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Where the mystery writer went when she herself mysteriously disappeared
Dec 23, 2016 - 1:44 PM
Agatha Christie and her link to Tenerife
Where the mystery writer went when she herself mysteriously disappeared
Dec 23, 2016 - 1:44 PM
Ninety years ago, at the beginning of December 1926, the world’s best-loved crime writer mysteriously disappeared from her home in the south of England, sparking a nationwide search, and speculation in the press that she had been murdered, fuelled after her car was found abandoned with some of her possessions inside.
It is said that even Arthur Conan Doyle joined in the hunt for the missing author. She turned up eleven days later in a spa hotel in Harrogate, where she had registered under the name Teresa Neele, the same surname as her husband’s mistress, Nancy Neele.
Agatha Christie herself said she had suffered a bout of amnesia. One biography of the celebrated writer’s life, which centred on her disappearance, said it was an attempt to throw suspicion of murder onto her husband, in revenge for his affair.
Another, ‘The Finished Portrait,’ published in 2006 by Dr Andrew Norman, put forward the reasoning that she was in a ‘fugue state,’ an amnesiac episode induced by severe emotional stress. Her husband, Archie Hicks, had asked her for a divorce, and her mother had also died that year.
There was also speculation at the time that it was a publicity stunt to bump up sales.
Whatever the reason, she decided to escape the media pressure and travelled to the Canary Islands in February 1927, with her young daughter, Rosalind, and her secretary, Charlotte, who also acted as a governess for the seven year old girl. They arrived at Santa Cruz de Tenerife on a steamboat, and moved into the Gran Hotel Taoro in Puerto de la Cruz.
Agatha Christie completed her book ‘They Mystery of the Blue Train’ here, and part of her short story collection ‘The Mysterious Mr Quinn.’ Indeed, those familiar with the area will be able to recognise some local spots from the author’s descriptions in her mystery entitled ‘The Man From the Sea.’
She decided to move on to Gran Canaria after just a week on Tenerife, and penned there ‘The Companion,’ one of the mysteries included in her short story collection, ‘The Thirteen Problems.’ It tells the tale of two English ladies who go on holiday to Tenerife, but only one returns home alive.
The author returned to the UK after two weeks on the islands, and married her second husband, the archaeologist, Sir Max Mallowan, in 1930 following her divorce in 1928, and continued to holiday on the Canary Islands in later years. She died on 12th January 1976, at the age of 85.
Puerto de la Cruz commemorated the eightieth anniversary of her first visit to Tenerife with the First International Agatha Christie Festival, held from 23rd November to 1st December 2007, where the guest of honour was the author’s grandson, Matthew Prichard.
A plaque in honour of Agatha Christie on the exteriour of Torre Abbey in Torquay England - Photo Wikipedia
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It is said that even Arthur Conan Doyle joined in the hunt for the missing author. She turned up eleven days later in a spa hotel in Harrogate, where she had registered under the name Teresa Neele, the same surname as her husband’s mistress, Nancy Neele.
Agatha Christie herself said she had suffered a bout of amnesia. One biography of the celebrated writer’s life, which centred on her disappearance, said it was an attempt to throw suspicion of murder onto her husband, in revenge for his affair.
Another, ‘The Finished Portrait,’ published in 2006 by Dr Andrew Norman, put forward the reasoning that she was in a ‘fugue state,’ an amnesiac episode induced by severe emotional stress. Her husband, Archie Hicks, had asked her for a divorce, and her mother had also died that year.
There was also speculation at the time that it was a publicity stunt to bump up sales.
Whatever the reason, she decided to escape the media pressure and travelled to the Canary Islands in February 1927, with her young daughter, Rosalind, and her secretary, Charlotte, who also acted as a governess for the seven year old girl. They arrived at Santa Cruz de Tenerife on a steamboat, and moved into the Gran Hotel Taoro in Puerto de la Cruz.
Agatha Christie completed her book ‘They Mystery of the Blue Train’ here, and part of her short story collection ‘The Mysterious Mr Quinn.’ Indeed, those familiar with the area will be able to recognise some local spots from the author’s descriptions in her mystery entitled ‘The Man From the Sea.’
She decided to move on to Gran Canaria after just a week on Tenerife, and penned there ‘The Companion,’ one of the mysteries included in her short story collection, ‘The Thirteen Problems.’ It tells the tale of two English ladies who go on holiday to Tenerife, but only one returns home alive.
The author returned to the UK after two weeks on the islands, and married her second husband, the archaeologist, Sir Max Mallowan, in 1930 following her divorce in 1928, and continued to holiday on the Canary Islands in later years. She died on 12th January 1976, at the age of 85.
Puerto de la Cruz commemorated the eightieth anniversary of her first visit to Tenerife with the First International Agatha Christie Festival, held from 23rd November to 1st December 2007, where the guest of honour was the author’s grandson, Matthew Prichard.
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