Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

here with his wife—the night a folly has been prepared—she is buried. The Folly goes up the next day—another Lady Dennison [Stubbs] takes her place—servants see nothing—they go out for a stroll—other girl comes back (from boathouse). Then for a year Sir George and Lady Dennison are well known for guests. Then the time comes for Lady D to disappear—she goes up and down to London—doubles part with pretending to be a student

Sally Legge remains in the novel; the reason for the change of first name from Peggy was highlighted by Christie herself below. Definitely a good idea!

Points to be decided

A. Who first chosen for victim? Peggy Legge? Something about Old Peg Leg

B. What did Maureen [Marlene] know or do—heard grandfather talk about body and Sir George really being James? Or

Does she snoop? Intending to snoop on events? Really sees

Lady S change into hiker?

Or

See Sir George and his partner together?

What does Maureen write on Comic

Mrs O’s clue?

Boat house?

House boat?

Maureen’s scribble on the comic—G[eorge] S[tubbs] goes with a girl from the YHA

The following extracts, from Notebook 45, have page references, presumably to the proofs of ‘The Greenshore Folly’. The accompanying remarks are reminders to Christie herself, as she expands the original story. She also experiments with the details of Mrs Oliver’s Murder Hunt and clarifies, for herself, the timetable of the fatal afternoon:

P.119—Elaborate Mrs F’s remembering

P.21—A much elaborated scene in the drawing room at tea

P.24 Go on to Legges after ‘Hattie’

Recast order of next events

P.38 elaborate breakfast party—

P.47 Perhaps an interview with Michael Weyman at tennis Pavilion

Clear up point about Fortune teller’s tent

p.61 much more detail after discovery of body

Mrs Oliver’s plan

The Weapons

Revolver

Knife

Clothes Line

Footprint (in concrete)

Rose Gladioli or Bulb catalogue? Marked?

Shoe

Snap shot

Who? Victim

Why? Weapon

How? Motive

Where? Time

When Place

Scheme of afternoon—

4 pm P[eggy] L[egge] leaves tent

4.5 pm H [attie] tells Miss B to take tea

4.10 pm H goes into tent—out of back into hut—dresses as girl—goes to boat house

4.20 Calls to Marlene—strangles her then back and arrives as herself Italian girl—talks to young man with turtles [turtle-shirted competitor]

4.30 leaves with Dutch girl and pack on back or with turtle—Dutch girl goes to Dartmouth—Italian girl to Plymouth

Exhibit D: True Crime in the Notebooks

‘I have occupied myself of late in reading various real life unsolved mysteries. I apply to them my own solutions.’

The Clocks, Chapter 14

Agatha Christie wrote on two true-life murder cases, both of them very similar to her own fiction. ‘The Tragic Family of Croydon’ in the Sunday Chronicle of 11 August 1929 is an article about the then current and still unsolved Croydon poisoning case in which three members of the Sidney family were murdered, almost certainly by a member of their own household, in the space of a few months; and in October 1968 a short article by Christie appeared in the Sunday Times about the Charles Bravo murder, another domestic poisoning drama. And apart from fictional crime and its practitioners, Christie also refers in the Notebooks to a few real-life murder cases. Some are very well known but others are quite obscure:

Lizzie Borden

In Notebooks 5, 17 and 35 the infamous Lizzie Borden is mentioned during the plotting of Elephants Can Remember, They Do it with Mirrors and Five Little Pigs respectively. In 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts, Mr and Mrs Andrew Borden were brutally murdered in their own home. Although their daughter Lizzie was tried for the murders, she was acquitted and to this day her guilt or innocence is a matter of intense speculation. In each case, as can be seen, it is the possibility of using a set-up similar to the Borden case—a domestic crime with the killer, in all likelihood, a member of the family—that attracts Christie:

Or Lizzie Borden family—father and mother killed—2 daughters—devoted sister in law—boy (nephew)— Harriet Irish maid

ambitious woman—rich (really a Lizzie Borden) married to 3rd husband

If not guilty who was? 4 (or 5) other people in house (a little like Bordens?)

  Constance Kent

Notebooks 5 and 6, during the plotting of Elephants Can Remember and Nemesis respectively, refer to this notorious case. Constance Kent served 20 years for the murder of her three-year-old half-brother on 13 June 1860. She was released in 1885.

Constance Kent type of story—girl Emma—adored governess—mother dies. Governess who had apparently adored Emma now turns against her