Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets From Her Notebooks
Page 33
The opening of the book is almost exactly as sketched below:
Notes for Nov. 1972 and Plans
Opening suggestion for a book
Tuppence says ‘What a load of books we have.’ Starts looking at books – takes some out – looks at them – laughs – finds a letter in book shoved behind shelf. Seems to indicate a murder
This is followed by speculation about the title, with ‘Doom’s Caravan’ and a variation ‘Death’s Caravan’ leading the field and heading the following page; and by the quotation that actually appears in the book:
Book T[ommy] and T[uppence] Title?
Doom’s Caravan?
Swallow’s Nest
Postern of Fate?
Doom’s Caravan
Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing
Have you not heard
That silence where the birds are dead yet
Something pipeth like a bird?
Pass not beneath, O Caravan, Doom’s Caravan
Death’s Caravan
In the early pages of Notebook 3 Christie considers various ideas, some of which were discarded – a homicidal spinster aunt, a woman doctor – and some adopted – the census entries, hidden papers, Regent’s Park. At this stage Mary is still a German spy.
Points
Death – accidental? – of Alexander. Horseradish picked by mistake was foxglove leaves
Digitalin – Death from Heart –
Who picked them? Who cooked them (a) Cook (b) Girl helping (c) Woman doctor? Goes round garden with one of the children. Aunt or perhaps mother of illegitimate child – who grown up as her nephew – in army or navy. Mary Robinson (governess) German girl, very beautiful, is German spy – takes plans to London – Regent’s Park – Queen Mary’s garden. Tommy by reason of some of his contacts (in N or M) – Census entries – who was in the house those 2 (?) dates
Spinster Aunt – she poisons German Mary R
Simon a school friend staying there – Recognises M.R. – pointed out to him as a woman by an Army god father or an older friend – or a foreign officer an [Australian] who in 1921 or thereabouts has a cottage a place like Dittisham [a village near Agatha Christie’s Devon home] – (Reason – papers might be hidden there)
A list of characters from Notebook 7 includes a Miss Price-Ridley, who is surely a relative of Mrs Price Ridley, Miss Marple’s neighbour in St Mary Mead; a character bearing this name does make a brief appearance in Postern of Fate. This is the sort of irritating mistake that an editor should have spotted.
Points Doom’s Caravan
People
Dorothy called Dodo – Miss Little – big woman – nicknamed The Parish Pump
Griffin – old – full of memories
Miss Price Ridley
Mrs Lupton – supports herself on 2 sticks – remembers the Parkinsons, [the] Somers – also Chattertons
Place called Hallquay [Book I, Chapter 5]
And, inexplicably, in the middle of Book III, Chapter 7, after a discussion of their adventures in The Secret Adversary and N or M?, we find Tommy and Tuppence having the following conversation. The version below, from Notebook 7, is reproduced almost exactly in the novel:
Swallow’s Nest said Tuppence ‘That’s what the house was once called.’
‘Why shouldn’t we call it that again’
‘Good idea’, said Tuppence
Birds flew from the roof over their heads
Swallows flying south, said Tommy. ‘Won’t they ever come back?’
‘Yes they’ll come back next winter through the Postern of fate’, said Lionel
This is followed by brief mention of Isaac’s death, the most casual murder in the entire Christie canon. The sang-froid with which his murder is greeted is rivalled only by the casual attitude to, not to mention the implausibility of, the shooting of Tuppence.
Isaacs Death
Inquest – after inquest – Isaac’s household – a niece or wife – Nellie – a lodger who has not been there very long – 2 lodgers perhaps. Mention by Nellie of Cambridge or an envelope on which Cambridge has been written – Boat Race that day – a bet made [Book II, Chapter 4]
An extract from Notebook 7 and the plotting for Postern of Fate. Note the legibility of the handwriting.
