Agatha Christie's lesbian characters

[james_davis_nicoll]

In a recent discussion about the new adaptations of the Miss Marple stories, I commented that I didn't recall the original stories having as many lesbians as the TV movies do, where "as many" = "any"*. The person I was chatting to suggested that perhaps they were there but as a young lad of 10 or so, I did not understand the significance of, eg, two spinster ladies living together. Can anyone who has actually read the books recently tell me if the movies have introduced a new element or if I just missed something when i read them 30 years ago?


* Or as many sword fights as the Margaret Rutherford version of Miss Marple.

Comments

Re: spoilers below

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Nemesis was my first Christie mystery, lo those many moons ago (perhaps 30 years).

The idea of crushes, and the like are not uncommon in English fiction of the period, and a bit before, though it fades after.

I suspect it had a great deal to do with segregated boarding schools. There is still a running idea that a fair bit of homosexual behaviour (not all consensual) goes on in the Public Schools.

TK