"It looks very white, very charming, as distant and indifferent as ever. Its beauty made me feel a tingling pain, 'too precious, we can't have it', but how exciting it is to have it!
Tonight, I sat there thinking, this is the most fascinating place in the world, it almost suffocates me. ”
- Agatha Christie (written on October 27, 1942)
"Queen of Reasoning" Agatha is writing. (Greenway Guidebook/Photo)
Over the course of her eighty-five years, Agatha Christie has lived in different places and owned multiple properties. For example, Ashfield's old home in Torquay, Devon, where Agatha was born on 15 September 1890 and will never forget it; Winter Creek House in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, one of Agatha's main writing residences in her later years, where she died on 12 January 1976; and houses in Sunnydale, Styres, Kensington, Chelsea, London, and other places. But her favorite is Torquay's Greenway.
Drive from London to Torquay and soak up the autumn colors of England in oil paintings, especially after entering Devon, the sky is clear, the clouds are rolling, the cottages, churches, manors, streams are scattered, and the green and yellow farmland is dotted with wheat stacks and cattle and sheep. British friends said that Devon and Cornwall are the two "closest places to heaven" in England, which is true. The small seaside town of Devon, Torquay, like a mussel pearl in the English Channel, is equivalent to the "Riviera" of Britain, which has always been a holiday and health resort for the rich, and Agatha once praised it as having "all the qualities of a beautiful place".
Arrive at Torquay, Twilight Quadrangle. In late September, the city had just passed its peak tourist season and was more subdued than expected. Buildings facing the mountains and the sea are lit up, the bay is as flat as a mirror, full of sailing yachts, and the palms on the side of the road sway in the wind. More than a hundred years ago, the Tokis would not have imagined that a local woman, later known as the "Queen of Reasoning", would let Torquay go down in the annals of world literature with her.
The next morning, after a sumptuous and authentic English breakfast at the lodge, my friend and I rushed from the city to Greenway. More than half an hour's drive, the scenery is elegant and changeable, the coast, green mountains, fertile fields, clouds, fruit trees, and the brightly colored, half-hidden and half-present cottages in the flowers along the way, suggest the unique style of this "fine land".
The car was parked deep in the mist, and the trail leading to Greenway was only on foot. This is a veritable "green way", the trees are towering, the green is full of greenery, but it is also silent, secluded, mysterious, quite like the scene in Agatha's novel. Walking slowly through the path, I suddenly saw that on the hillside not far away, the Greenway Mansion was impressive, as if it was about to stand on the banks of the Dart River, and the grass and trees that spread over the slopes of the mountains made its pure white stand out. "An ideal house, a dream house," Agatha exclaimed in her autobiography.
Greenway Mansion (National Trust/Photo)
<h3>One</h3>
In the summer of 1938, Agatha heard that there was a property for sale outside Torquay, and coincidentally, she had seen the house on the Dart River as a child and remembered its name, Greenway. Her mother, Clara, thought that Greenway was the most perfect house on both sides of the Dart River. When Agatha, 48, saw Greenway again, the elegant white house and beautiful surroundings smelled of Torquay, which made her immediately decide to buy it. In the end, Agatha became the owner of the property for £6,000,000, which was "unbelievably cheap".
Agatha Christie was Greenway's eighth owner.
Greenway is located on the east bank of the River Dart, not far from the mouth of the sea. Since Saxon times, the Dart River has stood out for its natural harbor, supplying farmers, fishermen, traders, and seafarers with necessities, and the Normans developed it into the most important trading port in England. Merchant ships traveled more than ten miles down the river into the hinterland of southern Devon, opening up a water highway for tin, cotton and slate trade. Due to the influence of The Port of Dart, edward III granted the "waters of the Dart River" to his son, the Black Prince, to protect the Royal Order, and the Duke of Cornwall inherited this privilege thereafter.
During the Tudor dynasty in the 1830s, on the High Ground of the Dart River Crossing, Otto Gilbert, heir to the Gilbert family in Devonshire, and his wife Catherine built Greenway, which became a landmark in the area. In 1700, the nautical family moved to nearby Compton Castle, where Greenway was bought by Thomas Matten of the Totteni family and transferred to Cabel Ruper of his wife's family.
In the 1740s, Greenway was left to Margaret Di belle of the Ruper family. Thirty years later, one of her distant cousins, Ruper Harris, inherited the house on the condition that the surname be changed to Ruper. By trading with the New World with Portugal and Spain, ruper Harris Ruper quickly amassed wealth and extensively rebuilt Greenway, the central part of the house today, typical of the Georgian style. Six of his 13 children are documented to have been born in Greenway. However, the cost of building the new home weighed heavily on Ruper financially, and before he declared bankruptcy in 1800, Greenway belonged to the Elton family.
Edward Elton, a Bristol speculator and mp for the House of Commons, paid more than £9,000 for Greenway. He commissioned a man to redesign the garden in keeping with the fashion, which continues to this day. In 1811, his son James Maward Elton succeeded Grimway, one of whose contributions were to finance the construction of a new road leading to the Greenway Entrance, which extended the length of the trail. When James's jazz son sold the property for £18,000 in 1832, the list included a large 1-acre garden, several small gardens, a melon field, a houseboat, a swimming pool, and the gardeners' houses, which showed that Greenway was already large at that time.
