The Spanish Barn Torre Abbey
September 16 24
AGATHA CHRISTIE LITERARY FESTIVAL IN TORQUAY
Blog by Lynne Pearl
Model Railway Exhibit of Agatha Christie Books, Torre Museum
I was invited to the Agatha Christie Literary Festival in Torquay, South West, by a friend who had tickets for a range of talks. We were going to ‘Lost Lingo’ a talk by author, Kate Kingold from Chicago. I had arrived on the little branch line train from Exeter. It’s like stepping into a novel arriving in Torquay when you leave the period station which is all curly Victorian metalwork and beautiful ornamental pillars, you can immediately see the sea. This day it was the deepest of blue and above a pellucid blue sky with one or two puffy white clouds. The sea was restless in the wind, but the sun was very bright for an autumn day.
Model railway with Christie’s Books
I made my way to the location of the Festival at Torre Abbey. What a place for a literary festival, an abbey that had existed on this spot for four hundred years, looking out to sea. The first building I approached was the Spanish Barn which had housed prisoners hundreds of years ago. It is a huge old barn and this was where the programme of talks were being held.
I met my friend and we had lunch in the estimable café, on excellent local fare and watched the sea turning deeper blue beyond the green of the Abbey park. We waited until a half an hour before the talk began and found excellent seats at the front, browsing books and memorabilia while we waited. The loudspeakers played a series of songs from Agatha’s period, such as ‘Noel Coward’s ‘Mad Dogs and English Men go out in the Mid- day Sun’ to set the period.
Tea in the Torre Abbey Cafe Before the Talk, with friends
Our speaker arrived, Kate Kingold all the way from the States. She described how she had collected Christie’s books from childhood and had won her first volume as a Girl Guide. Kate had noticed the books was that some of the language and references throughout the many books was now dated. We may no longer understand what was being referenced or why. So Kate made it her job to remedy this by creating an annotation of Christies work that is called, ‘AGATHA ANNOTATED.’
Literary References etc in Agatha Christie’s Books
Kate gave us a flavour of some the references that she had been able to trace so far, from the first ten years of Christie’s writings. There are references to historical events and personalities such as the entertainer Goerge Robey and the fact that Lord Roberts disliked cats.
There were also literary references such as mention of Han Christian Anderson, ‘The Tinder Box’ and A.A. Milne’s poem ‘Delphiniums Blue’ about the Dormouse who sleeps in the garden dreaming of Geraniums read and Delphiniums blue. Characters from the ‘Alice’ books also are referred to such as the Red Queen and the Mock Turtle.
Front Door of the Spanish Barn
There is also mention of travel such as the Union Castle line of steamships and food references such as making medlar jelly which is a kind of ripe plum. There are dated references of the phrase ‘dash it all’ and rolls of Kodak film.
As a writer it’s interesting to see how other writer’s perform their craft and Christie’s use of many references to other people and things is inspiring. It takes us back into the themes of her age. When I write I am inspired by places I have been or usually lived and also situations or themes that are current. But of course these change by the minute.
The Stage Set
One of the issues for Christie’s books is the move to presentism in the present day which is the re writing of books to present day references and standards, however, Kate is happy to continue her work de coding and referencing the antiquated material in Christie’s novels.
It was a lively afternoon with an entertaining talk on the work of one of Torquay’s world wide famed authors.
Books at:
Lynne Pearl (Author of Thiel) (goodreads.com)
Amazon.co.uk: Lynne Pearl: books, biography, latest update
Art by Cath Whitehead
