夜雨聆风an exercise book. Then, staying one summer for a few days at a fashion-
able hotel by the seaside I observed a family at one of the tables in the din-
ing room; an elderly man, a cripple, in a wheeled chair, and with him was
a family party of a younger generation. Fortunately they left the next day,
so that my imagination could get to work unhampered by any kind of
knowledge. When people ask “Do you put real people in your books?” the
answer is that, for me, it is quite impossible to write about anyone I know,
or have ever spoken to, or indeed have even heard about! For some
reason, it kills them for me stone dead. But I can take a “lay figure” and
endow it with qualities and imaginings of my own.
So an elderly crippled man became the pivot of the story. Colonel and
Mrs. Bantry, those old cronies of my Miss Marple, had just the right kind
of library. In the manner of a cookery recipe add the following ingredi-
ents: a tennis pro, a young dancer, an artist, a girl guide, a dance hostess,
etc., and serve up à la Miss Marple!