From the 1830s to the mid-1930s, after a century of wind and frost, Greenway changed its owner several times, and different owners carved different imprints on it. For example, the fourth owner, the wealthy Colonel Edward Carrion, liked to plant trees to lay the foundation for Greenway's vegetation. The fifth owner, copper magnate Richard Harvey, focused on the modernization of Greenway, building new glass flower houses, tennis courts, etc., and he also insisted on fighting a railway bill, which was originally planned to cross the houses leading to the dock to transport tourists, and finally the two sides reached an agreement to open a tunnel under the house, and Greenway was saved. The sixth owner, Thomas Polisot, was a banker and mp, and in order to match his £44,000, he enlarged the overall area of Greenway and introduced a large number of exotic flowers and trees to make the land more colorful. The seventh owner, Sir Alfred Gooderson, was lackluster, and Greenway was sold to Agatha less than a year after his hands.
Look out over the Dart River from Greenway's "Hilltop Garden". (Gong Wen/Photo)
When she bought Greenway, Agatha had already started the second half of her life, and she had read thousands of sails, so why did she love Greenway so much? In addition to its beautiful appearance and natural surroundings, what else is there in this Georgian building that strongly attracts Agatha, who is nearly fifty years old?
Agatha Marie Clarissa Miller was born into a well-to-do family, and her father, Frederick Alwa Miller, was an English gentleman of American descent who, because of a large inheritance, never worked in his life, lived a lazy and cheerful life, played cricket all day, played Whistler cards, spent a lot of money, was very popular in the social world, and was said to have pursued Winston Churchill's mother when he was young. It wasn't until the age of 32 that the mercurial Mr. Miller took it upon himself to marry Clara Bemer, an officer who had a crush on him for several years. After their marriage, the Millers settled in Torquay, a Victorian Torquay that was more elegant and serene than later. Clara was a bright, energetic and key figure in Agatha's enlightenment, guiding her to read the works of Dickens, Thackeray, and Jane Austen. Agatha has had an extraordinary imagination and curiosity since childhood, obsessed with Sherlock Holmes detective stories, she has been more favored by her mother than her brother Monty and sister March, and it is Clara who first developed the literary talent of her younger daughter, without her gentle encouragement, Agatha may not have the courage to type out the first study work "Beauty House" on her sister's old typewriter.
Agatha was 11 years old when her father died. Long-term sitting on the mountain and neglecting financial management have caused the Miller family to accumulate debts. Afterwards, Monty was stationed outside the army, and March married, leaving Clara and Agatha to live with each other. Gone are the days of beautiful clothes and servants, but the mother and daughter are more intimate, and this bond of love is undoubtedly a light in the heart of the young girl Agatha, so that when she becomes an adult, she is still highly dependent on Clara spiritually.
When Clara died of illness in April 1926, Agatha mourned and was depressed. Soon after, she separated from her cheating husband Archie and divorced in October 1928, "and from then on, it was as if a sharp blade had fallen and cut my life in two." Perhaps because of this, Agatha is more and more nostalgic for Ashfield, the old days of her parents and carefree years, and the things related to Torquay, "I still remember everything there." Ashfield was gone, "What I want most is to one day change back to Agatha as a girl." In her autobiography she wrote. It's strange that a house can have such a big meaning", one of her later works, "Endless Long Night", still reminisces about Ashfield.
Apparently, Greenway was much more perfect than Ashfield, satisfying Agatha's "Torquay complex". Previous owners are either rich or wealthy, all local celebrities, superimposed on the identity aura of Greenway, in the eyes of people, it is not just a villa with an age. Although from the middle class, in 1938 Agatha has published dozens of detective novels, including the masterpiece "Roger's Doubt" and "Murder on the Orient Express", etc., full of British fame, income is very rich, social status has soared, she can afford Greenway, but also worthy of the owner of here. Agatha is proud to be able to purchase this pleasing property with her own financial strength. Since then, the location based on Greenway has appeared in her novels repeatedly. In the words of Laura Thompson, author of The British Enigma: A Biography of Agatha Christie, "In a sense, Greenway fulfilled her dream".
In the fax room on the second floor of the Greenway Mansion there are the first editions of Agatha's novels. (Gong Wen/Photo)
<h3>Two</h3>
After passing a large greenery, we came to the door of the Greenway Mansion. The doorman was an old, well-dressed silver-haired gentleman who looked at each visitor with great style. As soon as you enter the door, you suddenly feel that your eyes are not enough, and all kinds of furniture, frames, photos, sculptures, wall decorations, books, porcelain, silverware, glass ornaments, handicrafts, etc. come to the face, showing the owner's preferences, taste and traces of life.
The whole house is slightly south-facing, with the porch and main stairwell as the central axis on the first floor, the morning living room, living room, and winter dining room on the left, the kitchen and the housekeeper's storage room on the northwest, and the library, main dining room and inner hall on the right. On the second floor there is a bedroom, living room, dressing room, fax room, and toilet. The third floor plus a small part of the second floor are used to entertain relatives and friends who come on vacation, including 5 double rooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 small dining room, 1 living room. Outside the window, the mountain and the river view mingle, reminding me of Foster's "Room with a View".