In Notebook 28 Christie considers some scenarios for the opening chapter, eventually settling on C below. The reference to Harrison Homes is to the real-life charity, providing accommodation for the independent-minded elderly, with which she was closely involved:
Large numbers of books – Tuppence is going to sort them out – take some to hospital? Or Harrison Homes – some old lady knows something
A. Is there something in a book – 2 pages stuck together B. or is there some letters or print which spell out words – a message
C. Such a sentence as ‘Mary Robinson did not die naturally. It was one of us – I think I know which one.’
This is followed by a careful working out of the code found by Tuppence in her copy of R.L. Stevenson’s The Black Arrow. The extract is from Chapter 5 of that novel and although it starts out accurately, judicious editing has been done to avoid writing out the entire extract. Eventually, isolated words only are used and sense and logic are lost, a sentiment echoed by Tommy when Tuppence shows him her discovery. Note, however, the change of the name from Robinson here to Jordan in the published version; and the incorrect spelling of ‘naturally’ as ‘naturaly’ in the code even though it appears correctly in the body of the note. Very little of this working out appears in the published novel.
The Black Arrow R. L. Stevenson
Matcham could not restrain a little cry and even Dick started with surprise and dropped the windac from his fingers but to the fellows on the lawn this shaft was an expected signal. They were all afoot together tightening loosening sword and dagger in the sheaths. Ellis held up his hand, the white of his eyes shone – let . . . . . . . the men of the Black Arrow had all disappeared and the cauldron and the ruined house burning alone to testify . . . . Not in time to warn these one from (from) upper quarters I have these I and striking I will / Duckworth and Simon red with / Is the arrow hurry ellis whistle / Space their house and dead
MARY/ROBINSON/DID/NOT/DIE/NATURALY/IT/WAS/ONE/OF//US/I/THINK/I/KNOW/WHICH/ONE
It is touching to imagine the 83-year-old Queen of Crime carefully copying and underlining her code; and to remember that it was the last ingenious idea she was to devise.
UNUSED IDEAS: SIX
The final Unused Idea is a very special and surprising one . . .
THE EXPERIMENT
The following notes all appear in lists of ideas for both short stories and novels. The first is Idea E on an ‘A to J’ list dated January 1935, which includes the original ideas for ‘Problem at Sea’, Sad Cypress and They Do It with Mirrors.
The Experiment Mortimer – How does murder affect the character?
The following item is the first idea on a short list that includes A Pocket Full of Rye and They Do It with Mirrors, indicating a late 1940s date:
Mortimer – his plans – first killing and so on – his character gradually changes
This next jotting appears a few pages ahead of the notes for Curtain and a page of corrections for The Body in the Library, indicating a time-frame a decade earlier:
Man (or woman) who experiments in murder (goes queer)
And the final short note is probably slightly earlier, as it appears alongside notes for The Moving Finger and Sparkling Cyanide:
Mortimer – experimental murder
Although these four jottings were all written during her most productive and inventive period, it was not until the final year of her creative life that Christie elaborated on this plot. Perhaps she had been doing what she wrote of in her Autobiography, ‘looking vaguely through a pile of old notebooks and [finding] something scribbled down’; or perhaps the inspiration resurfaced from somewhere in her subconscious. The idea, as evidenced by its four Notebook appearances,
was obviously one that attracted her and one that she had never tackled in any way in her published work; yet, at the time of the early notes, it would have been almost impossible for her to have attempted it with Collins Crime Club waiting for her annual ‘whodunit’. It was not until the twilight of her career that she (and they) felt comfortable publishing titles like The Pale Horse, a murder-to-order thriller with supernatural overtones, and Endless Night, a psychological suspense story with a dark secret. And this idea would have fitted into the same category.
In Notebook 7 Christie began developing the idea. Here Mortimer has disappeared, to be replaced first by Jeremy and later by Edmund:
Jeremy – discusses with friends – murders
What difference would it make to one’s character if one had killed someone?
