Secrecy, enchantment, mystery...

  

    I greatly enjoyed Adèle's post today on her recent stay at Agatha Christie's house Greenway, and it prompted me to look up Laura Thompson's biography, Agatha Christie: An English Mystery, to see what she had to say about it; the passage is worth quoting:

     "Greenway House, that magical white box set above the gleaming River Dart; Greenway with its wild romantic gardens; Greenway, rooted in its Devon history and yet, with its ghostly pallor, looking as if it might at any moment vanish into the air. 'I sat on the seat overlooking the house on the river,' wrote Agatha to [her husband] Max in 1942. 'It looked very white and lovely - remote and aloof as always - I get a kind of pang over its beauty ... "Too dear for our possessing" but what excitement to possess it! I thought tonight, sitting there - it is the loveliest place in the world - it quite took my breath away.'

    The house she had dreamed into life [in her childhood home] - the river at the end of the garden, the vast unknown rooms that opened out from familiar doors - was now a reality. Agatha bought Greenway in 1938 for six thousand pounds: an unbelievable sum, it would seem, equivalent to not much over £200,000 in today's values, but not everybody wanted to take on such a property and its thirty-three acres. (...) The main rooms opened out from a central hall: library, dining room and sitting room, which itself led to a drawing room with long, white windows, giving on to a small secret lawn. (...) Everything was high, deep, rightful. Everywhere was secrecy, enchantment, mystery."

    Doesn't that last sentence make you want to find out more? Time for me to read the book, I think.

Comments

[Danielle]

I must look up that biography now--I have long wanted to read about AC--she was such an interesting woman, don't you think? Have you seen the coffee table book of her home? (Agatha Christie at Home by Hilary Macaskill--it's really lovely to look at--wouldn't mind owning a copy someday, too).

[Danielle]

And Cornflower, you always tempt me my the books on your sidebar--always so many lovely looking books to explore--it is always a little dangerous coming here.

[Cornflower]

The biography has been waiting on the shelf for a few months, but Adele's post had me reaching for it and I think I'll read it next.
I haven't seen the Hilary Macaskill book but I must get it! Thanks, Danielle.

[Cornflower]

All book blogs are dangerous places to visit, aren't they? So many great recommendations, and opportunities to wander off the beaten track!

[Deborah]

Yes, very enticing! Another reader who is intrigued to find out more. Love your posts about writers and their special places.

[Cornflower]

Thank you, Deborah!

[Margaret Powling]

I was delighted to be given a private tour (with my husband) of Greenway by the House Manager of the NT there before it was renovated and opened to the public. I remember, most of all, sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee surrounded by all the things left as they had been after the death of Agatha's daughter ... the dog-eared cook books on the shelf, a dusty bottle of Dubonet, etc. I've not been to see the house at is now is, but I did enjoy seeing the house as it had been left.

[Liz Davey]

I have, but haven't read, Laura Thompson's biography, but I have read and enjoyed Agatha Christie's autobiography a couple of times and would recommend it as an easy read.

[Cornflower]

How very special, Margaret; you've had a glimpse that few people will have had.

[Cornflower]

Not surprisingly, Laura Thompson quotes from the autobiography a lot, but goes much deeper into the person than I imagine that book does.