Agatha's second husband, Max Mallowyn, described Greenway: "This white house sits on a small highland overlooking the Dart River, next to a steep cape, with flowers and plants on its banks, dark coniferous forests, and a humid climate... No more than 35 acres in total, but very few visitors are not impressed by this little Garden of Eden. ”
Greenway belonged to Agatha's second marriage. I looked closely and indeed did not find any shadow of Archie. From the many portraits and photographs in the mansion, it can be seen that the young Agatha has a beautiful appearance, a slender figure, a long light blond hair, inheriting her father's affectionate and slightly melancholy eyes, and her temperament is beautiful and elegant. In the late autumn of 1912, at a ball in Devon, the glorious Agatha met Archie Christie, a handsome and romantic second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery Corps, who was a year older than her. Archie fell in love with her at first sight and immediately launched a fierce attack. The 23-year-old Archie has no ancestral property and earns only £80 a year, Clara opposes her daughter's association with this poor boy, and she also smells the dangerous smell in Archie's blood, such as poor upbringing, cold personality, lack of consideration for people, disregard for purposes, and so on. But Agatha was so caught up in the love network that she ignored her mother's sensitivity and worries that she hurriedly married Archie on Christmas Eve in 1914.
After the marriage, Archie, who was already a pilot in the Royal Army Air Force, went to the front line of World War I, and the separation and uncertainty brought about by the war made the newly married Christie and his wife fall in love even more. During this time, Agatha volunteered to help out in a hospital pharmacy, accumulating expertise for her to write murders in the future, and readers were amazed by her familiarity with the principles of drug preparation, including poisons.
In the autumn of 1918, Archie returned from the front intact to reunite with Agatha. Archie worked first in the Ministry of Aviation, then on an errand in the City of London, and the following year their daughter Rosalind was born, and their lives were on the right track.
In 1920, after several twists and turns, Agatha's novel "The Strange Case of Stiles Manor", written during World War I, was published, and "Hercule Poirot" was born, becoming one of the most famous literary figures in the world. The Greenway Mansion houses many of Agatha's notebooks, one of which is scrawled and is said to be the end of the first draft of The Strange Case of Stiles Manor. The Times bought out the serial rights to the novel, Agatha received a royalty of 25 pounds, the income is not high, but it strengthens her confidence in writing, "Hidden Killing Machine", "Brown Man", "Poirot Detective Collection", "The Secret of the Chimney Building" and so on have been launched one after another, Tommy and Tapency's case-solving story is her time to write, but these two characters appear less.
Agatha succeeded, earning more and more money. Archie became obsessed with golfing, and it was the sport that brought him to know Nancy Neil, a young, pretty white-collar worker, and soon had an affair. By the time Agatha knew, she was already in love with an iron heart, how fanatical Archie had pursued Agatha in the first place, how determined to abandon her, even if his wife suffered the pain of losing his mother, Archie was indifferent.
In her autobiography, there was one thing she didn't mention —the sensational Agatha disappearance in Britain.
The window sill of the "Winter Restaurant" of the Greenway Mansion hints at the hostess's preferences. (Gong Wen/Photo)
Late in the evening of December 3, 1926, Agatha kissed her sleeping daughter and told her nanny that she was going to London, so she drove out. Then he walked alone in the darkness for several hours.
The next day, Agatha's car and belongings were found at a quarry in Newlands Point, and police quickly launched a search, dispatching 500 officers. The Daily Mail published her portrait and search notices, and various media front-page reports were published, and the whole of the UK was talking about the "disappeared lover", and even some fans speculated that "her husband murdered her", and thousands of people volunteered to join the search, including another detective novelist, Dorothy Lee. L. Thayes.
Meanwhile, at the spa in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, a "Mrs. Theresa Neil from Cape Town" is recuperating, silently following the news in the newspaper every day that "Mrs. Christie is missing". Ten days later, someone reported to the local police department that the hipster lady who called herself "Mrs. Neil" might be Agatha Christie. On the evening of December 14, when Archie rushed to the spa, his wife standing in front of him appeared calm and indifferent.
Subsequently, the media repeatedly discussed "Why is this woman doing this?" What happened in the 11 days she disappeared?" ...... In the face of all kinds of questioning, accusations, ridicule, and pity, Agatha did not respond, until her death was "selective amnesia", and her biographers and researchers had to review the mysterious disappearance through extensive visits and references. In 1979, the British and American co-produced the film "Difficult to Make Up for The Hate", starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and many other stars. As for the pseudonym "Neil", which uses her husband's lover's surname "Neil" as a pseudonym when "missing", this is more like the black humor of "Queen of Reasoning", which is as unexpected as the plot of her novel. Just two weeks after the divorce, Archie married Nancy Neil. Interestingly, Agatha retained her ex-husband's last name for the rest of her life, but in the novels and screenplays she has since written, most of her handsome husbands or boyfriends have misbehaved.
Agatha and her second husband Max (Greenway Guidebook/Photo)
I love a black-and-white photograph of Agatha and Max walking behind the Greenway Mansion and the mountainous wilderness, with lush bushes at their feet, and the couple looking leisurely and seemingly blending into heaven and earth.
