Maggie Radcliffe is the second Broadchurch resident under the spotlight of author Erin Kelly in her superb short story collection, which ties in beautifully with the second series of the drama.
The story begins on the day before Joe Miller's trial for the murder of Danny and the letter referred to in the title of the story is Maggie's resignation. After fifteen years as editor of the Broadchurch Echo, Maggie has decided that she can no longer do 'the job that I am good at in a town that I love.' She knows that journalism and news reporting is moving on, but the changes that effect the way she runs her paper are proving too much. She is very keen to pass on her wisdom to her junior reporter Olly, who is chomping at the bit to cover the trial of Joe Miller, it'll be the first court case he's covered. Maggie wonders if he would be ready to step in to her shoes. Could he really be entrusted to run the paper?
There's wonderful details about the character of Maggie, as well as Olly and his mother Lucy in this story and as Maggie gets caught up in a 'human interest story' for the Echo, we see that life in Broadchurch continues to rumble on despite Danny's death and Joe's trial.
Maggie comes across as a thoroughly decent person, she may be in a career that requires her to nose about in people's business, but she's not the sort of journalist who would use shock stories or fabricate tales to sell copies of her paper. Maggie deals in facts and she is a proper on the ground investigative writer. Not for her trawling twitter for snippets of tittle tattle to base an article round. She's there on the ground and making sure that she has the real story no matter how big or small. Her love of the community of Broadchurch shines through. The story adds a new dimension to Maggie who could be thought as one of the peripheral characters to the show and this story adds a lot to her. In fact I'd really like to see a lot more of her on screen.
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