The idea for Miss Buncle's Book came to me while I was sitting in a bus.   The woman next to me said to her friend "Everyone knows all about everyone in our village.  If I had time, I'd write a book about them."   Harmless words, perhaps, but they were uttered in a threatening manner -- with concentrated fury -- more as if the speaker would have liked to pour boiling oil upon her neighbors than to immortalize them in print. (Author's introduction)