At the end of 1928, after surviving the darkest days of divorce, Agatha took the Orient Express to Istanbul, Damascus, and Baghdad. Exotic people, customs and attractions fascinated Agatha and repaired the wounds of the marriage. As she travels, she writes more and more easily, creating another classic detective image in novels such as "The Mystery of the Apartment"," Ms. Marple from the village of St. Mary Mead. During this time, she developed an interest in history and archaeology.
In 1930, Agatha met 26-year-old member of the archaeological team, Max Edgar Lucian Malloen, in your territory in present-day Iraq. Max, of Austrian and French descent, was not tall, mediocre in appearance, but "quite an English man" and was a highly qualified student at Oxford University. The two quickly sparked, of course, Max was more proactive, after all, Agatha still had lingering feelings about marriage, and the 14-year-old age difference was also an obstacle. Some relatives and friends believe that Max's motives are not pure, because Agatha is a celebrity and has become a rich woman. But Agatha and he have endless topics to talk about, Max is knowledgeable, gentle and considerate, witty, and gets along well with Rosalind, and the words in the love letter "You are destined to be my sunflower" hit the lonely Agatha and gave her the feeling of being with her mother: unrestrained and stable. A few months later, Max went straight to Agatha's house to propose to her, in much form and scene from archie's proposal 16 years earlier, though the two men were completely different.
It can be said that Agatha was "pulled" into a second marriage by Max. After remarriing, Agatha seemed to be reborn, and friends said that she was rosy and full of life, "like 10 years younger." Between her and Max, there may not be enough fiery passion and infatuation, but there is understanding and cherishing, there is ease and warmth, there is companionship, these are the 40-year-old Agatha most desire. She entered a prolific period of her creative career, and dozens of detective novels such as "Massacre on the Nile", "Ghost of the Empty Valley", "No One Survives", "Sin in the Sun", "The Mystery of the Female Corpse in the Library", "Strange House", "Prosecution Witness" and so on sold well in Europe and the United States, and her reputation was even more prominent. She also wrote her best collection of short stories, Murder in the Alley and The Twelve Strange Cases of the Great Detective, and published "Bread of giants", "Half Portrait", "Parting from Spring", "Rose and Yew", etc. under the pseudonym "Mary Westmacott".
Agatha's creation of "British murder" is unique, writing through the world of the "Empire that never sets", pointing directly to the darkest parts of human nature, exquisitely conceived, meticulous, skilled, stripping away the cocoon of many puzzles, "everyone is suspected of murder" The suspense makes readers addicted, there are Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, General De Gaulle of France, etc., and the high society respects her as a guest. Max's profound education was very helpful to Agatha, who had almost no formal college education, and also enriched her creative themes, such as "The Mystery of the Tomb" and "The End of Death" and other novels that used archaeological knowledge.
She even became an archaeologist, accompanying Max to excavate the ruins of Braque and Nimrud in Syria and Iraq, and donated a large amount of money to the British Archaeological Institute. Years later, Max said to her, "Don't you realize that you now know more about prehistoric pottery than any English woman?" He also dedicated the title of a two-volume book, Nimrud and His Remains, to his wife.
Agatha followed the design advice of architect Guildford Bell and demolished the winged podium of the Greenway Mansion to make the house more symmetrical and beautiful, like a magical white box. She has completed the internal transformation, the living room, dining room, study, living room and other main rooms have become open, the second floor has added a new bathroom, the first floor has built a washroom, the Victorian interior painted cream, sweeping away the previous gloomy tone, the stained glass of the large window has also been replaced by transparent glass, so the room is brighter. The new Greenway mansion is elegant, comfortable and stylish, with the modernity and practicality preferred by the middle class, and the appearance, layout, structure, decoration, and quality are impeccable, with the delicacy that is lacking in large estates like Chatsworth. The family spends the spring, late summer and Christmas holidays here, and often invites friends and companions to come to the party. Agatha loved Greenway so much that she and Max were far away from the hustle and bustle of the harbor, a paradise where they were close together, and a source of inspiration for the rest of her life, and she wrote a book every year in Greenway. In the novels "Beer Murder" and "The Temple of the Dead", she refers to Greenway as "Naxi Manor" and "Oldbury", setting it as the place where the murder was "incredibly beautiful".
Morning living room on the first floor of Greenway Mansion (Gong Wen/Photo)
<h3>Three</h3>
In her second year with Greenway, Agatha ushered in another major change - the outbreak of World War II.
In 1942, the entire Grimway was requisitioned by the British Admiralty, and Agatha's family lived here for less than two years. The Admiralty agreed that she would store all the furniture here and allowed her to use the living room and the small room on the top floor. Feeling overwhelmed, Agatha had to move to her Grass Road apartment in London, writing reluctantly: "Goodbye! Wonderful and magical Greenway. I used the last colored film so that if something happened, we could make a memorial to it. ”
In fact, Greenway was taken over by the U.S. Coast Guard Tenth Fleet, with most of its officers from Louisiana. They marveled at the beauty of Greenway and took good care of the place, especially the furniture and books. The commander also ordered that splints be added to each mahogany door of the mansion.
