many books of such a high standard over so many years? A close examination of her Notebooks will reveal some of her working methods, although, as will be seen, ‘method’ was not her strong suit. But that, I contend, was her secret – even though she was unaware of this paradox herself.
Dumb Witnesses
In February 1955, on the BBC radio programme Close-Up, Agatha Christie admitted, when asked about her process of working, that ‘the disappointing truth is that I haven’t much method’. She typed her own drafts ‘on an ancient faithful typewriter that I’ve had for years’ but she found a Dictaphone useful for short stories. ‘The real work is done in thinking out the development of your story and worrying about it until it comes right. That may take quite a while.’ And this is where her Notebooks, which are not mentioned in the interview, came in. A glance at them shows that this is where she did her ‘thinking and worrying’.
Up to the early-1930s her Notebooks are succinct outlines of the novels with relatively little evidence of rough notes or speculation, deletions or crossing-out. And, unlike later years, when each Notebook contains notes for a few titles, at that early stage the bulk of the notes for any title is contained within one Notebook. These outlines follow closely the finished novel and would seem to indicate that the ‘thinking and worrying’ was done elsewhere and subsequently destroyed or lost. Notes for The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Notebook 37), The Man in the Brown Suit (Notebook 34), The Mystery of the Blue Train (Notebook 54), The Murder at the Vicarage (Notebook 33), The Sittaford Mystery (Notebook 59), Peril at End House (Notebook 68) and Lord Edgware Dies (Notebook 41)
She did all her speculating on the page of the Notebook until she was happy with the plot, although it is not always obvious from the Notebook alone which plan she has adopted. She worked out variations and possibilities; she selected and discarded; she explored and experimented. She ‘brainstormed’ on the page, and then sorted the potentially useful from the probably useless. Notes for different books overlap and intersect; a single title skips throughout a Notebook or, in extreme cases, through a dozen Notebooks.
When asked by Lord Snowdon in a 1974 interview how she would like to be remembered, Agatha Christie replied, ‘I would like to be remembered as a rather good writer of detective stories.’ This modest remark, coming after a lifetime as a bestseller in bookshop and theatre, is unconscious confirmation of another aspect of Christie evident from the Notebooks, her lack of self-importance. She saw these unpretentious jotters as no more precious a tool in her working life than the pen or pencil or biro she held to fill them. She employed her Notebooks as diaries, as scribblers, as telephone-message pads, as travel logs, as household accounts ledgers; she used them to draft letters, to list Christmas and birthday presents, to scribble to-do reminders, to record books read and books to read, to scrawl travel directions. She sketched maps of Warmsley Heath (Taken at the Flood) and St Mary Mead in them; she doodled the jacket design for Sad Cypress and the stage setting for Afternoon at the Seaside in them; she drew diagrams of the plane compartment from Death in the Clouds and the island from Evil under the Sun in them. Sir Max used them to do calculations, Rosalind used them to practise her handwriting and everyone used them as bridge-score keepers.
Pigeon among the Cats
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’)
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
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.