But his wife was in no hurry to leave. It was reported that Agatha had suffered from an utter loss of memory which made her take an assumed name. Anyone can read what you share. Christies car was found lodged in a hedge, its front wheels over the edge of the chalk pit. Only that way could she survive. At Harrogate, she said, I read every day about Mrs Christies disappearance I regarded her as having acted stupidly. A fellow guest remembered her saying that Mrs Christie is a very elusive person. Benedict tells Christies story through parallel constructs. There's only one "cold case" story in the entire Agatha Christie canon, and it's the one Christie herself lived, not wrote. This article was published more than2 years ago. A key part of the book is uncovering the truth, as far as it can be ascertained, around Agatha's disappearance in December 1926, but it is not simply a book about those eleven days. But she deliberately played on the fact that she seemed so ordinary. to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Shed always liked the anonymity of hotels, where shed often stayed, alone, writing. Even the celebrated crime writers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy L Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, were drawn into the puzzle. Media coverage and police attention revolved around the case for quite some time. All of the theories in this case fall under one of two headings either Christie disappeared due in some part to her husband, or that she disappeared for an unrelated reason. Agatha Christie vanished for eleven days in the winter of 1926, and her whereabouts during that time remain cloudy to this day. Their specialist knowledge, it was hoped, would help find the missing writer. She set out deliberately the facts shout it to throw murder suspicion upon her husband, says one of these writers. The aftermath of Agatha Christie's 11-day disappearance in 1926 was marked by her refusal to discuss the incident publicly, which further fueled speculation and theories about the true reason for her disappearance. Why not try 6 issues of BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed for 9.99 delivered straight to your door + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com. At the time, Archie Christie declared his wife to be suffering from amnesia and a possible concussion, which was later corroborated by two doctors. On December 3, 1926, the vehicle was found abandoned not far from the couple's Surrey home in England. All these theories show us that people wanted to twist Agathas strange disappearance to resemble the plot of a mystery story, eminently suitable for a mystery author. In 2008, an episode of Dr. He was also unsuccessful. It was not until Agatha moved to Collins publishing house in 1926 for an impressive advance of two hundred pounds that she began to see the fruits of her labour and the couple and their young daughter Rosalind moved to a new home in Berkshire named Styles after Agathas first novel. There were rumours that shed been murdered by her husband, Archie Christie, a former First World War pilot and serial philanderer. Later that day, after a visit to the shops, packages began to be delivered to her room: new hat, coat, evening shoes, books and magazines, pencil and fruit, and various toilet requisites. But Norman, a former doctor, believes the novelist was in a fugue state, or, more technically, a psychogenic trance, a rare, deluded condition brought on by trauma or depression, which may also have led the writer and actor Stephen Fry to travel to Bruges in 1995 without leaving word with his friends or family. 'Her state of mind was very low and she writes about it later through the character of Celia in her autobiographical novel, Unfinished Portrait.'. By December 1926, police and detectives concluded that Agatha Christie had left her home for good. As She Liked It In 1919, Christie gave birth to her only child, Rosalind, named after Shakespeare's heroine. What she wanted most of all was to escape from the unbearable life of Mrs Christie. While Mrs. Christie seemed completely fine, initially, it was reported that she suffered from a complete loss of memory. Close to the scene of the car accident was a natural spring known as the Silent Pool, where two young children were reputed to have died. Hotel staff would report that she has made a number of friends. The police, scrambling for clues, turned to Christies manuscripts, examining what they thought was her work in progress, The Blue Train., Between 10,000 and 15,000 people took part in the search for Mrs. Christie, aided by six trained bloodhounds, a crate load of Airedale terriers, many retrievers and Alsatian police dogs, and even the services of common mongrels.. And so the injustice has been perpetuated. Agatha is then said to have left her daughter with their maid and departed the house later that same evening, thus beginning one of the most enduring mysteries she had ever masterminded. An Odd End to the Story By December 1926, police and detectives concluded that Agatha Christie had left her home for good. After the initial act of leaving, though, Im less convinced of what happened, simply because eleven days is a long time to stay gone. Based on her notorious 11-day disappearance and an infamous unsolved killing, "Agatha Christie and the Murder of Florence Nightingale" is a classic who-done-it revealing the origin story of the . (modern). Unfortunately for Christies lasting reputation, many of her biographers, notably her male ones, have been as heavily invested in this narrative as the male police officers and journalists who made it into such a sensation at the time. The mystery of Christie's 11-day disappearance in 1926 is . The alternative position is that she was faking it, even trying to frame Archie for killing her. First is that some people believed that Agatha Christie had vanished because she was off investigating