After World War II, the British Admiralty decided to halt the conquest of Greenway. "We came to Greenway again in the winter sun, and it was still so beautiful." Agatha said in her autobiography, "When I left Greenway, I felt like it was going to be blown up and never seen again." But fortunately, my hunch was all wrong, and Greenway was intact. However, my pantry was replaced by 14 toilets, and I had to negotiate with the Admiralty to have them tear it down. "Except for the overgrown nurseries in the vegetable garden and the overgrown nurseries due to lack of care, and the carpets being mothed by the soldiers' improper moisture protection, Greenway's appearance has remained largely unchanged. The library was once converted into a dining room for officers, and the landscape of Greenway and the heads of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin were sketched on the wall, and the trajectory of the Tenth Fleet's battles was depicted. The commander asked Agatha if she wanted to erase them, to which she replied, "This is a memorial to history, and I would love to keep them." On the top of the library wall, a circle of blue and white eaves can still be seen, which was painted by marshals in 1943 when marshals asked Marshall Lee to paint.
The war left a mark on the family: Max was forced to interrupt his archaeological research, join the National Guard, and later join the Air Force, working in Cairo, Egypt, Tripolitania and other places. Even more tragically, in June 1944, Rosalind's husband, Hubert Pritchard, was killed in the Normandy landings, and their son Matthew had just been born. Agatha endured sadness, while taking good care of her daughter and little grandson, while using creation to dispel depression and longing for her husband, she successively wrote the script "Ten Little Blacks", "Death Date" and other documentary prose collections "Love Syria". "It's not a crisis, it's Agatha Christie, keeping people up at night." In 1939, a British newspaper advertised her "It's Not Hard to Kill." She also quietly wrote a copy of The Mysterious Villa, a novel that was hidden in a safe for more than thirty years and was not published until after her death.
Max's proficiency in Arabic played a role in the wartime and he was promoted to colonel. In 1945, like Archie, Max returned to Agatha from the flames with all his tails. On the first night of the post-disaster reunion, the two ate fried salmon and were extremely happy. But unlike Archie, in the peaceful years that followed, Max did not empathize with his wife, who was 14 years older, even if her face faded and her figure was out of shape. Agatha always laughs at herself "I'm shallow, Max is sunny and snowy", but the two admire each other. Agatha's hobbies include reading, music, travel, etc., Archie has never been interested, but Max enjoys it. Max's nephew believes that the couple, who seem to be unequal in wealth and fame, "genuinely like each other and enjoy each other's company." They don't kiss and hug very often, but they talk with tenderness. I don't remember them having a fight."
Photos of family members from Agatha's collection (Gong Wen/Photo)
In the foyer hallway hangs a portrait of a man named Anthony Hicks, Rosalind's second husband. After the war, life gradually returned to normal, Greenway's stability and beauty seemed to be more difficult to come by, and Agatha and her family tried to get rid of the nightmare of war and try to look forward. In 1949, Rosalind married Anthony, and Agatha praised the son-in-law in her autobiography, saying that he was "the most amiable person I know", and that he was intellectually extraordinary, lively and interesting, and indispensable to Greenway and the entire family, and Anthony felt that the mother-in-law was "really remarkable", and he admired Max for his dedication to learning. Agatha then set up Christie Ltd., which was handed over to Anthony and Rosalind to run.
In 1947, the BBC asked Agatha if she could write a 20-minute radio skit for her fan, Queen Mary, as a gift for her eightieth birthday. She gladly agreed, and soon came up with a new work, "Three Blind Mice". After playing it, Empress Wang was very fond of it. In 1952, Agatha expanded the skit into a three-act thrilling drama, and while she was racking her brains for the title, "Miscellaneous" Anthony proposed to call it "The Mousetrap", which Agatha adopted. However, she did not expect that the play would endure after being staged and become the most performed ace play in the world, "every performance is creating a new world record", and it has also become the "profit champion" under the author's name. Agatha was grateful to Anthony for coming up with a good title and gave the rights to "Mousetrap" to her grandson Matthew.
Matthew recalls that although they did not live in Greenway for long, it was the center of the family's revival after the war. The Anthonys bought a small fishing boat in Royal Blue, named "Grimway Hope," which the family often rode for a picnic along the Dart River. He remembers his grandmother reading manuscripts of new novels to relatives and friends at parties over the summer, "Max snoozing in his chair, but always waking up before the end of the story to find the criminal." Agatha "also plays the Stanway piano and is a gifted but shy player and singer" and "we also play tennis and golf". The corner of the foyer is piled with croquet equipment, tennis rackets, picnic equipment, golf sets, skateboards, and family play toys, which proves how relaxed and cheerful the owner is in Greenway. According to Laura Thompson, at the age of 63, Agatha was playing the game of "Confession" with her family for the last time in Greenway's living room, and when asked, "If you weren't yourself, who would you be?" she replied that she was "an opera singer." Agatha had studied vocal music in France as a teenager and was a soprano, and she loved Wagner all her life and had made a special trip to Bayreuth to listen to his operas.
Agatha's often played Steinway piano (Gong Wen/Photo)
In the renovation of the mansion, Agatha retained the part of the kitchen, the slate floor, the food cabinet with Hicks & Meg dinner utensils, a porcelain niche with a kerosene stove, and the hot pool and hood produced by the famous late 19th century kitchenware manufacturer Jacks London next to the window. She once thought about "building a cute little kitchen where you can walk briskly to the nearby dining room without the help of a maid." The main restaurant is very large, the south and east sides have high windows, the ceiling rose carving is still gorgeous, the doors, tables and chairs, coffee tables, dining cabinets, etc. are all mahogany, as well as Chippendale-style dining chairs, where Agatha feasts on relatives and friends. The winter restaurant is relatively small, used by the Rosalind family in the cold weather, where you can taste delicious home cooking.
