Happy New Year from all of us here at the Sand in Our Shorts blog! We thank you for your continued support and wish you many blessings for 2024!
Up until now all of the information I have shared with you is from Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman. Today I’m going to take you on a bit of an adventure. Actually this adventure is going to be led by someone who is another huge Christie fan. Today’s post will come from the BritBox special television series, Alan Carr’s Adventure with Agatha Christie. In this three part series, Carr takes us on a true adventure learning more about Christie. It should be on every Christie fan’s list of must watch. While I will not give all of the surprises away, I will share with you some of the top most fascinating things that I learned in this wonderful series. Won’t you come along with Alan Carr and me to learn some shocking things about Christie!
Itinerary #1. The British Museum
Wait, what? Why are we stoping here for Christie? I’m ever so glad that you asked. Christie’s second husband, Max was an archeologist. Ok, I know what you’re thinking. Yeah, you knew that, right? But did you know that while Agatha was with Max at his work, that “Christie is very connected to the early days of British archeology,” said Rakesha Dave, British Museum archeologist. Yes, it is true, I was surprised to learn that Christie has ‘a gallery of objects that she, herself, conserved and found,’ Dave continued.
Dave explained that ‘Christie was very intrigued by the conservation process.’ In fact Dave points out in the gallery that there are two pieces of ivory, one light and one darker in pigment. Dave advises that the one that is darker is because Christie used her own face cream to clean it which left it darker in appearance than the one next to it.
Itinerary #2. Barts Pathology Museum
Come on in, don’t be afraid.
This pathology museum holds over 5000 specimens of the human bodies used for medical teaching. Sadly, it includes many specimens from victims of violent crimes. The reason we are here is because Carr introduces us to Carla Valentine who is an author, and a qualified Anatomical Pathology Technologist. It also happens that she is another huge fan of Agatha Christie. It is here with her pathology work that Valentine realizes the depth of Christie’s knowledge of pathology by her continued contributions.
“She’s contributed to the forensic landscape as we know it today. She’s the person that coined the phrase the ‘scene of the crime’ before anybody else ever used it. She even invented a crime scene examiners kit and she gave it to Hercule Poirot in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It didn’t even get invented in real life until 1924. So she was way ahead of the curve with that,” Carla Valentine explains.
Conclusion
I hope that you have enjoyed this short exploration of some interesting and I think, little known facts about Christie. I have left it short for two reasons. One, I don’t want to give you too many spoilers. You need to watch Alan Carr’s Adventures with Agatha Christie. Please do and tell me what you think. The second reason is that I’m still not feeling 100% well. Anyways, take care and best wishes for a wonderful new year!