a homicide somewhere. Then she climbed into her Morris Cowley and drove off into the night. Is that all you are worth? asked one of the guests. The disappearance of Christie made headlines on December 6th, and suddenly the world was cast into grave worry over the fate of their favorite mystery writer. The paper reported that the police had found some important clues nearby, including a bottle labeled poison lead and opium, fragments of a torn-up postcard, a womans fur-lined coat, a box of face powder, the end of a loaf of bread, a cardboard box and two childrens books., Perhaps more ominous, was the detectives new theory: The police have information which they refuse to divulge and which leads them to the view that Mrs. Christie had no intention of returning when she left home.. Sure enough, the woman known to staff as Theresa Neale blew in without a glance at Archie. Author reconstructs Agatha Christies famous disappearance. That is too intentional to ignore. 'This kind of fugue state, which is much better understood these days, fits the symptoms that Christie showed during her stay in Harrogate,' said Norman. Where did Agatha Christie go when she disappeared in 1926? Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle brought in an occultist to help, and if Hercule Poirot, Christies most famous creation, were a real person, he too would have joined the hunt. This was no doubt as a result of the Miller familys own decent into poverty after Agathas father, an affluent American businessman, was stricken by a number of heart attacks leading to his death in November 1901 when Agatha was only 11 years old. The car was found near a chalk quarry the next morning. Wild parties, sex, drugs, drink and outrageous behaviour. Agatha Christie never spoke about the missing eleven days of her life and over the years there has been much speculation about what really happened between 3 and 14 December 1926. Historian Lucy Worsley reopens a case still shrouded in mystery, Agatha Christie was sitting quietly on a train when she overheard a stranger saying her name. What happened in those 11 days of disappearance remains a mystery worthy enough to be the plot of one of Christies novels. As the first day of investigations progressed into the second and third and there was still no sign of her speculation began to mount. In the carriage, she said, were two women discussing me, both with copies of my paperback editions on their knees. The head waiter there thought they recognized a guest as Christie, though she claimed to be a South African woman named Theresa Neale. It was a public image she carefully crafted to conceal her real self. I love this story because it sums up so much about Agatha Christies life. It may have been accidental, and deeply unpleasant, but it would also become a central plank of her massive success. Why did Christie suddenly disappear, and why did she never talk about those 11 days? In the same article, her personal secretary angrily denied that the whole thing was a publicity stunt: It is ridiculous. After her return, she rarely spoke about the incident and never provided any further details about her "nervous breakdown" or . Listening to you drone on about culture, music, silly book ideas, your mother, and your . * Laura Thompson Agatha Christie An English Mystery Google Books ** Andrew Norman The Disappearing Novelist Google Books Wikipedia. That same day, the police speculated that Christie could possibly be in London, disguised and probably in male attire. And rumors began flying that she had left behind a sealed envelope that was only to be opened in the event her body was discovered. Some said the incident was nothing more than a publicity stunt, a clever ruse to promote her new book. Detectives are now said to be of the opinion that it is a case of suicide, The Times reported. But her writings about her life have had this novelising tendency all along. At last, she put into action a vague plan that had occupied her thoughts for the previous 24 hours. Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of the most famous English poets of all time, with a career spanning 62 years, The most famous of all English playwrights was born in 1564 and died on St Georges Day, in 1616. | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | DMCA Notice, This website uses cookies to improve your experience. She was eventually recognized by one of the hotels banjo players, Bob Tappin, who alerted the police. People thought the author jumped into the pond called the Silent Pool, rumored locally to be bottomless. It would have been hard to avoid the story about Mrs Christies disappearance, but she somehow managed to set the knowledge aside. In a dramatic unmasking which would have been at home in the pages of any Christie novel, Archie travelled with the police to Yorkshire and took a seat in the corner of the hotels dining room from where he watched his estranged wife walk in, take her place at another table and begin reading a newspaper which heralded her own disappearance as front page news. Sure enough, Archie recognized the woman as his missing wife. She could have left home to separate from her husband and start afresh. It was the perfect tabloid story, with all the elements of one of Christie's own 'whodunnit' mysteries. Its possible that Christie went out that night to blow off steam and something else occurred to trigger a fugue state but, again, we dont have anything to point to that. Some journalists ventured to suggest that the novelist had deliberately drowned herself. Up to this moment I was Mrs Christie, she explains. