Agatha’s Abodes - UK Trip Part 2
In which we follow a mystery writer around the UK, open a box of books, and expand our podcast offering.
One of the main aims during our recent trip to the UK was to check out some Agatha Christie locations as research for our planned expansion to the Chronological Christie podcast (more on that below).
Our first stop was Agatha Christie's summer home, Greenway, in Devon in the south west of the UK. The property has been under the care of The National Trust since 2000 and we had been lucky enough to pay it a visit back in 2017 and had a great time. For this visit we decided to approach the property from a different direction, and instead of parking at the estate we headed for the small hillside village of Dittisham across the river and catch the local ferry. Dittisham is a picture postcard small town built into the hillside with a small pontoon harbor jutting out into the river. The roads in and out turned out to be single track just wide enough for our rental car, and the town itself has narrow lanes that wind down to the river at pretty steep grades. The ferry turned out to be a small dinghy sized boat that doesn’t run to any fixed schedule. You just summon it by ringing a bell at the end of the jetty. The journey across the river only takes a few minutes, but its a fun way to approach Greenway, as the walk up from the docks to the house takes you through some of the estate’s woodlands depositing you right by the visitors entrance.
The National Trust maintains the house as it was as the Christie family home, and they succeed. The self-guided tour takes you from a living room through kitchens, bedrooms, sitting rooms, offices, library, and dining room, all with a feeling that the family just stepped out. It tells the story of Agatha and her family’s time at the property very well and gives you a real sense of their lives there. The highlight for me in the house was getting to browse the bookcases in the various rooms and discovering the eclectic mix of titles on the shelves. The gardens are also spectacular and we probably spent more time wandering through those than we did at the house - we can also recommend the barn cafe - excellent cream teas (although we had ours with coffee).
The next stop on our Agatha trail was to head to Hay-On-Wye on the English/Welsh border. The town is renowned for its plethora of bookstores, currently around 25, and we visited just seven of them in our afternoon there. We came away with a good haul of books for our library (not just Christie - although we did manage to find a replacement for one title where our copy had fallen apart with age). It was interesting to see that in almost every store we went in had a notice listing the books they were most in need of, and Agatha was on every list. Christie still sells, and as one store-owner told us, they fly off the shelves.
For the final week of our trip we headed to the north and spent some time in the Manchester area catching up with friends and family. One place we wanted to check out was Abney Hall in the town of Cheadle. Abney Hall was the home of Agatha’s sister and brother-in-law and Agatha was a regular visitor, having written a novel and short story while staying at the hall. The hall is tucked away on a turning just off Cheadle’s main street and its unassuming entrance is easy to miss. The hall itself is now a suite of offices, and there is no indication of the Christie connection, no plaques, or signs. The grounds around the hall are however open 24/7 and form part of a local nature reserve. We spent a good hour exploring the reserve as well as getting up close to the house. It is a delightful spot to visit and have a stroll around the gardens imagining you are walking in Agatha’s footsteps.
For the final part of our Christie tour we headed across the country to the Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate. It was Harrogate where Agatha was found at the end of her mysterious eleven-day disappearance in 1926. She was recognized by a staff member at the Old Swan Hotel where she was registered under another name. So of course we just had to go check it out and stay a night at the hotel, enjoying the same surroundings as Agatha had, for the hotel retains a lot of its original charm and architectural features.
Aside from a small plaque and a framed contemporary newspaper clipping in the lobby, the hotel keeps its Christie connection low-key - although it has become a regular venue for mystery writers meetings and conferences. The only other sign of Christie we came across while enjoying exploring the city was a Christie’s pub - which looked very cosy, and full of Christie decorations and clippings, but unfortunately didn’t serve food and we were needing lunch at that point. We really enjoyed ourselves in Harrogate, but we needed to head south the next day.
But more on that next time.
Alan
Other Stuff
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Lemon Hog Publishing
I mentioned last time that we’d been having some discussions around future Lemon Hog publishing releases. Well, we made some decisions on titles and planned a release schedule for the next 18 months.
In fact work has started on editing our next title which we hope to get out before the end of the year - but more on that to come.
Meantime, if you haven’t yet given it a try, now is a great time to check out our first release, Trust Issues, as the eBook is now available at a 50% discount on @Smashwords for the month of July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale!
Trust Issues is the first novel in the exciting new Brightwater series of light-thrillers
When her ex-husband is found murdered Ellie Brightwater must delve deep to find the strength to protect her daughter. Ellie has to break out of the protective shell she has created and learn to trust friends and ex-lovers while not being sure who is working with her or against her.
Brabazon Bits
The moment every author enjoys, the arrival of the first box of copies of your book. It never gets old.
Which means I will now have copies in hand for upcoming convention and signing appearances, kicking off with DragonCon in Atlanta at the end of August
Note on release dates
While we had plenty of copies at the launch signing (and signed editions are still available in the Aerospace Bristol museum store and in their online store) the main stock of books arrived at the publisher's warehouse a few days late, which means that the official publication dates shown on Amazon have slipped a bit. The UK release date was June 30th, and the US date is August 30th.
On September 13th, I will be presenting a talk on the ‘Mighty Brab’, followed by a signing at my local indie bookstore, Snug Books in North Baltimore. We are also in conversations about some other potential US signing events - more on those to come.
Podcast Procrastinations
The latest edition of the regular Chronological Christie podcast is now available on your podcast platform of choice. This month we are taking a look at The Secret of Chimneys.
You can find it at https://ChronologicalChristie.com
We have also started to expand our social media presence, and as well as the Instagram account you can now follow the podcast on Threads, and TikTok.
But the big news is the launch of our new Patreon account where you can now get early access to our regular podcast edpisodes, as well as our new patreon exclusive “Agatha Adjacent” podcast series.
Patreon subscribers will also get the opportunity to submit questions for our bonus Q&A episodes.
It’s quick and easy to join our growing Patreon community starting at the Greenway Level for just $5 a month - think about all that extra Agatha goodness for the price of a cup of coffee.
You can check it out with a free 7-day trial or subscribe at patreon.com/chronologicalchristie
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2025 - “Bomber” by Len Deighton.
Deighton’s anti-war masterpiece of a novel is a sombre, yet engaging and compelling read.
Meticulously researched it tells the stories of an RAF bomber squadron, the opposing German night fighters, the radar station that controls them, and the small town that becomes the accidental target of a night raid. Covering just a 24-hour period in 1943, it provides a microcosm of a war fought with machines in which the human cost was often overlooked.
As the story progresses, each of the narratives starts to overlap, until at the height of the raid, they are interwoven in an almost chaotic jumble that evokes common feelings of confusion, fear, and terror in all, irrespective of which uniform they wore or which town they lived in.
As Deighton concludes in his afterword: “I like machines, but in wars all humans are their victims.”
Over at our online bookstore at Bookshop.org I’ve now added a new section listing books read so far in 2025, so you can pick up copies of any that interest you, while also helping out local independent bookstores.
You can check it out HERE
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media, and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else who might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general, please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter
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