Sleeping Murder. Miss Marple s Last Case -
Agatha Christie
1976 - Collins Crime Club, London - First Edition
An exquisitely bound first edition of Miss Marple’s last case.
“Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernise the house, she only succeeded in dredging up the past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs. In fear, Gwenda turns to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, can they solve a crime committed many years before?” ‘Whilst living in London during the Second World War, Agatha Christie stored away two special books in the vault of a bank for safekeeping, and these were to remain there until Agatha Christie’s death. Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case was left for her daughter Rosalind, and Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case was for her husband Max. In doing this, Christie ensured that after her own death, her two best known detectives would have their final say.
Originally it has been thought that the story was written in the early 1940s, although this has been debated by Christie expert John Curran in his book Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebook in which he discovers that Christie began writing the novel much later.
There is much discussion around when the story was first written. In An Autobiography Christie explains that she ‘had written an extra two books during the first years of the war’ and ‘those two books, when written, were put in the vaults of a bank.’ But in Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks, John Curran argues that it was written much later.’ – The Home of Agatha Christie [web]
Sleeping Murder was first adapted for television in 1987 as part of the Miss Marple series by the BBC, starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. It was then adapted again in 2006, this time by ITV, for their series Marple which starred Geraldine McEwan. 2001 saw the first radio adaptation which was transmitted on BBC Radio 4 and starred June Whitfield.
References: Cooper & Pike, Detective Fiction 82-89. Wagstaff & Poole, A Christie Biography, 221. Web AgathaChristie.com.
Octavo (book size 21.2x13.6cm), pp.[4] 224 [2]. Finely bound by the Baker Bindery, Anniston, Alabama in full green morocco, with gilt titles and decoration to spine, green patterned paste-paper endpapers, generous turn-ins ruled in gilt, with gilt motifs of dagger, pistol, moustache and knitting needles tooled as the four corner-pieces, all edges gilt. Original cloth spine and upper bound in at rear. Condition: Fine in fine binding. Ref: 111957 Price: HK$ 4,000
“Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernise the house, she only succeeded in dredging up the past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs. In fear, Gwenda turns to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, can they solve a crime committed many years before?” ‘Whilst living in London during the Second World War, Agatha Christie stored away two special books in the vault of a bank for safekeeping, and these were to remain there until Agatha Christie’s death. Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case was left for her daughter Rosalind, and Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case was for her husband Max. In doing this, Christie ensured that after her own death, her two best known detectives would have their final say.
Originally it has been thought that the story was written in the early 1940s, although this has been debated by Christie expert John Curran in his book Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebook in which he discovers that Christie began writing the novel much later.
There is much discussion around when the story was first written. In An Autobiography Christie explains that she ‘had written an extra two books during the first years of the war’ and ‘those two books, when written, were put in the vaults of a bank.’ But in Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks, John Curran argues that it was written much later.’ – The Home of Agatha Christie [web]
Sleeping Murder was first adapted for television in 1987 as part of the Miss Marple series by the BBC, starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. It was then adapted again in 2006, this time by ITV, for their series Marple which starred Geraldine McEwan. 2001 saw the first radio adaptation which was transmitted on BBC Radio 4 and starred June Whitfield.
References: Cooper & Pike, Detective Fiction 82-89. Wagstaff & Poole, A Christie Biography, 221. Web AgathaChristie.com.
Octavo (book size 21.2x13.6cm), pp.[4] 224 [2]. Finely bound by the Baker Bindery, Anniston, Alabama in full green morocco, with gilt titles and decoration to spine, green patterned paste-paper endpapers, generous turn-ins ruled in gilt, with gilt motifs of dagger, pistol, moustache and knitting needles tooled as the four corner-pieces, all edges gilt. Original cloth spine and upper bound in at rear. Condition: Fine in fine binding. Ref: 111957 Price: HK$ 4,000