Agatha Christie: An English Mystery

"I’ve partly chosen it because it was being hatched around the time my mother died. I acted as her confidante, though I can assure you I didn’t influence the biography in any way. It’s such an intelligent book. Better than anyone else, it understands the way her mind worked and how she saw her work. In particular, Laura gives a telling analysis of the books my grandmother wrote under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott and how they related to her life. No one else has done that. The greatest compliment came from my eldest daughter. I’d inadvertently left a pre-publication copy at her house. She rang me up three days later and said: ‘I’ve read Laura’s book. I couldn’t put it down. It told me so much about my family that I didn’t really know or understand.’ The book convincingly explains my grandmother’s famous disappearance. It fits that into her life in a quiet and unassuming way, without making it terribly dramatic or taking up too many pages. I think Laura understands unhappiness. It’s a very honest and successful analysis of the various phases, some difficult, of my grandmother’s life. Yes, I think she was. And if there was one place that encapsulated that happiness it was Greenway in Devon, the house she bought in the late 1930s. That was where we spent our family summers. From late July to early September, we all congregated there: family, close friends and her second husband Max Mallowan’s archaeological friends. It’s a lovely part of the world and we recently gave Greenway to the National Trust . If you find yourself in south Devon, you can go and visit. It’s one of the most beautiful places in England. She loved relaxing there and she loved her food. She didn’t drink alcohol. By that stage of the year, she had done her archaeological dig and had usually finished her current book, though she occasionally corrected proofs. But this was family time."