St. Mary Mead St. Mary Mead St. Mary Mead was the fictional village created by popular crime fiction author Dame Agatha Christie. The quaint, sleepy village was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Marple. However, Christie first described a village of that name prior to Marple's introduction, in the 1928 Hercule Poirot novel "The Mystery of the Blue Train". In that novel, St. Mary Mead is home to the book's protagonist Katherine Grey. The village was first mentioned in a Miss Marple book in 1930, when it was the setting for the first Marple novel, "The Murder at the Vicarage". Miss Marple's
Miss Marple Marple was benign and chirpy. She had earlier appeared in a TV movie adaptation of the non-Marple Christie story "Murder Is Easy", playing an elderly lady somewhat similar to Miss Marple. From 1984 to 1992, the BBC adapted all of the original Miss Marple novels as a series titled "Miss Marple". Joan Hickson played the lead role. In the 1940s, she appeared on-stage in an Agatha Christie play, "Appointment with Death", which was seen by Christie who wrote in a note to her, "I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple". (Coincidentally, Hickson had played a housekeeper