this is what she is doing when Tuppence first sees her. Miss Bligh says that she usually does the church in the morning, but on that particular morning they had an emergency meeting in the parish rooms.
Miss Bligh tells Tuppence about the bed and breakfast run by Mrs Copleigh, and offers to take her there. Mrs Copleigh has a reputation for talking a lot, but Tuppence forms the impression that Miss Bligh talks even more, as she makes a "stream of pronouncements both rapid and dictatorial".
Miss Bligh appears to leave Tuppence at Mrs Copleigh's with some regret, because she has not been able to find out everything she wanted to know about Tuppence, such as where she comes from and what her husband does. However, there is a meeting at her house, and she has to leave to preside over it, for fear that someone else might "seize that coveted post".
According to Mrs Copleigh, Miss Bligh had been Sir Philip Starke's secretary in the past, and still arranges things for him, although he does not live in Sutton Chancellor regularly.
Miss Bligh is involved in many activities in Sutton Chancellor, such as the Women's Institute, Guides, Scouts, the Conservative Ladies Union, Lectures, Greek Art, Jam Making, Flower Arrangement, the Sketching Club, and the Friends of Archaeology.
After someone attacks Tuppence, knocking her out with a blow to the head, she and Tommy consider whether Miss Bligh might have done it. However, Tuppence is of the opinion that Miss Bligh is "just one of those tiresome, efficient women who go about running parishes and poking their noses into things". She would not get to the point of physically attacking someone, "except for some wildly emotional reason".
Towards the end of the novel, Tuppence observes Miss Bligh during a gathering at the vicarage, at which Sir Philip Starke is also present. She sees that Miss Bligh looks at Sir Philip every time she relaxes, and shows doglike devotion to him. Tuppence forms the opinion that Miss Bligh is hopelessly, devotedly in love with Sir Philip.
It is revealed that Miss Bligh, under the name of Mrs Johnson, was the one who took Mrs Lancaster away from Sunny Ridge. She moved Mrs Lancaster to Rosetrellis Court in Cumberland, and then to the Canal House. It is further revealed that Miss Bligh had been the one who had planned and arranged a scheme of hiding Mrs Lancaster by moving her between different homes for the elderly.
It is also revealed that Miss Bligh was the one who had struck Tuppence down. She had thought that Tuppence had discovered the secret about Mrs Lancaster.
Portrayals[]
In the 2006 Agatha Christie's Marple episode Nellie is portrayed by actress Lia Williams. In this adaptation Nellie is the wife of vicar Septimus Bligh, a character created for the episode.