Читать книгу Agatha Christie’s Complete Secret Notebooks - Агата Кристи, Agatha Christie, Detection Club The - Страница 34

As with reading a Christie novel, the unexpected, within the Notebooks, is to be expected. The plotting of the latest Poirot novel can be interrupted by a poem written for Rosalind’s birthday; a page headed, optimistically, ‘Things to do’ is sandwiched between the latest Marple and an unfinished stage play. A phone number and message interrupts the creation of a radio play; a list of new books disrupts the intricacies of a murderer’s timetable; a letter to The Times disturbs the new Westmacott novel.

A random flick through the Notebooks illustrates some of these points: the original ending to Death Comes as the End or a crossword clue (‘– I – T – –’); the draft of an unfinished Poirot story or a list of tulips (‘Grenadier – Really scarlet, Don Pedro – good bronze purple’); a letter to The Times (‘I have read with great interest the article written by Dr. A. L. Rowse on his discovery of the identity of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets’) or a sketch for Mousetrap II. A page of jottings – a short list of books (all published in 1970), arrangements for Christmas shopping and a quotation that caught her attention – interrupts the notes for Nemesis:

At some place in (Ireland?) (Scotland?) (Cornwall?) a family lives – writes her to stay for a day or two or weekend – rejoin tour later – (Has she been taken slightly ill? fever? Sickness – some drug administered)

Notes on books

Deliverance – James Dickey

The Driver’s Seat – Muriel Spark

A Start in Life – Alan Sillitoe

Let’s go to Syon Lodge Ltd. (Crowthers) – 20 mins. by car from Hyde Park Corner – on way to airport – Xmas shopping? Collingwood in Conduit St

Remark made by McCauley ‘To be ruled by a busybody is more than human nature can bear’

What is this focal point of (an accused person imprisoned) – R’s son – a failure – R. always knew when he was lying

The plotting of One, Two, Buckle my Shoe and a listing of possible short story ideas is interrupted by a social message from her great friend Nan Gardner:

H.P. not satisfied – asks about bodies – at last – one is found

All away weekend – can we go Thursday Nan

Ideas (1940)

A. 2 friends – arty spinsters – one a crook – (other camouflage) they give evidence – possible for Miss Marple

A list of ideas, some of which became Death in the Clouds, The ABC Murders and ‘Problem at Sea’, is put on hold for three pages of Christmas presents:

C. Stabbed by an arrow – Stabbed by dart (poison) from blow pipe

Jack [her brother in law] – Dog?

Mrs E – Menu holders

Aunt Min – blotter and notepaper stand

Barbara – bag and scarf

Joan – Belt?

D. Ventriloquist

E. Series of murders – P gets letter from apparent maniac – First – an old woman in Yorkshire

Three Act Tragedy is preceded by an address and phone number:

Toby, 1 Granville Place, Portman Street Mayfair 1087

P suggests Egg should tackle Mrs Dacres

Travel details appear in the middle of ‘The Capture of Cerberus’ (‘Robin’ was possibly Robin McCartney, who drew the jacket designs for Death on the Nile, Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death):

Young widow – husband missing believed killed – P sees him in ‘Hell’

Any Thursday by afternoon train Robin

Combine with idea of man who has gone under – Dead? A waiter in Hell?

As can be seen, Christie’s creativity was not exclusive – she was able to plot a murder while making a social appointment, or consider a murder weapon while compiling a reading list, or mull over a motive while transcribing travel directions. Throughout the Notebooks she is Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime while always remaining Agatha, the family member.

One of the many lists of books scattered throughout the Notebooks, this one across two pages lists crime novels from the late 1930s/early 1940s, including titles by Simenon, Wentworth, Innes, Ferrars and Sayers …

… Her publishers would send Agatha books to read, and indeed the page above is headed ‘From Collins’.