Depends what the motive had been – Hatred? Revenge? Gain? Jealousy?
No – No motive – for no reason just an interesting experiment. The object of the crime – oneself – would one be the same person – or would one be different. To find out one would have to commit homicide – observing all the time oneself – one’s feelings, keeping notes.
Needed a victim – carefully selected but definitely not anyone that one wished dead in any way. ‘I have killed – now am I the same person I was? Or am I different – do I feel – fear? regret? pleasure? (surely not!)
People to imagine and [in]vent
The victim
Various suggestions. A woman who has cancer or a heart condition. It can suggest itself as a mercy killing.
The killer
Man? Woman? Possibly woman get excited, she too decides to try the experiment also. Man (Jeremy) does not realise what she is doing
Afterwards J finds he is excited, nervous – doctor or nurse is suspicious. J begins to lay clues of who the culprit may be and some reason why. J begins to feel he might do another murder – Lay the clues
Edmund (Harmsworth) Murdock debates with friends – Murder – How would it feel to be a [killer?]
Girl or woman – tells about shoplifting or stealing – or falsifying accounts.
Edmund and Lancelot go away debating
Points to be safe – victim – man or woman
Who should be obliterated – (‘unfit to live’) (no motive no advantage to be gained) (Someone must gain and profit)
Feelings of operation must be closely studied – will X’s character alter (no one must share knowledge)
From Notebook 7 this is one of the last pages Agatha Christie wrote when she was too frail to develop this fascinating sketch into one final Christie for Christmas.
By any standard Postern of Fate, the last book that Agatha Christie wrote, is a sad end to a wonderful career. Amazingly, the notes above are for the novel to appear in 1974. The page in the Notebook immediately preceding them is unequivocally dated 7 November 1973, just after the publication of Postern of Fate. As can be seen, this outline is far superior, both in concept and approach; even the notes read better than those for Postern of Fate. Here, at the age of 83, Christie was experimenting with a novel totally different from any she had written before. Sounding somewhat similar to Meyer Levin’s Compulsion (1956), which, in turn, was based on the infamous Leopold and Loeb true-life murder case, where two college students murdered a small boy solely as an experiment, this would have been a radical departure. It seems remarkable that after the previous half-dozen weak novels Christie should be even planning something like this. Whether she had the ability, at this stage, to carry off such a demanding concept is debatable but these notes confirm, once again, that it was her powers of development, and not her powers of imagination, that were waning.
And lest there be any lingering doubt, the devious hand of the Queen of Crime is very evident in the last phrase, with its final – absolutely final – Christie twist:
Someone at original conversation might be (although not suspected) actually involved – possibly even (guilty) final surprise? Or has planned the whole thing
Chapter 13
Agatha Christie’s Booklists
‘I read enormous quantities of books . . . ’
* * *
A look at some of the booklists that Agatha Christie’s scribbled down in her Notebooks confirms that her interests were eclectic and wide-ranging. While crime novels make up a proportion of each list, the appearance of historical novels, biography, history, philosophy, short stories and very British novels confirm a catholic taste. Interestingly, the crime fiction titles venture into areas other than her own sphere. Simenon’s Maigret and the American noir, Detour, as well as the detective novels of some of her ‘rivals’ – Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes and Elizabeth Ferrars – make for an assorted collection. Apart from the short ‘Books read and liked’ list below, it is difficult to tell what these lists represent. They may be titles to be read, to recommend, or even to give as presents. I opt for the first possibility; the consistent dates seem to indicate that the lists were drawn from publishers’ catalogues of forthcoming titles. And the evidence of the Notebooks suggests that an orderly list of ‘Books Read and to be Recommended’ would be out of keeping with the overall approach.
The following pages are a selection of booklists reproduced from the Notebooks. In some cases tracking down the title proved impossible, due usually to an illegible or incorrect word, or words; these I have omitted. Where a title is ambiguous, for example The Clock Strikes Twelve from the final selection, I have taken the publication nearest to the year of the surrounding titles.
