On the trail of the greatest crime writer
Agatha Christie’s bust isn’t that big. But everyone on the English Riviera will tell you where to find it.
The bronze bust is on Cary Green near the grand pavilion on the seafront at Torquay. It’s the only statue anywhere in the world of the famously prolific crime writer, author of “The Mousetrap” and the creator of Miss Marple and Poirot.
Every September, Torquay on the English Riviera in the south-west county of Devon remembers its favourite daughter with a festival. There are murder mystery evenings, plays , films , talks , walks and , on September 16 an “in character” period costume celebratory luncheon on Burgh Island where Christie wrote “Evil Under The Sun” and “Then There Were None” .
Time to turn back the clock: Recreating the English Riviera at the Agatha Christie Festival
For a week south Devon is overrun by dowdy tweeds, grey Homburgs, boutonnieres , pin curls , finger waves , waxed moustaches and dapper little bald men exercising their “little grey cells”. This year’s festival will coincide with the publication of a new “Poirot” novel by Sophie Hannah who will be giving readings.
“The Queen of Crime” wrote 80 novels as well as 19 plays, several short story collections and a book of poems. “The Guinness Book of Records” lists her as the best-selling fiction author of all time estimating two billion of her books have been sold in 103 languages worldwide.
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in 1890 in Barton Road. The house was demolished in 1962. Nothing remains now but a boundary wall and a plaque.
Torquay was then a party town and fashionable resort. It boasted more royal visitors than anywhere in the world. Educated at home Agatha learned to read at the age of three. Her first published piece was a poem about electric trams. It appeared in a London newspaper when she was eleven. Agatha met Lt Archie Christie of the “Royal Flying Corps at a ball at Ugbrooke House near Exeter. He suddenly asked for a divorce shortly after Agatha’s mother’s death in 1926 causing her infamous eleven-day disappearance before being eventually found in Harrogate in Yorkshire. They honeymooned in the Grand Hotel, Torquay. It lasted one night before Archie had to return to the Front.
The Queen of Crime: Agatha Christie
The Grand will stage a 123rd birthday party with themed cocktails presumably with names like “Sparkling Cynanide “ and “Appointment With Death.” A special chocolate and almond “Delicious Death” cake , made by actress/cook Jane Asher and inspired by a cake eaten in “A Murder IS Announced”, will be served to guests. The official festival Poirot , actor Martin Gainsford , will attend.
Christie’s first novel “ The Mysterious Affair At Styles” appeared in 1920. “The name Marple came from Marple Hall in Cheshire, ” said Joan, a “Blue Badge guide” who gives Christie walking tours. “The character was probably modelled on Agatha’s eccentric grandmother who collected table napkins and bathroom towels. “ Poirot was inspired by the Belgian refugees billeted in Torquay.”
The “Christie Mile” begins at Torquay Town Hall where Agatha worked for the V.A.D ( Voluntary Aid Detachment ) when it was a Red Cross Hospital. It was here, while working in the dispensary , that she learned about poisons and in a notebook on display is a short poem :
“From Borgia’s time to present day
Their power has been proven and tried
Monkshood blue called aconite and the deadly cyanide.
Here is menace and murder and sudden death in these phials of green and blue”
It was also in the dispensary that she first started writing , encouraged by her sister, Madge. Also exhibited in the museum are first editions and Joan Hickson’s shoes. And a mock-up of Poirot’s study at Whitehaven Mansions.
Joan is an experienced Miler. She is the pace-setter and it is hard to keep in her slipstream. The trivia comes thick and fast. Agatha collected fluffy monkeys. Poirot appeared on a Nicaraguan postage stamp celebrating the centenary of Interpol. Writing was “a chore”. She once held a “Poodle Party” when guests came dressed as dogs.
We walked down to the beach. “Beacon Cove is where Agatha nearly drowned. It was a ladies only beach then. And the members of the yacht club behind used to study the form of the swimmers through opera glasses!”
Also on the itinerary is Princess Gardens. Named after Louise , one of Queen Victoria’s daughters, it is mentioned in the “ABC Murders”. Torre Abbey is Torquay’s oldest building dating to 1196. It has a Christie Memorial Room which is the home to her favourite armchair , her “noiseless” 1937 Remington typewriter and her “plotting notebooks”. There is also a handwritten MS for “A Caribbean Mystery”.
Christie explored Devon and the South Hams countryside in her Morris Cowley car looking for inspiration and locations. Fifteen of her books are either set in Devon or have specific connections with the county. Some are surprising. Like Torquay golf course where she was proposed to by Major Reggie Lucy while he was giving her a golf lesson. He is the model for Peter Maitland in “Unfinished Portrait”. Agatha’s father was President of Torquay Cricket Club.
You can see her baptism certificate at the All Saints parish church which will be holding a service of celebration.
Churston station was Nassecombe in “Dead Man’s Folly”. Christie donated the east window at St Mary the Virgin Church at Churston Ferres in between Brixham and Paignton –“ a happy window which children could look at with pleasure.” Kents Caverns appeared as Hempsley Cavern in “The Man In The Brown Suit”.
The area’s creeks , inlets and coves like Elberry Devon play starring roles in many books. Miss Marple’s home of St Mary Mead is a composite Devon village. Dartmouth’s Royal Castle appears as the Royal George in “Ordeal by Innocence”. Up on Dartmoor Agatha finished the first draft of “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” in the Moorland Hotel at Haytor.
My tour ended with a twilight cruise to Christie’s holiday home .“Greenway House” on the Dart estuary near Brixham. Agatha moved there in 1938 after marrying the eminent archaeologist , Max Mallowan. “ I adore corpses and stiffs” she wrote. They travelled around the world together on digs. They stayed there every summer until her death. It is now owned by “The National Trust”.
Inside, all that remains of the prolific crime writer is a gardening hat and scarf as well as her collection of shell paintings.
Lady Mallowan died on January 12th 1976 and is buried in Cholsey , Oxfordshire near her last home in Wallingford.
But Devon was where her heart lay. And it is where her unique bust now proudly stands.
For further information about Agatha Christie breaks and the Festival : www.englishriviera.com