Agatha is a "foodie" who never hides her good appetite. Even in the desert of West Asia, a canned sausage is served with black tea, and she eats it with relish. In her later years, the "Queen of Reasoning" was bloated but still gluttonous, and her works often featured mouth-watering depictions of food. In Greenway's second-floor bedroom, there is a recipe that Clara gave Agatha a hand-copied recipe detailing how to make cream hens, fried fish, grilled pigeons, cherry pies, puddings, salads, etc. Agatha's 60-, 70-year-old and 80-year-old celebrations are held in Greenway, featuring her favorite fried lobster and BlackBerry ice cream.
<h3>Four</h3>
Writing changed Agatha's fate, but she stopped writing for hobbies and turned to a professional writer.
Agatha said she was most excited about two of the things in her life: buying a gray Maurice Cowley car with the money from the Brown Man serial, and being invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch with the Queen.
From abundant food and clothing to the decline of the family, to the return to the middle class and even very rich, Agatha has a close eye for money and attaches great importance to material life, but this does not prevent her spiritual world from being open and full. Agatha's cultivation and accumulation in art and culture, Agatha has been heard from childhood, and through extensive reading, appreciation, and travel, she has formed her eclectic aesthetic taste.
Contemporaries rarely had Agatha's foreign travel experience, and needless to say, she had traveled to Egypt, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the West Indies and other places, and the most traveled was the Middle East. The Greenway Mansion is like a small museum of Eastern and Western cultures, and a short visit is simply not something to be savored. Born into a family of collectors, Agatha inherited this trait, "The only sad thing is that if you inherit a fine porcelain or furniture collection, there's no reason why you shouldn't start your own collection." Of course, the enthusiasm of the collector must be satisfactory. "In Greenway, there are generations of family preferences, and every visible indoor space is full of collections, and behind each collection is a story.
Agatha has a penchant for ceramics, and some say the Greenway Mansion resembles an antique shop. For example, the Chinese Tang Dynasty Bactrian camel ceramics on the marble-walled table in the dining room were gifts from Max; the ceramic tea set in the library was collected by Max during his station in North Africa during World War II, decorated with proverbs and the names of their original owners; the porcelain Statue of the Divine Comedy in the living room is from Agatha's grandmother's collection, which inspired Agatha to write the novel "The Mysterious Mr. Quinn"; the enamel porcelain teapot erected in the morning living room was purchased by Agatha's father in the 1890s; the closet of the winter restaurant is high with ceramic tableware and decorative porcelain. The niches by the fireplace are decorated with oriental ceramics, some from 18th-century Chinese stone bays, while modern studio pottery scattered in various rooms is mainly attributed to the collection of Anthony and his wife, and an ornamental piece of pottery in the foyer is still stacked with Antony's various hats.
In the inner hall on the first floor of the Greenway Mansion, Anthony's hats were still stacked on the table. (Gong Wen/Photo)
Greenway's furniture is very exquisite. Before being requisitioned by the Admiralty, Agatha made a list of all the furniture, most of which are still in their old positions today, and mahogany is "standard". A leaf-inlaid 17th-century oak armchair in the foyer originally belonged to Clara, for which she drew sketches; the bronze Baghdad chest by the door of the library, which appeared in Agatha's short stories "The Secret of the Baghdad Chest" and "The Adventures of Christmas Pudding"; the table in the center of the morning living room from Ashfield, like ornate gilded bricks; the plastered mantel of the winter dining room, once lost, was found in the nearby mountains in 1964, and Max and Anthony commissioned friends to buy it back for £20 The marble-faced closet in the fax room has been turned into a display case for the first edition of Agatha's novels; in the second-floor living room, which also serves as Max's writing room, there is a small glass niche in the corner containing fragments from Max's archaeological excavations, which are evidence of his and Agatha's joint expedition to the Middle East.
The book reveals the preferences of different members of the family. In the library, there are various editions of Agatha's novels, next to which there are books on local history, topography, and floral and horticulture, Buddhism, and antiques, as well as novels and children's books read by the three Agatha siblings and Rosalind, a set of forty-seven volumes of The Comsel Magazine that Agatha's father had brought up on Fleet Street in London; at the top of the main stairwell there is a bookcase, which was given by Rosalind's friends in 1984 and is artistically designed to house paperbacks of Agatha's writings Max's collection of books is small in Greenway, and is said to be mostly in Oxford Winter Creek House, where his true territory is.
The paintings in the mansion also attract people's attention, mostly family portraits, including Agatha's grandparents, father, brother, sister, son-in-law, nephew, nanny and so on. The morning living room has Rosalind's collection of miniature portraits, the stairwell has a new York panorama and a Gray Eddie from her ancestors, the dining room hangs works by early painting masters and paintings from the Dutch school, the convex embroidery above the foyer is chic and elegant, and the facsor room wall is a collection of silk paintings collected by the family. Agatha's 4-year-old portrait is the most eye-catching, by Douglas Connor, the little girl holding her doll Lucy, sitting in a chair with armrests, her face is young, her eyes are pure, and another childhood photo of her, her expression is scattered, there is a sense of reservedness, coldness and alienation that does not belong to her age.
