Some characters are so popular and recognisable that they can become detached from their point of origin.

Miss Marple is such a one. There were elderly women sleuths before her, but every single village

busybody who solves crimes since has existed in her shadow.

Her stories and novels are so widespread, and there have been so many adaptations that that one name, Marple,

means something to people all over the world.

I've consumed so many iterations and versions of Miss Marple over the years, from the iconic Joan Hicksland portrayal on television in the 1980s,

to the Japanese anime that she shared with her Kulpourro in the 2000s.

But it's been a long time since I went back to the source

and reacquainted myself with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.

Let's go and meet St Mary Mead's most famous spinster together, shall we?

Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Crampton.

Music Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Crampton. Some of my favourite projects that I undertake for She Done It are the ones where I read a lot of books,

either on a particular theme, by a certain author, or across a stated time period,

and then turn my findings into an episode. Sometimes, though, I want to zoom in on just one

title and consider all aspects of it, without the pressure to compare and contrast. This latter

approach feels like the right way to get reacquainted with Miss Marple.

But which book? It really had to be the murder at the vicarage, Miss Marple's first novel

Lent Adventure, which was first published in 1930. Of course, this wasn't the character's first

appearance in print. That had been in a short story

titled The Tuesday Nightclub. It was published in the Royal Magazine in December 1927 and five

years later, collected in a volume sometimes titled The Tuesday Nightclub and sometimes the 13

problems, depending on where and when you were buying it.

...