The following short list from Notebook 39 appears on a half-page in the middle of the plotting for Evil under the Sun. All of the titles date from 1938/9 and this timeline tallies with the receipt of that manuscript by her agent in February 1939:
Booklist
The Valiant Woman Sheila Royde Smith
They Wanted to Live Cecil Roberts
Death in Five Boxes [Carter Dickson]
Revue Beverly Nichols
The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe [Erle Stanley Gardner]
Case with No Conclusion [Leo Bruce]
Half of the titles are crime novels – a Perry Mason novel by Erle Stanley Gardner, a Sergeant Beef novel by Leo Bruce and a John Dickson Carr writing under his alter ego Carter Dickson. Dickson Carr’s The Burning Court is a clue in Chapter 8 i of Evil under the Sun. Three very British novels make up the rest of the list.
Also from the same period, but this time from the opening page of Notebook 62, the next list contains only one crime title, from fellow crime queen Ngaio Marsh. Perhaps significantly, Overture to Death was Marsh’s first title for Collins Crime Club. The page following this has the corrections for Curtain so, again, the timeline is correct. One minor mystery on this list is the appearance of a novel with a background of the American car industry, F O B Detroit.
Books read and liked
The Long Valley [John Steinbeck, 1938]
F O B Detroit [Wessel Smitter, 1938]
Overture to Death [Ngaio Marsh, 1939]
Black Narcissus [Rumer Godden, 1939]
The Patriot [Pearl S. Buck, 1939]
The Woman in the Hall [Marguerite Stern, 1939]
The Power and the Glory [Graham Greene, 1940]
Notebook 56 has a listing of historical novels, many of them titles from the previous century and some of them well-known classics – The Black Arrow, Ivanhoe and Kidnapped; others – Henty and Weyman – are mentioned specifically in Christie’s Autobiography. Some of these titles are on the shelves of Greenway House to this day:
Historical Novels . . . Penguin Series
Unknown to History (Elizabethan) [Charlotte M. Yonge?]
Shadow of a Throne (French Revolution and Directory) [F.W.
Hayes?]
In the Reign of Terror ([G.A.] Henty)
Cat of Bubastes (Henty)
In the King’s Name [George] Manville Fenn
Under the Red Robe
The Red Cockade Stanley Weyman
T
he Castle Inn
The Long Night
One Last Hope (Seton Merrimen)
Kidnapped ([R.L.] Stevenson)
The Black Arrow (War of Roses)
Dickon (Marjorie Bowen)
Ivanhoe ([Walter] Scott)
Just inside the cover of Notebook 52 we find the following list of reading material, all dating from 1961/2. This date corresponds with the contents of the Notebook, which contains the notes for The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side and The Clocks. I have rearranged the titles for ease of discussion but am unable to explain the ‘+’ or ‘++.’ ‘D’ seems to indicate that the title is a detective/crime novel – Waugh, Payne, Garve, Innes; and the ‘?’ probably indicates uncertainty on the part of Christie. HB indicates hardback, but why some titles are crossed through and some not remains a mystery (Received, Read, Enjoyed, perhaps?). Where an author’s name has not been included in the Notebook I have inserted it, using the 1961/2 guideline where there is ambiguity.
The first five titles are crime novels, the Garve and Blake titles from the Crime Club series, while Waugh is an American crime writer.
+ D The Nose on my Face [Laurence Payne]
+ D The House of Soldiers [Andrew Garve]
D Silence Observed [Michael Innes]
D The Worm of Death (Nic[holas]Blake)
D The Night it Rained (?) [Hilary Waugh]
The non-fiction titles are mainly biography (Stalin, Cranmer, Ivan the Great), but travel (Durrell) and true crime (Airline Detective) also feature:
HB Books
HB Morning Glory (Autobiog) [Mary Motley]
HB Stalin [Isaac Deutscher]