Agatha's portrait when she was 4 years old (Gong Wen/Photo)
Visiting the Greenway Mansion, like reading Agatha's novels, there are always things you don't expect: pocket watches in glass display cases, snuff bottles, elaborate Turkish tapestries and carpets, 19th-century marble shepherd boy busts, silverware from Maxzu's collection from 1648 to 1837, quaint Gandhara stone Buddhas, African skull cigar jars, crystal clear exotic glassware, bills from more than a hundred years ago... In the master bedroom, Agatha's large bed has been replaced by a replica, which was popular in the style of that year, next to Max's metal camp bed, which became Anthony's usual couch after his death. There is some precious paper collection in front of the fireplace, as are The French ivory frame mirrors and the mother-of-pearl window decoration that Agatha bought in Damascus in 1929 are also highlights. The small dressing room on the inside is crammed with the fur coats, formal dresses, prom robes and hats of Agatha's mother and daughter, as well as the various clothes they use to dress up, and in the era when there was no television set, dressed in a glamorous and dignified way to enter and exit social occasions was an indispensable sense of ceremony in the family's life.
<h3>Five</h3>
Greenway is a double bounty of history and nature. Compared with the mansion, Greenway's outdoors are simply a botanical garden on the side of the mountain and the sea, and torquay has a warm climate and many rare flowers and trees grow well in Greenway. The Agatha family has built this thirty-odd acres of land more and more beautiful, with every corner covered with green plants or flowers, most of which I don't recognize if I don't check the tour manual.
Max, a professor of archaeology who was an "enthusiastic but unprofessional gardener," wrote a notebook of the correct names of greenway's various plants and new varieties ordered from all over the world, and in his horticultural collection for Rosalind, he recorded late-season camellias, his favorite magnolias, and freshly bloomed primroses.
On the road leading to the tennis court, there is a row of pumpkins and leafy greens, and Max's 1938 Dianzang magnolia, a piece of tender powder in early spring, he often writes family letters to inquire about its condition when he is archaeologists abroad, and another Itea tree will be hung with green and white flowers in late summer, full of fragrance. The Batting Green is one of the places to entertain the whole family on summer nights, with dahlias planted by Agatha, mongolian willows, sunflowers, dogwoods, southern European bauhinia and fine drunken fish grasses along the bushes. The main driveway is reminiscent of the British gardener Ripton, with a bush of sunflower potatoes, rhododendrons, white orchids, quercus trees, large-leaved Spanish oaks, madder and a bush named "Drimas Winterley".
Anthony was instrumental in Greenway's greenery. Matthew recalls: "With the arrival of stepfather Anthony, this beautiful garden was filled with peaches, nectarines, azaleas, camellias, and entered a wonderful time. "The lawn in front of the mansion is littered with white deck chairs, planted with magnolias, roses, periwinkles, and Anthony has set up a swimming pool behind the lawn. The slopes stretching toward the Dart River are dotted with magnolias, tulips, daffodils, sweet chestnut trees are the oldest, about 300 years old, and ginkgo trees planted by Anthony himself are dazzling in the autumn sun. In 1949, Agatha converted the kitchen garden on the south side of the mansion into a for-profit nursery, which was managed by Anthony until the end of the 20th century. The nursery is next to the vineyard, and an old wisteria on the stone wall is surrounded by vanilla, and the acacia, four-winged locust, pine red plum, insect trap, lantern begonia "Lady Popper" coexists with fig trees, assara red leaf vines, soap trees, ginger leaves, ferns and so on.
A flower path leads directly to the "Hilltop Garden" that Agatha must visit every time she walks. Between the hedges beside the road are rhododendrons, hydrangeas, roses, tung trees, ailanthus trees, oak trees and a paulownia tree that is said to bloom in late spring with purple flowers. In the nearby forest there are wax petal flowers, camellias, cyclamen, and wood trees. Under the huge Chilean Araucaria is a statue of Brigitte McCrum's Mother and Son. Arriving at the top of the mountain, the view is suddenly clear, where the vegetation is luxuriant, the cattle are comfortable, planted with Asara, Luohan pine, magnolia, big fruit spices, mixed with Wenzhu orchid, hundred lotus, California poppy, sea lily, etc., is the best viewing point facing the Dart River and the port. Imagine how happy Agatha and Max were here to breathe in the breeze and flowers, staring at the water and sky, and the sails competing on the river.
Agatha and Max take a nap at Greenway 'Fort' to enjoy the sky-coloring views of the Dart River. (Greenway Guidebook/Photo)
Descending from the hilltop garden, passing two rare coastal dogwoods, as well as purple bamboo, mountain magnolia, banyan tree and evergreen tree ferns, there is a pond next to the bamboo bush, the owner calls it "bird pond", and the birds roosting insects on hot days are suitable for cooling. Further ahead, the Green Causeway winds with excellent varieties of Persian ironwood, lampstand trees, papaya red, myrtle, primroses and bluebells in spring, beech, sweet chestnut, eucalyptus, albicinalis and torch trees from South America that cover the trail.
