I think it is sad that Miss Marple ages so considerably in this book, I like to think that time is irrelevent in Cristie Land, It is a shame that in this book Miss Marple is so frail but I still loved the book.

It stands to reason that she would travel.  Especially to a warmer climate.  That dear nephew Raymond would never let her sit at home with reumatism when he could send her to winter in a warmer climate.

I prefer to keep Miss Marple in a village because that is where she is at her most knowledgable. I agree that she should stay the same age ansd not show signs of aging and I am etenally glad that AC did not kill her off because I don't think I could stand it. I only read 'Poirot's end once and I don't think I want to again. Silly but true.

Miss Marple took her knowledge of life in a Village and let others have the benefit of her expeience in other places like London and the Carribean which and the places other than Villages seemed appropriate to me, I too am glad AC never kiolled MM or T&T of, she had to wilt Curtain because that is the way the Book had to go, I can't understand the need for Characters like Morse to be killed of, MM and T&T didn't have to die so they didn't, I haven't read all the Poirot's but have read Curtain, perhaps that is the secret of keeping him alive in your mind.

The Mirror Cracked might be set in St Mary Mead, but I never think of it in terms of its village setting. The story mostly revolves around people from, literally, another world - a rich and famous actress and her entourage - who just happen to have chosen to live at Gossington Hall. I know the first victim IS a resident of the village but she, too, has recently moved to the development. What I'm trying to say (I think) is that this novel could have been set anywhere. The changes in and around St Mary Mead means it has lost it previous identity and cohesion.

But human nature is human nature and if there is a human tragedy or story to be told, Miss Marple wouldn't be out of place no matter where it was set.

I think of it in terms of the Village setting, Dolly Bantry comes home to the Village where her old friend Miss Marple lives and although she moved to the Lodge the Lodge is in the Grounds of Gossington Hall where a body was found, also I have lived in a Village since I was 3 and like in St Mary Mead there have been houses being built and the look has changed alot. I think it does matter where it is set. 

The setting does matter, Tommy, especially the way the changes of the village mirror the social changes of the time. It's just that I never think of it in terms of its village setting, due to the fact that the majority of those concerned in the story are from quite a different lifestyle altogether.

I technically live in a village but we are swamped by having a huge Outlet Shopping Centre here too. What Miss Marple would of made of one of these in her beloved St Mary Mead, we shall never know.

If St Mary Mead was anything like the village I was brought up in and Miss Marple came back today she would find the village shop closed, the church part of a team ministry consisting of 5 other villages (Services at St Mary Mead every 3rd Sunday morning or 4th Sunday night unless there is an R in the month). Dr Haydock would be replaced by a group practice two villages away. Gossington Hall now owned by a footballer. As for Inch the taxi driver, he is just a distant memory although if you don't own a 4x4 the community bus from the next village will take you to town for 2 hours on Tuesdays. Finally, Miss Marples' house is now a weekend cottage for a couple from Notting Hill.

I know what you mean! What a shame!

At least we can escape to our idea of the perfect village with our reading. Nostalgia all the way...

Yes Puffinjill, I think that is why peole of a certain age like myself love the MM books because it seems to recall a golden age of village life. However when I think back without my rose coloured specs, we were all very poor as our fathers were on agricultural wages, the houses were cold, dark and poky. Thatch is not all it is cracked up to be. I remember ladies like MM who lived on independant means who were living in gentile frugality who didn't have kind nephews like Raymond to bail them out and suffered real hardship.

Thanks for the 'certain age' bit!!!

Puffinjill I thought bI had said that it does matter where it is set, also it isn't just people of a certain age that like MM books, I don't consider mysaelf of 'A Certain Age' for 20 years at least and I read my first AC book at least 20 Years ago.

I was absolutly happily astonished when i read the mirror Crak'd from side to side and even more happier when i saw the joan hickson Tv version of it she really knew how to play miss marple. however my all time favorite movie adaptation was angela lansbury.I dont know any other person of my age who likes the AC books especialy the MM stories I supose not may sixteen year olds care much for litrature.  

I don't know how old you are Dale and wouldn't dream of asking as Dale can be a Female's Name in some parts of the world but I agree with you about the book even though I saw the Brilliant Joan Hickson Version first as it wasn't totally true to the book so the BBC very generously let us experience something else when reading the book (I mean that with affection to the Joan Hickson Adaptation) although the Angela Landesbury version isn't my favourite Adaptation of an Agatha Christie book - for me that is either the Peter Ustinov version of Evil Under The Sun or the David Suchet versiion of the same book or the David Suchet versions of either ABC Murders or After The Funeral but the Angela Landesbury version is in my top 10 and most probably in my top 5, I just love the opening sequence in the Village Hall and I think as I said somewhere on a blog if the writers want to meddle withj the Miss Marple series enlarge on the idea in the beginning of the Angela Landesbury film. Are youy a Murder She Wrote Fan Dale? I love it, I can see alot of Agathaha Christie's influnence in some if not alot of the Episodes. Sorry I was going off-opic there, I would love to enlarge on what I mean but maybe not here is the best place.