One of many connections

I moved to North Walsham in Norfolk in August 2014. It had been my plan for several years when I returned to the UK after living in the United Arab Emirates. After a few months to settle down, I discovered that the best restaurant in North Walsham was The Beechwood. Then I discovered something more amazing - Agatha Christie stayed there many times. It's mind boggling. How can this be? She would spend a month at a time in the area. I live within half a mile of the hotel. These connections keep occurring, and yet I still feel I'm on a wild goosechase.


I'm pleased to report that I persuaded a companion to join me for dinner on 15 September last. We had a spare place and I poured fresh cream ceremoniously into a cup and left it for the birthday girl. Sadly, I was in too much pain from a torn cartilage in my right knee to really enjoy the experience. Perhaps it should be an annual event.


If you're interested in following in Mrs Mallowan's footsteps, here's more information:


The Beechwood

My mistress' voice

I've completed the FutureLearn screenplay course. I confess to skipping all of the videos. Something about people pontificating about writing and so on makes me feel depressed. I thought I'd missed some of the activities, but find I've completed what I was supposed to do and have posted them here, which was useful.


Checking the course again has led to me thinking that I must stop procrastinating. It also made realise that my biggest hurdle is lack of self belief and the constant feeling that I am a total nobody; unpublished (creatively anyway), no relevant academic background, not famous, nothing. It makes me feel that whatever I do will not be taken seriously.


The other major hurdle to the screenplay is finding Agatha's voice. I want to be true to her, even the aspects of her personality and prejudices that I don't like. So it occurred to me to search for letters. And here's a couple of examples. The photo of Agatha at the bottom looks to have been taken at about the time I want to tell her story.

Describing Mrs Mallowan's character

Although I feel as though I've done very little towards making this project happen, I should give myself credit for doing something. The project itself has had to change anyway because of the war in Syria. Originally, I wanted to write a book following the Mallowans' journey to Tell Brak on the Orient Express and then across Syria. Now I feel that this particular part of Agatha Christie's life should be told and I'm brooding on a screenplay. As always, I lack confidence in my ability to 'just do it', so I've signed up for a FutureLearn screen writing course. What follows is an exercise in Week 2 designed to develop the main protagonist's character. As I've read about Mrs Mallowan quite extensively, I feel I can make a start on describing and developing her character. Wonder if she would approve.

The instructions:

• List the character’s major actions. Start from the end and work backwards. (Don’t analyse how or why; just create a list of actions.)
• Analyse the list to reveal the character’s wants and needs. Is the character aware of what they want?
• Describe how the character thinks and look at his or her basic psychology. Intelligent? Intellectually engaged? Cognitive Biases? Impulsive? Cautious?
• Describe the character’s superficial affect. How might a casual acquaintance describe them?
• List any important physical characteristics
• This is just an outline, so stick to that format and make lists; avoid long prose descriptions.

Marries Max Mallowan
Has cold feet about marriage and goes to Scotland with friend to reflect, discuss and decide
Accepts Max's apology and agrees to marry him
Returns home to deal with family situation and hides from world because of assumed rejection
Left alone in Athens with painful sprained ankle and has to find her way back to London
Max tells her he has to go back to Ur (or Nimrod or wherever) because Leonard Woolley has contacted him. She pleads with him to at least keep his promise to accompany her to London.
She falls in street and sprains ankle
Enjoys journey from Ur to Athens with Max Mallowan.
Spends time in desert with Max.
Goes to Baghdad for adventure. Goes to archeological site and meets Max Mallowan.
Looks for ways to get out of her depression after divorce and decides on travel.
Pleads with Archie not to leave her.
Disappears to Harrogate with possible mental breakdown.
Finds out that husband is having an affair and wants a divorce.
Falls in love with Archie Christie. He goes off to WW1. Have daughter. Writes first published novel.

Agatha wants to be secure and safe in a relationship. She wants to be loved and to be able to give love. She is aware of what she wants.
Agatha is very interested in psychology anyway. She is very intelligent - gifted pianist, quickly acquired knowledge and skills of pharmacology, excellent surfer and skater. Curious about the world and loves to travel. Intrepid approach to exploring difficult territory. She is a compulsive collector of houses.
Agatha's superficial affect might be hostile to new people. She would be wary, especially since becoming famous. She would be curious but want to test people to find out their motivation in wanting to know her. She does not like publicity; prefers to be private. Modest, yet proud of her achievements in the literary world. Very clear about her own worth.
At the time of this particular story she was overweight and cumbersome. She didn't feel attractive.
 

The real Aleppo

At the end of my short trip to Syria in 2009, I hoped that I would return to visit Aleppo and Palmyra. Of course, if I actually follow through with this project, I will also visit north-eastern Syria to find Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak.

Aleppo was important to Mrs Mallowan. She clearly loved to visit with her husband. She thought of it as a place to regain comfort and composure. According to the notes, it was the location for the start of the novel 'Murder on the Orient Express' (note - ought to read this and shouldn't let the movies put me off).

The current news bulletins show Aleppo as a place of death and destruction. It wasn't always. I had hoped to stay at the Baron Hotel as part of the revisiting project. I wonder if it still stands.

The link below is an informal report from a variety of travellers to Aleppo. Notice the note at the start of the website explaining that things may be very different now. What a terrible tragedy.

travellers' tales from Aleppo

The following link is a report from 2007 in the UK newspaper The Independent. The writer makes Aleppo sound very inviting and gives rates to stay at The Baron (very reasonable too).

Travels with Agatha Christie

How much longer with the people of Syria have to suffer?

Progress

Six weeks of vacation spent in England and Scotland have given me the opportunity to have a Christie Fest. I finally own a copy of Mrs Christie's autobiography and have read Unfinished Portrait by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie's pen name which she used to write books about human emotions and relationships). More on those two books in particular in a separate posting. I went to Churston Ferrers and stayed in the most excellent White Horse B&B, as well as visiting Greenway and the Churston Ferrers church. Oh my, I feel rejuvenated and excited about this project, although still reticent to contact anybody who could help me to produce something for publication. The more that I read, see and understand, the more that I feel compelled to continue with this project, whatever the outcome.

Many coincidences this summer, which I have taken as signs of encouragement - this is meant to be. For example, before my visit to Churston Ferrers, I looked up the town in the index of Mrs Christie's autobiography. There is only one actual reference and it was to do with the sponsorship of a stained glass window. Mrs Christie had a small battle to make the Good Shepherd the subject of the window as she wanted something cheerful. She won her battle. I visited the church (during a rainstorm) just to see the window, although neither window nor church are relevant to the purpose of the project. The church was my big disappointment, as the door was locked and there was no notice of how to contact someone for a key. What I discovered, while sheltering from the rain in the porch, was that the church is linked to the Christian church in the Middle East, which must be influenced by Mrs Christie.

Although my hope of at least getting a photograph of the window was thwarted, on my return home to my mother's house, where I stay during UK visits, I happened to look at the picture on my bedroom wall for the first time. It was labelled 'The Good Shepherd' and I've slept under it for years without giving the image any thought. See? Does this mean something?