Agatha........... — Steve Chivers Photography

Now Mrs. C. and I are great fans of Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective created by the wonderful Agatha Christie. We had just finished watching one of our favorite episodes, “Dead Man’s Folly” when Mrs. C pointed out that it was filmed at Agatha Chrsitie’s holiday home, “Greenways”, located about an hour from Plymouth. Moreover, the house is now run by the National Trust!

A quick call to Aunty Sarah and we agreed that an expedition to Greenways was in order. So we fired up the Polo, dialed Greenways in to the sat-nav and headed up the A38.

Now for those of you who are also great Agatha Christie fans and would like to visit Greenways, remember that you need to book a 3 hour parking slot in advance of your visit as it is a very popular destination amongst her legions of fans.

Another tip for young players is to get there early. The first slot starts at 10.30p.m. and they have a delightful café with excellent coffee and the usual National Trust gift shop etc.

After a restorative jolt of caffeine our first stop was to visit the house itself. Its not a huge property and so an hour in the house itself is more than enough.

When I first caught sight of the house and saw its location and views across the picturesque River Dart, I immediately understood why a creative like Agatha Christie would be drawn to this wonderful slice of Devon.

Once you step through the front door your are warmly greeted by a member of staff, provided with a guide book and told to simply enjoy the experience.

The light was streaming through the panes of the front door and I immediately captured a picture of an ornate bust ordained with a rather stylish hat, my favorite image of the morning, which I used as the “thumbnail” for this blog. I was surely now in Agatha’s world.

From this point onwards I can only say that the entire experience could be termed as a sensory overload. The house was crammed with artifacts from travels, collectibles and of course many books, but it struck me that she and her family were hoarders rather than collectors.

So my images of this initial tour of the house perhaps reflects this as I picked out those singular items which drew my photographers eye and piqued my creative sensibilities.

As we entered one of the sitting rooms there was a beautiful Steinway piano upon which, was a picture of Agatha. It was then that it dawned upon me that despite having read so many of her books and watched so many of her stories on television (Hercule Poirot and Miss Marples), I didn’t actually know what she looked like!

A rather beautiful image of the lady herself.

Then on to the Kitchen. Rather plain and functional which seemed to lead one to believe that food was not perhaps her greatest creative motivation.

I can only describe some items as “eclectic”!

Then I moved upstairs ahead of the crowd to find her study. This was perhaps her inner sanctum and of course we saw where she would have committed her thoughts to paper, a library of her works and a rather lovely original script of Dead Man’s Folley, signed by Hercule himself (David Suchet).

The lady could definitely write a story!

Now Mrs. C is an absolute mine of information and asked me if I had noticed anything particularly interesting about the dining table. Indeed, whilst all place settings had wine glasses, she had a jug in front of hers as it appears she only ever drank double cream with her food!

I continued my journey around Agatha’s house still trying to make sense of who she really might have been and collecting imagery which drew my attention.

The exit, guarded by a portrait of her son-in-law, Anthony Hicks

An hour had passed and I felt that I had barely scratched the surface. However, the weather was forecast to be changeable and I was determined to see the gardens and visit the Boathouse.

So we re-grouped outside the house and it was out with the analogue sat-nav to determine the best route down to the river.

So dear reader, that is my photographers view of 2.5 hours at the holiday home of Agatha Christie. In fact I made a further visit with our dear friends Cathie and Nick and still I feel that I have yet to scratch the surface.

I think this is one of those places that will always be on our list of places to visit and for sure we will see something different at each visit.

Well by now I had worked up a thirst. As you know Aunty Sarah retains the role as “Head of Family Hydration” and immediately suggested that we visit the White Hart Inn, located some 30 mins en route back to Plymouth, for a bite of lunch and a “quick sharpener”.

Here are a few images of our sortie and a “taster” of this lovely location and its immaculate gardens, which I feel should be revisited later in the year and merit a specific blog (memo to me).

I think the cured meat ploughmans has my name on it

Well dear reader, that brings us to the end of our day out. When I entered semi-retirement a friend of mine asked me if I thought I would get bored. I think not!

As always we couldn’t finish a blog without visiting the Bench of Contemplation:

I do hope you have been enjoying our National Trust adventures and as the weather starts to change and winter approaches I wonder what will be in store for our next outing.

Wishing you all good light and warmest regards from Plymouth.