{"id":9652,"date":"2018-01-28T08:55:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-28T13:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9652"},"modified":"2025-09-29T22:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:04:27","slug":"at-bertrams-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9652","title":{"rendered":"At Bertram’s Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Bertram’s Hotel<\/a><\/em> (1966) Agatha Christie<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Several years ago when I had the flu I started to re-read the Miss Marple mysteries (which I hadn’t done in a couple decades). I read through all my favorites, then stopped once I felt better. Since I’ve been reading books set in the time of her later mysteries, I decided to go back and pick up where I left off.<\/p>\n

This isn’t one of my favorite Miss Marple mysteries, possibly because there is less Miss Marple than usual.<\/p>\n

Miss Marple is sent to London for a week’s vacation at Bertram’s Hotel by her nephew and niece. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a question of atmosphere\u2026 Strangers coming to this country (Americans, in particular, because they are the ones who have the money) have their own rather queer ideas of what England is like. I\u2019m not talking, you understand, of the rich business tycoons who are always crossing the Atlantic. They usually go to the Savoy or the Dorchester. They want modern d\u00e9cor, American food, all the things that will make them feel at home. But there are a lot of people who come abroad at rare intervals and who expect this country to be\u2014 well, I won\u2019t go back as far as Dickens, but they\u2019ve read Cranford and Henry James, and they don\u2019t want to find this country just the same as their own! So they go back home afterwards and say: \u2018There\u2019s a wonderful place in London; Bertram\u2019s Hotel, it\u2019s called. It\u2019s just like stepping back a hundred years. It just is old England! And the people who stay there! People you\u2019d never come across anywhere else. Wonderful old Duchesses. They serve all the old English dishes, there\u2019s a marvellous old-fashioned beefsteak pudding! You\u2019ve never tasted anything like it; and great sirloins of beef and saddles of mutton, and an old-fashioned English tea and a wonderful English breakfast. And of course all the usual things as well. And it\u2019s wonderfully comfortable. And warm. Great log fires.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are strange goings-on at the hotel, and Miss Marple notes the strangeness but can’t quite put her finger on it.<\/p>\n

I do love Miss Marple, even if this isn’t one of my favorite books.<\/p>\n

It does have some lovely bits.<\/p>\n

I learned (what I suppose I really knew already) that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back\u2014 that the essence of life is going forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Bertram’s Hotel (1966) Agatha Christie Several years ago when I had the flu I started to re-read the Miss Marple mysteries (which I hadn’t done in a couple decades). I read through all my favorites, then stopped once I felt better. Since I’ve been reading books set in the time of her later mysteries, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,190,48,33,8,41],"tags":[732,228,229,693],"class_list":["post-9652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-cozy","category-female","category-historical","category-mystery","category-reread","tag-1960s","tag-agatha-christie","tag-miss-marple","tag-older-protagonist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2vG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24735,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24735","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":0},"title":"At Bertram’s Hotel","author":"Michelle","date":"July 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"At Bertram's Hotel (1965) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple, #11) We actually have two quite different sets of bedrooms. The English we put in one lot, the Americans in the other. The rooms all look alike, but they are full of actual differences\u2014electric razors, and showers as well as tubs in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"At Bertrams Hotel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/At-Bertrams-Hotel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13978,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13978","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":1},"title":"At Bertram’s Hotel","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"At Bertram's Hotel (1965) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) I'm not sure what it is that makes this story feel so weak compared to the others, but it is. Miss Marple gets a vacation to Bertram's Hotel, but something just isn't quite right there. \u201cBut how can that pay you?\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"At Bertrams Hotel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/At-Bertrams-Hotel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3463,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3463","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":2},"title":"The Thirteen Problems","author":"Michelle","date":"January 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Thirteen Problems (1928, 1929, 1930, 1933) Agatha Christie (Also published as The Tuesday Club Murders) I read several stories in this collection, but not all, so I don't think I'd previously read this collection as is. After dinner seems a good time to sit around and discuss crime, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Thirteen Problems","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/thirteen-problems.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4902,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4902","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":3},"title":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (2013) Agatha Christie From The Thirteen Problems (1953) The Tuesday Night Club The Idol House of Astarte Ingots of Gold The Bloodstained Pavement Motive v. Opportunity The Thumbmark of St. Peter The Blue Geranium The Companion The Four Suspects A Christmas Tragedy The Herb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12850,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12850","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":4},"title":"The Murder at the Vicarage","author":"Michelle","date":"May 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) I was listening to Read or Dead and they were talking about Agatha Christie's first book, which had been published in 1920--100 years earlier, and one of them mentioned her being a comfort read, and I was immediately, \"YES. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Murder at the Vicarage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/The-Murder-at-the-Vicarage.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3677,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3677","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":5},"title":"A Caribbean Mystery","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Caribbean Mystery (1964) Agatha Christie This has always been my favorite Miss Marple mystery, probably because I got to watch part of it on TV, with Jameson Parker as Tim Kendal, which is important, because I was a HUGE Simon & Simon fan. (And I just now realized that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A-Caribbean-Mystery","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/A-Caribbean-Mystery-182x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}