'At Bertam's Hotel' by Agatha Christie

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25 June 2025Find out about The London Archives' book group in June 2025 where we discussed 'At Bertram's Hotel' by Agatha Christie.

June 2025 - 'At Bertram's Hotel' by Agatha Christie

In June, the TLA book group investigated Agatha Christie's novel which was published in 1965. Agatha Christie remains one of the world’s best-selling authors, and though she lived at numerous London addresses and had strong connections to the capital she tended to write about locations outside. However, in 1965 she published “At Bertram’s Hotel”, a Miss Marple novel in which for the first and only time Marple leaves St Mary Mead for a holiday in London where she stays at the aforementioned hotel.

Creaky plot

There was general agreement amongst our readers that this work isn’t Christie’s strongest, with a creaky plot and Miss Marple reduced to a bit part. However, this late Christie gave us several things to enjoy and generated lots of discussion.

Miss Marple in London

Readers were united in their delight at the descriptions of the hotel itself, its clientele and Edwardian atmosphere, and of Marple’s enjoyment of her trip to London. The trip is bitter-sweet – she enjoys London’s department stores and the qualities of the hotel, but she finds London changed. The locations she remembers from girlhood visits with her aunt have been rebuilt with modern buildings or divided into flats. Interestingly, while Marple enjoys the nostalgia of her trip, she is also wary of it and is unsentimental about the future - she stresses that “the essence of life is going forward”.

The essence of life is going forward.
Miss Marple, 'At Bertram's Hotel' by Agatha Christie

Relationships in the novel

We discussed some of the relationships in the novel, particularly the troubled mother-daughter relationship of Elvira and Bess. Bess is an absentee mother who is too wrapped up in her own life to parent, and Elvira is damaged as a result. However, Christie doesn’t blame Bess, and instead in her representation of Elvira presents us with a soulless, cold and calculating young woman.

Nostalgia is a trap

Christie warns us that nostalgia is a trap. Bertram’s hotel is a stage set of an old England that never existed, that hides an international crime syndicate – a long way from cosy crime of the 1930s. Readers made some fascinating comments about ways in which the book can be read as a comment on Christie’s own work and reputation.

Flemings Hotel

Bertram’s Hotel is believed to have been based on Flemings Hotel on Half Moon Street, and as part of the presentation of archival materials we looked at plans of Flemings from the London County Council Building Act case files, and how these can be used to trace changes to the style and design of public buildings such as hotels and department stores. Some also think that Brown's hotel was the inspiration for Bertram's, what do you think?

Archive sources

In the session the group looked at the London County Council building act case files relating to historic London hotels, including a file for Clarges Hotel (now Flemings Hotel) ref: GLC/AR/BR/07/3335.

Miss Marple's trip to London includes visits to old haunts, favourite places and department stores. Robinson and Cleaver were at 156-168 Regent Street and there is a plan concerning alterations to their storefront in 1959 within ref: GLC/AR/BR/17/037712/01.