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, her ingenious masterpiece, had just been published and her literary agent was pushing for a follow-up. The Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate was a swanky spa that boasted Turkish Baths. Crowds at King's Cross station hope to catch a glimpse of Christie. The alternative position is that she was faking it, even trying to frame Archie for killing her. Her disappearance without a clue, save for the discovery of her abandoned car, stymied the police and thousands of civilians who combed the British countryside in search of her. The car evidently had run away, and only a thick hedge-growth prevented it from plunging into the pit.. Only one thing can be said for certain: on Saturday 4 December 1926, and for some days thereafter, Christie experienced a distressing episode of mental illness, brought on by the trauma of the death of her mother and the breakdown of her marriage. Who speculated about the novelists disappearance. Agatha seldom spoke about what happened in December 1926. By June 1926, Agatha Christie had published six of her most famous works and was considered a promising author of mystery novels starring her Belgian detective Poirot. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/books/agatha-christie-vanished-11-days-1926.html, Inside The Bizarre, 11-Day Saga Of The Disappearance Of Agatha Christie. When he spoke to her, onlookers say she looked genuinely puzzled and didnt seem to recognize him. However, the day after this conclusion was drawn, Mrs. Christie was found, indeed at a Yorkshire spa as she had told her brother-in-law, living under the name of Mrs. Tressa Neele. Her secretary dismissed the claim that Agatha had committed suicide since her letter contained instructions and scheduling details for the future. In 1912, 22-year-old Agatha attended a local dance where she met and fell in love with Archibald Archie Christie, a qualified aviator who had been posted to Exeter. Until now the two most popular theories offered for these strange events have been that either Christie was suffering from memory loss after a car crash, or that she had planned the whole thing to thwart her husband's plans to spend a weekend with his mistress at a house close to where she abandoned her car. The Silent Pool, a natural spring near the accident scene, for instance, was said to be the site of the death of a young girl and her brother and many thought the novelist had drowned herself there. No one knew or saw Agatha during these days. Serial murders In total, she wrote 80 novels. The car struck something with a jerk and pulled up suddenly. He told Agatha he wanted a divorce and, to add insult to injury, that he would be spending the weekend with friends a group which included Neale. As Mrs Neele, she said later, I was very happy and contented.. They came to the conclusion that Agatha Christie had left home and travelled to London, crashing her car en route. Its time to do something radical: to listen to what Christie says, to understand she had a range of experiences unhelpfully labelled as loss of memory, and, perhaps most importantly, when she says she was suffering, to believe her. Feared dead, she was eventually discovered alive, supposedly suffering from amnesia. One is that, in the days after the crash, she was experiencing the specific condition of dissociative fugue a state brought on by trauma and stress, in which you literally forget who you are. However, police were unconvinced about the letter and resumed the search for the author. Too much of a coincidence? Years later, it was revealed that Agatha Christie had, in fact, used the name of her husbands girlfriend. Miss Corbett, the hotels entertainment hostess, spotted that Mrs Neele still had the price 75 shillings pinned to her new shawl. But by December 1926, her marriage to Archie Christie was in trouble. Others suggested the incident was a publicity stunt, while, more chillingly, some clues seemed to point in the direction of murder at the hands of her unfaithful husband, Archie Christie, a former First World War fighter pilot. All that night I drove aimlessly about In my mind there was the vague idea of ending everything. The police were now set in their opinion that Christie had committed suicide. Why no one could have spotted her was blamed on a possible male disguise she might have been wearing, a conceit that could have come straight from one of her books. These were obviously the words of Christies publishers, not Christie herself. Nearly 15,000 people, police, and six bloodhounds took part in this search. By this stage, Christie was already a celebrity. All these theories show us that people wanted to twist Agatha's strange disappearance to resemble the plot of a mystery story, eminently suitable for a mystery author. And she wasnt just a novelist, either: she remains historys most performed female playwright. Ten days later, the head waiter at the Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, (now known as the Old Swan Hotel) contacted police with the startling news that a lively and outgoing South African guest by the name of Theresa Neale may actually be the missing writer in disguise. But readers could be forgiven for thinking the author was somehow cashing in on her new notoriety. In the same piece, the paper noted that hundreds of amateur detectives were today putting away their lynx eyes, gum shoes and Sherlock Holmes pea jackets and resting from their weary trampings over the Surrey Downs.. I cannot be bothered with her. Also, according to this witness, Christie was beginning to show signs of mental distress. With injuries from the impact to her head and chest, she walked through the wintry countryside in a dreamlike state. Not quite. In the carriage, she said, were two women discussing me, both with copies of my paperback editions on their knees. Catalogue ref: J 77/2492/7646. It makes most other literary biographies seem unnecessarily padded. Alone, and using an assumed name, she had been living in a spa hotel in Harrogate since the day after her disappearance, even though news of her case had reached as far as the front page of the New York Times. People noticed that she usually had a book in her hand. The car sparked one of the largest investigations the United Kingdom has ever seen. Copyright Historic UK Ltd. Company Registered in England No. Ask Amy: Im pregnant and I cant deal with my moms negativity, Miss Manners: They gave us their home phone number, we never called, Carolyn Hax: Struggling spouse agrees to therapy, wont follow through. (It was the unspoken subject. The car struck something with a jerk and pulled up suddenly. This story was originally . It didnt take long for the police to locate her car. It was a Morris Cowley, not a Morris Crowley. This mystery has so enraptured fans that books have been written about those eleven days. