General Chat

I, on the other hand, am definitely a descendent of Miss Marple and I have a photograph to prove it!

The fact that the photograph is stated to be that of my maternal grandmother is of no consequence whatsoever.

I think I can claim my relationship through her nephew, Raymond West, as my West family came from the county adjoining the county in which the idyllic village of St. Mary Mead lies.






I seem to have mislaid a little book I bought several years ago which, tongue in cheek, listed the characters in all of the Miss Marple books. An exposition was given on each character, from 'faithful Florence' through to her many and varied Godchildren. Most enlightening indeed!

Whilst I admire most of the famous detectives and their wiles, nuances, and expertise, Miss M. remains my firm favourite, especially as portrayed by Joan Hickson.

I have each story on audio tape and it almost makes ironing worthwhile!

suzian. !

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/progeny

prog·e·ny
n. pl. progeny or prog·e·nies
1.
a. One born of, begotten by, or derived from another; an offspring or a descendant.
b. Offspring or descendants considered as a group.

So that was 1(a), part 2, "in fine" (the last bit), then. ;)

MY birth certificate? How old do I sound, then?

My father's birth certificate, on the other hand, shows mother Florence, occupation housekeeper. Father unknown. Place of birth, Much Benham Home for Unmarried mothers.

And, no, I haven't read it - but will make it my business to do so. Thanks for that.

Sue x

Nah, I was lazy. I dimly do recall that now.

So what does your birth certificate say, then??

Have you ever read the book by Ruth Rendall writing as Barbara Vine called ... and here I have to go google it because it has different names, I think it's Asa's Book ...

Asta's Book. A different name in the US I think.

Genealogical mystery at its best!

You'll have got to the bottom of this by now, Janey.

Raymond West was the nephew of Miss M, and "faithful Florence" was her housekeeper - I was the progeny of what went on behind the chintz curtains!

Sue x

Where did you come from then?

And who are these people whereof you speak? Am I to go googling again now??

Sadly, I can't claim to be related to Jane Marple. I can only claim a vicarious connection, being a descendant of "faithful Florence" and her previously unknown union with that "well known author" Raymond West.

Sorry to be so late in replying. I've been out in the garden weeding

Sue x

People who try to confuse me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basildon_Bond

The character created by UK comedian Russ Abbot in the 1980s. The name was a play on James Bond and a joking reference to the well-known paper company.


James's younger smarter brother? ;)



motowngal -- my grandmother too bore more than a passing resemblance to Joan Hickson (although she was a more spitting image of the Waiting for God one).

However, that grandmother merely married a Bond descendant ...

Perhaps they,re some relation to the "Basildon Bonds" they have some relation to writing.**M**.pmsl.

Alas JC, and there's thinking we were also related ;)

I NEED A DETECTIVE
AN EFECTIVE DETECTIVE
ANY DETECTIVE
ANY COLLECTIVE DETECTIVE

IM NOT SELECTIVE

YES SUSAN WITH NUMBERS
VERY SERIOUS THATS WHY MY GREATGRAN
THOUGHT IT SERIOUS TO USE FOUR NAMES OVER 20YRS
OTHER GREATGRAN USED AT LEAST 3
I JUST GOT TO LAUGH
TALK ABOUTMAKING IT HARD
THEY KNEW I WOULD COME LOOKING

I'll tell ya, some of those USAmerican cousins think so! Never seen so many people bent on connecting themselves up wtih some line or other. ;)

It doesn't do to joke....Genealogy is a very serious business don't you know!?

Interestingly, some of the autism questionnaire Cynthia linked to in her thread dealt with how easy it is to imagine/picture the characters in books. No problem at all with Jane and Hercule, eh? Or maybe it's the tv series. ;)

I remember being so very disappointed when I got down to Agatha's dregs, the Tommy and Tuppence tales (and actually, I never could picture them). And whining loudly about them to my BFF, also a Christie fan. "Elephants never forget, elephants never forget, the butler dunnit!"

Last year I read about this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research

An in-depth analysis of Agatha Christie's novels has suggested that the much-loved author of more than 80 mysteries was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Academics at the University of Toronto studied a selection of Christie's novels written between the ages of 28 and 82, counting the numbers of different words, indefinite nouns and phrases used in each.

They found that the vocabulary size of the creator of Poirot and Miss Marple decreased sharply as she neared the end of her life, by 15 to 30%, while repetition of phrases and indefinite word usage (something, thing, anything) in her novels increased significantly.

"We found statistically significant drops in vocabulary, and increases in repeated phrases and indefinite nouns in 15 detective novels from The Mysterious Affair at Styles to Postern of Fate," said the academics, Dr Ian Lancashire from the English department and computer scientist Dr Graeme Hirst. "These language effects are recognised as symptoms of memory difficulties associated with Alzheimer's disease."

The most abrupt decline was seen in a novel Christie wrote aged 81, Elephants Can Remember. The book showed, they said, 30% fewer word types than Destination Unknown, which she wrote aged 63, 18% more repeated phrases, and almost three times as many indefinite words.

Lancashire told Canadian current affairs magazine Macleans that the title of the novel, a tweaking of the proverb "elephants never forget", also gives a clue that Christie was defensive about her declining mental powers, while the protagonist is unable to solve the mystery herself, and is forced to call on the aid of Hercule Poirot.
----------------------------------------------------------

Yup, elephants never forget, that was the one.

I DELETED
DOUBLE PARKED

MUCH RATHER AGATHA RAISIN

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

LOVE POIROT BUT HE'S SHORT

AND WALKS FUNNY I WALK AND FALL FUNNY

CANT BOTH DO IT

Frank 06 .LOL

you said that with cheeks clenched tightly, didnt you!!

LOL

Hold on, Didn't Ms M come from Bury St something?

I think when I was reading them back in the day, I didn't have much of a clue about obscure English geography, or google to find it for me!

My favourite so far is still Nether Wapping. I just picture someone having their nethers wapped.

I believe the woman who is, sadly, not related to 007 is of the USAmerican persuasion, which could explain her lost air. (Not to be confused with lost heirs ... of which we've had that plethora on TTF, or just the one, I suppose ...)

It'll come Newbs LOL ... ;)