Why a Booktrail?
1900s: Miss Marple is on holiday in London but her stay in a top London hotel doesn’t exactly go to plan…
At Bertram’s Hotel (Miss Marple)
What you need to know before your trail
Miss Marple comes to the capital and stays in the cosy Bertram’s Hotel. This hotel is iconic to her as she used to stay there as a child so has fond memories of the place. It’s also somewhere she can reminisce and rekindle her feelings of nostalgia. Well, she’s going to enjoy her holiday and spend time talking to old friends and wander around the capital, maybe do a bit of shopping…
But if Miss Marple was hoping to get away from it all, she soon finds out that such a hope might be impossible and that this sanctuary might not be quite what it seems.
When an eccentric guest makes his way to the airport on the wrong day… a violent chain of events is set in motion……
Travel Guide
Poor Miss Marple. She’s normally quite settle in St Mary Mead, well apart from the odd murder of course but this trip to London really was going to be a nice break away from it all. But then this is an Agatha Christie novel so you know it’s not going to be without its murderous themes.
St Betram’s hotel is just the kind of hotel you want to visit when you stay in the capital. The one with wooden, Edwardian features, elegant and of a different era. Where nostalgia and times gone by are evoked in every nook and cranny. And where you can sweep along its long corridors with your posh bags as you come in from the capital’s shops.
Bertram’s, the fictional hotel featured in the story, is thought to have been inspired by Brown’s Hotel in London, as this was apparently the favoured hotel of Agatha Christie herself. Flemings hotel in Mayfair is also a hotel of this era where you can imagine her staying.
Where ever this hotel is, it’s full of dubious characters…
But it’s the hotel which shines – the sense of place and time, the sense of a time gone by, a time of elegance and understated elegance where you dressed for dinner and hotels were a sign of luxury and relaxation. Old fashioned surroundings and values furnish the entire place and is a haven for older people to come and reminisce of nicer , simpler times.
But as Miss Marple will soon find out, time has a way of burying away deep within and changes come from the outside and leave the surface untouched.
Where Next?
