Who Created Miss Marple?

Several years ago, I was writing entries for an encyclopedia—and the project lost its funding. So, this meant that I could use the entries I wrote in another way. One of them was titled “Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Series” and, while I don’t claim to have a super high traffic website, after I posted it on my blog, it has consistently gotten the most keyword traffic. In fact, I have fifty-nine keywords on the subject of Miss Marple in Google’s top 100. So, I thought I’d address answers to questions posted in those keywords.

Who Created Miss Marple?

The creator of Miss Marple is one of my all-time favorite writers, the one and only Agatha Christie. Often referred to as the all-time best-selling novelist (outsold by the Bible and William Shakespeare), she published sixty detective novels and fourteen short story collections with a dozen of the books and twenty short stories belonging to the Miss Marple series.

Miss Marple Character Description

Miss Marple is an older woman who has lived her entire life in one small village: St. Mary Mead. Unmarried (spinster!), she spends her time observing people and thereby seeing how much wickedness existed in human nature. She would often remain in the background of what was going on, knitting as she listened and learned. As she comes across murders, she often connects personality traits of suspects with those of other people she has known in her long lifetime, which gives her keen insights into solving the crime.

Miss Marple’s First Name

It’s Jane. Miss Jane Marple.

Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Books in Chronological Order

The first of twelve Miss Marple novels was Murder at the Vicarage (1930). Here is the remaining Miss Marple series order:

• The Body in the Library (1942)
• The Moving Finger (1943)
• A Murder is Announced (1950)
• They Do it With Mirrors (1952)
• A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)
• 4.50 from Paddington (1957)
• The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962)
• A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
• A Bertram’s Hotel (1965)
• Nemesis (1971)
• Sleeping Murder (1976)

When I’ve read this books, they’ve been in a random order. Now I’m tempted to read the Miss Marple series in order!

Miss Marple Actresses in Order

The earliest Miss Marple actress was Margaret Rutherford. She play that role in the following:

• Murder She Said (1962)
• Murder at the Gallop (1963)
• Murder Most Foul (1964)
• Murder Ahoy! (1964)
• The Alphabet Murders (1965)

I was not aware that Agatha Christie wasn’t thrilled with how Rutherford put a comic spin on the Miss Marple character. But, apparently, she wasn’t! In the 1980s, two women played Miss Marple: Angela Lansbury (The Mirror Crack’d in 1980) and Helen Hayes in made for television movies: A Caribbean Mystery (1983) and Murder with Mirrors (1985). In the BBC series from 1984 to 1992, Joan Hickson played the role. On BBC Radio 4, June Whitfield starred as Miss Jane Marple from 1993 to 2001. Plus, starting in 2004, Geraldine McEwan portrayed Miss Marple and, in 2009, Julie McKenzie took over.

Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Short Stories

1. The Tuesday Night Club
2.  The Idol House of Astarte
3.  Ingots of Gold
4.  The Bloodstained Pavement
5.  Motive v. Opportunity
6.  The Thumbmark of St. Peter
7.  The Blue Geranium
8.  The Companion
9.  The Four Suspects
10.  A Christmas Tragedy
11.  The Herb of Death
12.  The Affair at the Bungalow
13.  Death by Drowning
14.  Miss Marple Tells a Story
15.  Strange Jest
16.  The Case of the Perfect Maid
17.  The Case of the Caretaker
18.  Tape-Measure Murder
19. Greenshaw’s Folly
20.  Sanctuary

I hope you’ve enjoyed my FAQs about Miss Jane Marple! If you haven’t read Agatha Christie’s books about her, I strongly encourage to give them a try.