More Agatha

Following the report of the 16th September, I continue to patrol the agnathan world in search of the ideal biography, so passing the biography shelf at Epsom Library the other day, picked up two more candidates.

First, 'The Grand Tour' edited by Mathew Prichard, one of her grandsons. A  book which turned out to be mainly a photographic and epistolary record of the ten month 'British Empire Expedition', a jolly around the empire in 1922, a jolly including Agatha and her first husband. Interesting in part because of the tone of the many letters Agatha wrote home and in part because of the hospitality which an expedition of this sort attracted, an expedition which was a warm up act for the subsequent 'Brisith Empire Exhibition', a grand affair at Wembley - presumably on what is now the football pitch - in 1924. Many visits to pineapple farms and sheep shearing stations. Many G&T's on verandas. The odd person of colour looming into view. So interesting for dipping & skimming but not a biography to read.

Second, 'The Finished Portrait' (a take on the title of one of the autobiographical Mary Westmacott  novels) by Dr. Andrew Norman, a retired GP with an interest in matters psychological (one Sigmund Freud gets the odd mention). An assortment of material, loosely assembled around the famous Christie runaway in 1926, on the occasion of her separation and divorce from her first husband. I am sure that Dr. Norman would be a fascinating person to talk to, with an encyclopedic knowledge of matters agnathan. Just the person to be next to at a dinner party or a sherry party (a class of event at which I do not shine. I need to find a suitable interlocutor to keep me off the sauce). We could talk Christie, Marple and Poirot for the duration. But I was not able to read the book, which was too much of a patchwork, another need being a reasonably clear narrative thread. Had to settle for a bit of dipping. But I was interested to see the collection of 20 or so front covers, from first or at least early editions of the oeuvre. Sadly not in lurid colour.

Now off to the library to return them. Perhaps I shall light upon something more biographical.

PS: for readers who might be wondering, the agnatha are a class - or perhaps a family - of ancient fish like creatures without jaws. Without gnashers. Ask the Professor all about them.