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Over a thousand police officers were put on the case to investigate, airplanes were tasked with flying over key points to look for clues, dogs were used to track her scent, rewards were offered and more. Mr W Taylor, the hotels manager, stated later that his guest took a good room on the first floor, fitted with hot and cold water. In 1977 Kathleen Tynan wrote a novel, Agatha, about the episode; it was turned into a film starring Vanessa Redgrave. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast. ), Christie herself discussed the incident publicly only once, in a 1928 interview she gave to The Daily Mail. And this probably explains why the incident caught the imagination of so many at the time. Delivery charges may apply. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. Christie herself was unable to provide any clues to what had happened. So, did she truly lose her memory? They both had her paperbacks. She did not talk about what happened in Agatha Christie: An Autobiography, either, dismissing the end of her marriage in a few terse words: There is no need to dwell on it.. A week after Christies disappearance, the police were flummoxed. At the Hydro, on the Sunday morning, no newspaper was taken up to the bedroom. However, on the rare occasion that she did speak, she recalled that she was under severe nervous strain due to marital discord during those days. The missing 11 days have never been explained. I have to say that I really like the spiteful revenge fantasy of this. The disappearance was sparked by her husband Archie's affair with a younger woman (whom he subsequently married) but Christie refused to ever discuss why she left her car, how she traveled, what . Detectives appealed for help from motorists and amateur sleuths: Without telling why, the police still believe she is somewhere on the downs not far from the spot where her missing automobile was found.. an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking Archies and Agathas stories intertwine as the novel winds down, and all the while, the power in their relationship, most satisfyingly, shifts to Agatha. On the evening of December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie and her husband Archie got into an argument. Agatha Christies own words deepen mystery of the Queen of Crime. First, well cover three theories that are related to her relationship. The milder have her down as a woman wronged, with an understandable desire for revenge. your desperation? It strains credulity to accept she was reduced to this state, and some readers may strongly object to this portrayal. The continued disappearance of Agatha prompted people to spin more tantalizing and impossible stories. It was left to the police to piece together what might have taken place. The reason for Agathas disappearance has been hotly contested over the years. However, later she claimed to have regained her memory, and to this day, people wonder whether it was amnesia, depression, or something else that made Agatha disappear the way she did at the end of 1926. The theories that fall under the unrelated-to-husband umbrella arevaried. Archie was sent to France when the First World War broke out in 1914 but the young couple married on Christmas Eve the same year when he returned on leave. Christie was eventually discovered safe, but in circumstances that raised more questions than they answered. Harrogate was the height of elegance in the 1920s and filled with fashionable young things. The only lead came around ten days later. When approached by her husband, witnesses noted a general air of puzzlement and little recognition for the man to whom she had been married for nearly 12 years. The winter light must have faded by the time her train arrived. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Arthur Conan Doyle, a keen occultist, tried using paranormal powers to solve the mystery. After the initial act of leaving, though, Im less convinced of what happened, simply because eleven days is a long time to stay gone. What do you all think? Indeed, she kept him waiting in the hotel lounge while she changed into her evening dress. On Friday 3 December 1926, the English crime novelist Agatha Christie vanished from her home in Berkshire. Books have been written and movies have been made including, most recently, the 2018 film, Agatha and the Truth of Murder, which speculates she spent those missing days solving a real homicide. Its possible that the idea of divorce triggered this in her, but the fact that she tucked her daughter into bed before leaving does not point to this. Tressa Neele. When asked, Col. Christie insisted he had no idea what the meaning of that particular name was nor, he added, did his wife. The location above a quarry suggested that suicide may have been in her mind at this point. She was so successful people think of her as an institution, not as a breaker of new ground. If the women on the train had asked her profession, shed have said she had none. It was the perfect tabloid story, with all the elements of an Agatha Christie whodunnit. She sidestepped a world that tried to define her. If life sometimes imitates art, one great example is the mysterious disappearance of famous crime novelist Agatha Christie.