This is Part One of a two-part feature. Click here to read Part Two.
While in London, it’s easy to visit the lovely south Devonshire coast and Torquay, hometown of famous whodunit author, Agatha Christie. Reachable by train from London in less than four hours from Paddington station, the relaxing train journey, with views of the English Channel, is part of the experience.
Torquay is a scenic and lively seaside town, with an expansive boardwalk, dotted with shops and eateries and long staircases winding up to cliffs with homes perched like aeries overlooking the town and sea. Atmospheric pubs, good shopping and playing on the sandy beaches are all part of this popular holidayers’ haven.
Our quest was to check out Agatha Christie haunts and the information centre proved helpful to that end, providing us with a walking tour of places in the town Agatha would have frequented while growing up, like the Pavilion, where Agatha Miller (her maiden name) attended concerts.
The Torre Abbey is the home of the Agatha Christie Potent Plants Garden reminding us that she worked in a pharmacy during WWI and poison featured heavily in her mysteries. The Imperial Hotel features in three of her novels, but I like the Grand Hotel, near the train station where she and her first husband, Archie Christie, honeymooned.
Some might recall her mysterious disappearance, widely believed to have been an attempt to regain her husband’s attention, which had wandered to a secretary at his work, whom he eventually married. Christie’s subsequent marriage to geologist Max Mallowan was reportedly happy and they spent months together on archeological digs, notably Nimrud in Iraq.
