Exoticism, luxuries and Britishness in the footsteps of Agatha Christie
50 years after her death, from Devon to Istanbul, in the places where the writer lived and inspired her best-loved novels
In Torquay, a town on the English Riviera, where she was born in September 1890, in this year that celebrates half a century since her death, you can still 'meet' her: Agatha Christie, the undisputed queen of detective books, is immortalised in a bronze bust along the Agatha Christie Mile, which starts at Beacon Quay, from where American troops sailed for D-Day. When she was a girl, Agatha used to go swimming in the nearby Beacon Cove, where colourful striped cabins were lowered along the uneven pebbles to the shore so that women could enter the water in their swimming costumes to swim without attracting prying stares and appreciation. The Imperial Hotel is also still in place, since 1866: the author had her Hercule Poirot stay there, and in its long history it has also hosted Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, King Edward VII, the Beatles, Charles and Lady Diana, who will certainly have enjoyed the sea view from its Palm Court Lounge and Bar.
The long summers at Greenway House
Before setting off to discover the rest of Devon, one crosses the threshold of the Torquay Museum, which houses the gallery dedicated to Agatha Christie and allows one to find oneself, as if by magic, in her faithfully recreated studio, and then strolls along the Strand between the elegant Hoopers department store and the bench where another bronze statue of the writer stands, this time portrayed with Peter, her favourite dog, at her side. Christie's bond with nature and animals was very close, and this is particularly noticeable at Greenway House, the mansion about 12 km south of Torquay where the writer spent long summers and Christmas holidays with her family. The presence of a battery of cannons on the garden terrace does not exactly suggest a place of peace, but in fact they are only the legacy of the presence, in this mansion above the bend in the Dart River, of the US Coast Guard Command stationed in Europe, which requisitioned it for some time. At Greenway House Agatha played croquet and golf and in the winter she read chapters of the novels she was working on to her family gathered in front of the fireplace. When she wasn't sitting at her desk, she was gardening: from the intricate web of paths, deer sometimes peep out, trampling the carpets of cyclamen, alongside hellebores, rhododendrons, garlic and snowdrop flowers, bluebells and daffodils. The orchard is now dozing, but soon apricots, nectarines and figs will be picked, as the Lady of the Yellow loved to do. The almond blossoms will blossom early and there are sure to be surprises in the Peach House, the white glass greenhouse just like the one where the owner used to ripen grapes and passion fruit.
In the labyrinth of Latemar
'All my life I have wanted to travel on board the Orient Express. When I reached France, Spain or Italy, I often saw that train stopped in Calais station, consumed with a burning desire to ride it,' she wrote in 'My Life', the autobiography published a few months after her death. Agatha Christie was an indefatigable traveller, an indefatigable adventurer, and in the course of her life she undertook several Grand Tours in the company of her two husbands, in particular with her second husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan, visiting South Africa, Australia and Hawaii. But reaching Istanbul and from there on the Orient Express to Venice always remained her favourite itinerary. In the Turkish city, you can stay at the Pera Palace, asking to sleep in room 411, overlooking the Tepebaşı district: it was there that Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express and today there is a library with her works, a copy of her typewriter and antiques reminiscent of her time. Also unchanged is the charm of the Grand Hotel Carezza Residence, her favourite Italian destination, in the woods on the slopes of the Latemar: here one can find many literary clues from the novel Poirot and the four in the historic hall, along the path named after the writer, which then winds its way from the lakeshore to the rocky labyrinth of the Latemar.
