Agatha Christie festival

Today marks a momentous day for the very reason that the Queen of Crime, Ms Agatha Christie, is being honoured with a literary festival all of her own in her home region of Devon – the English Riviera

Agatha Christie (c) Wikipedia

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and spent many years in the area leaving behind a literary legacy that lingers today.

Starting today and running until September 20th there are many events held over several venues. Imagine  – it’s the 125th anniversary of this amazing writer. Her plots and characters are some of the best and it’s good old fashioned sleuthing at its best isn’t it? I mean, no forensics or modern technology, just plotting, solving clues, Mr Poirot smoothing out his mustache or Miss Marple hovering in the background listening, it’s the nostalgic trip down memory lane I love.

The festival

It’s apt that the festival is taking place in Torquay as this is one of the four seaside towns that make up Agatha Christie’s Riviera.

Definitely need to take a look here  – agathachristiefestival.com/programme/

There’s a birthday garden party luncheon, a landscape of literature event, a talk on how the BBC turned the novels into TV dramas, criminally good recipes and a rather intriguing chat with a head gardner who will be dispensing murder! Sounds like the novels come to life in more ways than one.

Listen to the talk and then do the walk!

Agatha Christie wrote more than 80 books so there’s a choice of several book trails to be had! The first place to start is the aptly named Literary Mile

The Literary Mile

The Grand Hotel – Where Agatha spent her honeymoon night with Archie Christie on Christmas Eve 1914. There’s still an Agatha Christie Suite there for the most ardent fans!

Torre Abbey Garden – Agatha Christie’s Potent Plants collection can be found in the garden, inspired by the poisons she wrote about in her novels.

Princess Pier –Agatha Christie loved to roller-skate here apparently and it was The Princess Gardens were featured in the ABC Murders

The Pavilion – Archie Christie proposed to the young Agatha Miller right here. The Agatha Christie Bust is also near here.

Torquay Museum – THE Agatha Christie museum

Imperial Hotel – featured in many novels and the end of the Literary Mile

Torquay Museum – Home to the UK’s only dedicated Agatha Christie Gallery.

Finally…..

This has to be the highlight of any Agatha Christie fan – it’s her holiday home! This has also inspired many authors over the years in their own writing and it’s the perfect place to sit and relax. I visited her one many moons ago and it’s somewhere I’ve never forgotten. You feel as if she’s right there sitting beside you, observing, checking that you’re reading one of her novels and not some modern one…or maybe that’s just my imagination…

Susan Booktrailer