Agatha Christie a long-running character in Christie's works, appearing in 33 novels and 54 short stories. Miss Jane Marple, introduced in the short-story collection "The Thirteen Problems" in 1927, was based on Christie's grandmother and her "Ealing cronies". Both Jane and Gran "always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and were, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right." Marple appeared in 12 novels and 20 stories. During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels, "Curtain" and "Sleeping Murder", intended as the last cases of these two great detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Both books were sealed in a bank
Wallingford, Oxfordshire the home of author Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan from 1934 until her death in 1976 and his in 1978. It is believed that she based the fictional home of her fictional character Miss Marple called Danemead, which was in the village of St. Mary Mead on Winterbrook House. The house is still a private residence and forms part of the Agatha Christie Trail. [[File:Flint House - geograph.org.uk - 918424.jpg|thumb|Flint house]] Flint house is owned by Wallingford Town Council and is the current home of the Wallingford Museum. The frame may date back to the late 15th century