Agatha Christie’s house

Agatha-Christie

It all started with an obsession for watching (rather than reading — oi!) Poirot. I find it soothing – a dapper man with slight OCD solving crimes with his little grey cells. I’ve only actually read one or two Agatha Christie novels, but I really do think that sometimes that books find you. And that’s what happened at Leakey’s (aka the most amazing bookstore in the world!). Agatha Christie’s autobiography fell into my lap.

I just finished reading it when we were down in Cornwall and Devon and guess who spent most of her life in Devon? My new friend, Agatha! Her childhood home in Torquay no longer exists, but one of her favourite houses still stands and is open as a museum. So welcome to beautiful Greenway!

Greenway

The most amazing thing about this house museum, is that all the furniture and knick-knacks in it are the Christie’s. Agatha and her second husband Max would holiday here and her daughter Rosalind and her husband Anthony lived here until 2004 and 2005 respectively. And all was how they left it:

bust

Here’s the cozy sitting room:

living

My favourite bit was getting to sit at Agatha’s Steinway! She loved, loved, loved music and really wanted to be a be a concert pianist and singer. She even composed a few waltzes before becoming one of the most prolific and widely read authors in the world:

piano

Oh and her kitchen is dreamy:

Agatha's-kitchen

Here’s a sneaky peak into her bedroom:

Agatha's-bedroom

She loved her fur coats:

closet

Though she didn’t actually write at Greenway, she did base one of her novels here. The murder in Dead Man’s Folly happens in the boathouse just by the river. Doesn’t look very sinister does it?

riverboat

I love books and I love house museums, so this is pretty much the perfect place in the world to me. And I highly recommend Agatha’s autobiography even if you aren’t a Poirot fan. She’s a fantastic lady and invites you into her fascinating world is such a friendly way. Ms. Marple would totally approve.

6 thoughts on “Agatha Christie’s house”

    1. Isn’t her kitchen amazing, Laura?! I would give anything to sit and have a cuppa with Aggie in her kitchen and ask her to include me in one of her novels (I’m sure she would have loved that ;D).
      xoxox,
      Lar

  1. I still can’t believe you got to go there – especially after reading her autobiograhy!

    Your post made me realize that I’ve never read a Poirot novel either!!! I feel like I’m so versed in Agatha Christie, but the sad truth is that I’ve only watched and rewatched all of the Poirot episodes on Netflix!

    I wish we could create a job where we’d get paid to visit house museums. They seriously are one of my favorite things to do in the world- especially when the furniture and belongs are original to the person who lived there.

    Agatha’s house is so perfectly British. Why don’t they build houses like that in the states? or this century?! Why can’t we all be wealthy, best selling novelists?!

    1. OMG I wish we could just visit house museums and tell people about them! Do you think that we could pitch that to Netflix? Twins who love house museums — yeah!!! ;D

      I bet even her house in Iraq (she lived there a while too!) was even quintessentially British.

      I wonder if Seattle has any good ones? We’ll have to go together!

      xoxoxo
      Lar

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