Take a spin around the famous houseboat, built in the late George or early Victorian period, and contain a swimming pool where Greenway's occupants can "get into the water". Locals call it "Raleigh's Houseboat". Sir Walter Rowley, the explorer, a member of the Gilbert family, the first owner and a regular visitor to Greenway, was smoking a pipe one morning when a servant mistakenly thought he was on fire and threw Al beer at him. The fully equipped bar room above the houseboat bathrooms features a balcony and two late-night fireplaces where the hosts can enjoy the tranquility of a chocolate new arrival from the Caribbean.
This houseboat is no stranger to the "Ami", and in The Temple of the Dead, it is fictionalized as the place where Marlene Tucker was strangled. A stretch of upwards from the houseboat is the area known as the "Fort", backed by a huge rock with a stone anchor in front of it to block the rapids, which is said to have been used as a war fortification in the 1790s to defend Napoleon I. The Agatha family often stopped at the fort during the walk, Max took the opportunity to smoke a cigarette, and they took their dogs and watched the tide of the Dart River rising and falling, the egrets low, the villas and farms on the opposite bank overlapping each other, and the fragrance of laurel flowing in the air.
From the fort down the riverside path, there is a beautifully curved old wall, which adds a bit of vicissitudes to Greenway. In 1588, the British defeated the Spanish Armada, and one of them was captured by Sir Francis Drake and sent to Port Dart. 160 PRISONERS spent more than a year in Greenway, building roads, gardens and these walls. Along the wall past camellia gardens, through rows of Chilean nut trees and European cork oaks, the Dart River ferry is right in front of me, and my trip to Greenway comes to an end.
In 1965, at the age of 75, Agatha wrote her autobiography, in which she said in the afterword: "I am already thinning down the mountain, waiting for the call that will eventually come." In the winter of 1973, Agatha spent her last Christmas in Greenway. Illness made her lose weight, and even when she accompanied the queen to the premiere of the movie "Murder on the Orient Express", she could only sit in a wheelchair. However, in the years when she was at the end of her life, she still insisted on creating "The Elephant's Testimony" and "Destiny's Gate", revised the script "Violin Trio", and participated in the 22nd anniversary of the performance of "Mousetrap".
Although the "Amixites" kept writing letters to Agatha, expecting her to arrange for Poirot to meet Miss Marple, she never let the two intersect. Agatha once joked that knowing that her codeword career was so long, she should have designed Poirot's age to be smaller. In 1975, Agatha published "Poirot's Last Case", The Murderer Behind the Scenes, a gift she had left to Rosalind, in which Captain Hastings' daughter, Judith, was based on Rosalind. Agatha let the omnipotent Poirot die in the book, not so much as Poirot's curtain call, but rather Agatha's early farewell to this earthly world. The New York Times issued Poirot's obituary to the global "Ami".
Visitors to Greenway sit down at the "Fort". (Gong Wen/Photo)
On the afternoon of January 12, 1976, Agatha died at Winter Creek House and was buried four days later in the nearby St. Mary's Church cemetery in Jolsie, with a tombstone inscribed with a passage from Edman Spencer's epic poem "The Fairy Queen": "Sleep after Lawton / Harbor after a storm at sea / Comfort after war / Death after life / Joyful heart." Laura Thompson laments at the end of Agatha's biography: "She sleeps peacefully in the silent heart of England, miles away from the wilderness of Devon, and despite this, the dark green hillsides, the winter mist and the silvery waters still contain her essence." ”
When Max died in August 1978, Rosalind officially took over Greenway, and she and Anthony carefully managed and protected the inheritance to live up to Agatha's wishes. In 2000, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony donated Greenway to the National Trust, and that same year the garden was opened to the public, and Rosalind and Anthony continued to live there until their deaths in October 2004 and April 2005, respectively. In 2007, Matthew donated much of the collection and furniture in Greenway's interior to the National Trust. In 2009, the Greenway Mansion was also opened to the public. The National Trust commented on it as "the loveliest place in the world".
Agatha reached a rare "top traffic" in the field of literature: she wrote more than 80 detective novels and nearly 20 screenplays in her lifetime, which sold well in more than 150 countries and regions, and sold more than 2 billion copies, second only to the Bible and Shakespeare's Plays. She made reading from royal nobility to the general public, "making a pot of tea with a few snacks, leaning back on a couch or recliner, and reading Agatha in the warm afternoon sun" a way of life. In the Internet era, her books still ranked among the best sellers, and the British and American film and television industry remakes her classic novels every year. In 1971, the Queen of England awarded the title of Jazz Lady to the prodigy at the height of her golden age in detective literature, surpassing her former idol, Conan Doyle. Rarely, Max was also knighted by the Queen for his outstanding contributions to the field of archaeology. Greenway was like a watershed, and according to statistics, nearly 65% of Agatha's works were written after 1938 when he bought Greenway. The rushing Dart River cleansed her of anxiety, fear and pain, and witnessed the smooth and perfect second half of her life.
Harper Collins Publishing, with whom Agatha has worked many times, said: "It is certain that Agatha Christie will have a unique love for her readers, both as a writer and as a person. ”
If Agatha had looked back at this old garden on the other side of the Dart River, and looked back at her own irreproducible earthly journey, she would have no regrets.
Gong Wen