Sherlock
Holmes has his museum, Agatha Christie couldn't be any less; being a
real person for a start not a fictional character. If the unconditional
fans of the immortal detective of the pipe can send letters of
appreciation to number 221B of Barker Street, London, the followers of
Hercules Poirot and Mrs, Marple can now do so, sending theirs to
Greenway, the country mansion in Devon where Agatha Christie based some
of her mystery dramas.
The elegant 3 storied residence in the style of Georgian era, acquired by Christie in 1938, where she passed all her summers till her death in 1976, was donated by the grandson of the authoress to the National Trust - an non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historical buildings. It has opened it's door to the public S few years agd as a memorial museum, after a renovation that had cost near 3 million Euro.
For the visitors, it's a trip running through the literary life of the novelist, whose work being the most read in the whole history of time, together with that of Shakespeare. All had been translated into every foreign language imaginable. I remember the first ever novel I read in Spanish was one of hers. It was calculated that she had sold close to 4,000 million copies, and this total figure keeps increasing each year by 5 million. Apparently only the Bible and the Koran have more readers than her mysteries.
In this museum are her notes in meticulous elaboration of the plots, the key to her success, together with the simple and easy to understand writing, also easy to translate to any language. There are family photos, first editions and manuscripts that haven't been published, many with settings in this dream like corner of the country landscape of Devon, in the estuary of the River Darn, almost ethereal part of the countryside like that of a story book of fairy tales, that served as background for many of her stories. In this part, she was known as Mrs Mallowan, the surname of her 2nd husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan.
The mansion she used more for summer vacations, where only 3 of her 127 books were written, plus 15 theatre plays, amongst them 'The Mouse Trap' first premièred in London in 1952, followed by 23,000 performances in a historically long span of more than 30 years.
However, the Queen of Crime was not considered by critics as literary, but something like Abba in the pop world; very pleasant to read but lacking profundity, and without special don of making magic with word or writing style. This criticism seemed never meant the slightest importance to her millions of international fans, devoted and unconditional, many new and young, as the ever increasing sales of her novels having proven, even now 33 years after her death.
Current Mood: 
Cheerful
Cheerful
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