I have finally managed to gather my thoughts from the wonderful Bookstagram 2017 meet up I attended last weekend in Hay-on-Wye. Fair warning, this post is going to be a long one so make sure to grab yourself a cup of tea!
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Agatha Christie
Book of the Month: Murder on the Links
The past comes to haunt a wealthy gentleman in Agatha Christie’s novel the Murder on the Links. In the story Poirot faces a surprising adversary and an old murder mystery is used as the key to solving a new crime.
Book of the Month: At Bertram’s Hotel
Entering the beautiful Bertram’s hotel in London is like travelling back in time; for Miss Marple it is a trip down memory lane. But what truly lies behind the polite smiles of the staff and impeccable service? Is the elegant décor and the charming atmosphere a front for something rotten and horrible?
Book of the Month: The Hollow
When Hercule Poirot arrives at The Hollow – home of the Angkatell family – he is greeted by what he perceives to be an artificial murder scene staged for his amusement. Soon the world famous detective understands the horrible truth: in front of his eyes lies a dying man uttering his last words.
The Crime Museum Uncovered
Except for the odd footprint and the few remnants of Turkish cigarette butts, Agatha Christie rarely gave us a murder mystery that wasn’t driven by the basic human nature of people. She once said, “Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend” which makes me think that criminals do, in fact, exist among us and could potentially be one of us. More than that, a sensationalised crime sparks the curiosity of the general public and soon we’re all hooked to our tellies or furiously scrolling down our screens looking for the latest update on the current case gripping the nation. Human nature, then, has a natural tendency to be fascinated by the macabre.
The Women of Christie (Part 1)
Agatha Christie was born a Victorian but grew up in a time when women had one foot in a crinoline and the other down a trouser leg. The Great War came and people started toppling off their Victorian pedestals into a steadily germinating modernity. More and more women were learning how to drive, volunteering as aid during the war, running establishments and basically entering what were predominantly patriarchal roles; finally, sexual stereotypes and gender roles were being renegotiated.
Agatha Christie and The Grand Tour
Poster for the British Empire Exhibition, 1924. In a time were colonies were losing their importance, the propaganda was meant to make the Empire feel like a solid institution.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand how important travelling was for Agatha and how much it influenced her works during her life time. Snow Upon the Desert, her first attempt to write a novel, was set in Egypt where she stayed during her early 20s. Followed by that was Death in the Clouds, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and the controversial Passenger to Frankfurt. Frequent though were her family trips around Europe, nothing was quite like the trip she made in 1922.
Hammersmith Vintage Fashion Fair
I have recently been re-reading some Agatha Christie books and apart from the riveting mystery at hand I’ve been so surprised to note how much she spoke about fashion; the mention of Dior’s ‘New Look’ came up in They Do It With Mirrors and to be honest, I was pretty impressed.
ABC: Agatha Before Christie (Part 2)
Frederick Alvah Miller. He died when she was only 11.
1910 BC: The Victorian era is over and with it all the austerity of sort. Europe, and the rest of the world is on the brink of war. The 20th century began with new resolutions but unfortunately not all expectations for what the future might have brought went as planned. Agatha knew this well, because in 1901, when she was just 11, her father, Frederick Miller, died of heart complications.
Akhnaton Premiere
Young Agatha Miller riding a donkey in the desert. Normal activities in the British colonies
Some of you will know that Agatha Christie was greatly influenced by the Middle East thanks to her second husband Max Mallowan, whom she met during an excavation in modern Syria. But she was also very fond of Egypt, having spent her early 20s in Cairo, dancing at balls with soldiers and living the life of (as often described in her books) a “young bright thing”. Besides partying and dancing, while in Egypt she became very interested in the forgotten and almost forbidden, Pharaoh Akhenaten, husband of the well known Queen Nefertiti and father of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
