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2000s: Miss Seeton heads to the roulette table!
Odds on Miss Seeton
What you need to know before your trail
At the roulette table an elderly, ludicrously made-up woman in dazzling diamonds is making a killing. Who would guess the bejewelled high roller is actually retired art teacher Miss Emily Seeton, in disguise to help capture a mysterious crime boss? Miss S. must get a good look at the crook’s face to produce a sketch for the police, a simple task surely. It’s not her fault things escalate, and after half-blinding one baddie with the tail of her mink stole and whacking another with her handbag, she’s soon gambling for the very highest stakes – her own life. Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella!
Travel Guide
Where is Plummergen?
It’s fictional but inspired by Appledore in Kent:
Map of Plummergen (c) Hamilton Crane
The author speaks:
Rye (a real place) is 5½ miles south of Plummergen, and Ashford (likewise real) is 15 miles to the east. These aren’t distances on a map, because (using a pair of compasses from my school geometry set) the two locations 15 miles from Ashford and 5½ miles from Rye are both in Sussex rather than Kent.
“Plummergen Station — which, in true English rural tradition, is some two miles south of the village on the road to Romney Marsh – branch left for Ashford” … “Ashford (15 miles east)”: Appledore station is 1½ miles from the centre of Appledore, it’s on Romney Marsh, and the journey to Ashford by road is 15 miles if you take the route past Appledore station.
Miss Seeton’s cottage is “at the southern end of The Street”: sure enough, the main street of Appledore is called just The Street, which seems to confirm the identification of Appledore as the inspiration.
Finally, “Plummergen was only about six miles beyond Brettenden”: After a six mile drive towards London from Appledore we come to Tenterden, which sounds remarkably similar to the invented name.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Odds on Miss Seeton (5)
Destination : Kent, Appledore “Plummergen” Author/Guide: Heron Carvic Departure Time: 2000s
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