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Authors: Jared Cade
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Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days
Jared Cade
Agatha Christie and
the Eleven Missing Days:
The Revised and Expanded
2011 Edition
Scarab eBooks
In December 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared in bizarre circumstances from her home in Berkshire, England. The discovery of the crime writer’s abandoned car led to the biggest manhunt in British history for a missing person. Eleven days later she was found over two hundred miles away in a northern spa town, claiming to be the victim of amnesia.
Until the publication of this book in 1998 none of her biographers had come up with conclusive evidence as to what she did in the first twenty-four hours of her disappearance or whether her memory loss was genuine. Although the newspaper headlines made Agatha Christie famous, the private anguish that surrounded the episode ensured she made no reference to it in her memoirs.
Jared’s Cade’s acclaimed biography – which has been used as the basis of a BBC television documentary – provides the answers to the mystery, including Agatha Christie’s long forgotten explanation of the notorious episode, along with startling accounts by her relatives that reveal for the first time why she staged the disappearance with the help of a co-conspirator and how it all went terribly wrong. His sympathetic investigation reveals the incidents that shaped her character and how the fall-out from the disappearance affected the rest of her life.
Illustrated with photos from private albums, this fully revised and expanded 2011 edition draws on a newly discovered cache of family papers, diaries and letters, to which Jared Cade was given exclusive access, and reveals even more fascinating secrets about her life and works.
Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days
is a must for all Christie devotees.
‘A brilliant job of research... Jared Cade has succeeded where all we other writers failed to trace what really happened to Agatha on the night of the disappearance.’ – Gwen Robyns, author of
The Mystery of Agatha Christie.
‘A fascinating account’ –
Wall Street Journal
‘A real page-turner’ –
Daily Telegraph
‘This is the only biography that tells Agatha’s life story as it really was. Jared Cade’s insight into her personality is unsurpassed.’ – Judith and Graham Gardner, relatives of Agatha Christie
‘Jared Cade paints a brilliant picture of the tabloid press turning a disappearance and a possible murder hunt into a national jamboree, complete with day outings, picnics and all the pleasures of the chase. His book is a must.’ – Robert Barnard, author of
A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie
‘A wonderfully sympathetic and detailed biography requiring extensive research, which was made possible by a part of Agatha’s family, who were prepared to open up their archives and memories. Certainly a book that any real fan of Agatha should have; it still keeps her image as glowing as ever, but with the benefit of a deep human story.’ – Vanessa Wagstaff, author of
Agatha Christie: A Reader’s Companion
‘Jared Cade’s new biography is valuable for the detail in which he examines her 11-day disappearance... His meticulously researched and interestingly illustrated volume is fascinating to read.’ – Charles Osborne, author of
The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie.
‘Jared Cade has unearthed the Queen of Crime’s long lost account of her disappearance from several decades ago. He has proved himself to be a detective so meticulous and thorough that Agatha herself would have been proud.’ – Sarah French,
Northern Echo
‘Agatha Christie’s greatest mystery was her strange disappearance in December 1926. The already well-known writer’s car was found abandoned in Surrey. After vast publicity she was found, claiming to be suffering from amnesia, in a Harrogate hotel. Jared Cade, in a well-researched and attractively written book, unravels the mystery and explains how and why she fled from her husband. Although the book concentrates on this dramatic event, the author shows how echoes of the disappearance turned up in her later writings. The book is especially good in describing her second marriage and provides depth and texture to the life of one of the most popular writers of all time.’ –
Contemporary Review
‘Jared Cade not only traces the disturbing events of the lost eleven days and their far-reaching repercussions; he also throws considerable light on the personality of a complex character, her sufferings (her second husband also deceived her), her frustrations, her achievements.’ –
Keswick Reminder
‘Cade’s riveting, stylish procedural’ –
Publishers Weekly
‘A gripping detective story’ –
Harpers and Queen
‘Affectionate and objective’ – Alan Travis,
Guardian
‘This thoughtful and absorbing inquiry lends credible dimension to the complex life story of mystery’s most celebrated practitioner. Well done!’ – Sue Grafton
‘Jared Cade is an acknowledged expert on Christiana and
Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days
has received much acclaim for its impressively detailed examination of the Queen of Crime’s disappearance.’ –
Crime Time
Jared Cade was born in 1962 and lives in London. He is a lifelong fan of Agatha Christie, and in 1993 he appeared on
The 64,000 Dollar Question
, correctly answering all questions on his specialist subject of Agatha Christie’s novels and winning what was then British television’s biggest cash prize of £6,400. While researching his biography about Agatha Christie’s life he located several short stories she had written in the 1920s that had escaped detection by scholars for decades. In 1997 they were published for the first time in the collection
While the Light Lasts
. He also traced copies of two missing Agatha Christie plays,
Chimneys
and
A Daughter’s a Daughter
, both of which have since been performed in Great Britain. He acted as a research consultant in 1997 for the BBC documentary series
Mysteries With Carol Vorderman
, which featured a segment on the writer’s disappearance.
Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Day
s was first published in 1998 and still holds the distinction of being the only biography to be endorsed by relatives from her brother-in-law’s side of the family. In 2002
Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Day
s became the basis of a documentary for the BBC. The revised and expanded edition was published in 2011, as was Jared Cade’s debut murder mystery
Deadly Vendetta
. To find out more, please visit
www.jaredcade.co.uk
PART 2: SUSPICION, SPECULATION AND UNCERTAINTY
10. ‘The Suspense of the Uncertainty is Terrible’
15. Public Charades and Frozen Stills
19. Sequel to the Ripley Road Hold-Up
28. Confusing the Messenger with the Bad News
This book could not have been researched and written without the help of a good many people. The Watts branch of Agatha Christie’s family has been a rich source of new information, and I would especially like to thank Judith and Graham Gardner, daughter and son-in-law of Nan Watts, whose brother Jimmy was married to Agatha’s sister Madge; Miles Watts’s daughter Averil; Humphrey Watts’s daughters Dame Felicity Peake and Sizza Watts; Jane Davies whose mother Eleanor Campbell-Orde was Humphrey Watts’s daughter and a great friend of Agatha; Lyonel Watts’s granddaughter Fernanda Marlowe and her husband George Herford; and Adrian McConnel who was married to Humphrey Watts’s daughter Penelope.
I also want to express my gratitude to Anthony B. Martin, director of the Agatha Christie Centenary Celebrations; Christine Wilde; Marion and Ernest Chapel; Mr and Mrs David Tappin; Terrence Tappin; Patsy Robinson; Margery Campion; Richard D. Harris; Professor Donald Wiseman who helped Agatha and her second husband Max Mallowan excavate Nimrud; Mrs Loram for her recollections of Archie and Nancy Christie; Hubert Gregg who directed several of Agatha Christie’s plays; A.L. Rowse; George Gowler, Agatha’s butler at Greenway; and Millie Bush who was in service at Winterbrook House.
Others to whom I am indebted include Ian Blair, Chief Constable of the Surrey Constabulary and Geraldine Phillips; Barbara Hick of West Yorkshire Police; Ruth Harris of West Yorkshire Archive Service; Maggie Bird of the Metropolitan Police Archives Branch; Poole and Poole handwriting experts who deciphered a difficult sample of Agatha Christie’s handwriting; Susan Healy and Chris Bradley of Thames Valley Police (which now incorporates the Berkshire Constabulary); Dawn Smalley; Edith Butler; Edith Butler Nick Forbes of the Kew Public Records Office, holder of the
Bradshaw Railway Guides
; Ralph Barnet of the Surrey County Council who as an administrative ranger of Newlands Corner gave me a guided tour of the area and chalk pit into which Agatha’s car almost plunged; Eric Boshier and Wilfrid Morton who as members of the Surrey police took part in the search for Agatha. Richard Brotherton and Anders Ditlev Clausager of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust; Mark Priddey of the Oxfordshire Archives; Detective Sergeant Christopher Roberts, formerly of the Camberley Police Force; William Taylor of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and Ian McGregor of the British National Meteorology Library and Archive for supplying moon and weather conditions for 3 December 1926; Bruce Hoag; Lisa Spurrier, Robert Hale, Elizabeth Hughes and Mark Stevens of the Berkshire Record Office; Patricia Willis of the Surrey Record Office; Eamon Dyas; R.M. Jones; Celeste Kenney; Althea Bridges; Colin Price; Bill Indge; Tibby Kull; and Jack Boxall who with his father searched for Agatha. Others include Dame Jean Conan-Doyle for information about the Christies’ mutual friend Air Commodore Rankin; Gina Dobbs of Random House for permission to examine Agatha’s business correspondence with the Bodley Head; Michael Bott of Reading University; Michael Rhodes, former keeper of Agatha’s correspondence for the Bodley Head; Stuart Ó Seanóir of Trinity College Library, holder of Judge Bodkin’s correspondence; Glenise Matheson of the John Rylands University Library; Christopher Sheppard of the Brotherton Collection, Leeds University Library; Catherine Cookson of Marylebone Library; Brigadier K.A. Timbers, Historical Secretary of the Royal Artillery Institution; Richard Bland of Clifton College; Roland Lewis; Stewart Gillies and the staff of the British Library; Helen Pugh of the British Red Cross; and Ray Martin and the staff of the British Telecom Archives.
My thanks, too, go to Kay Farnell of the Automobile Association; Margaret de Motte for access to the papers of the Watts Family of Abney Hall; Peter Berry; Lord Brabourne and the Trustees of the Mountbatten Archive; Gwen Robyns; Kai Jorg Hintz; Jean Debny; Tim Raven; Christopher Dean; Barbara Reynolds; Phillip L. Scowcroft; Jacob Ecclestone; Jacqui Kanaugh of the BBC Written Archives; Mike Dolton of BBC Sound Archives; His Grace the late Duke of Northumberland; Michael Baxter; Charles Ward; and Philip Garnons-Williams, owner of a 1920s Morris Cowley car, who acted as my driver when I restaged the journey Agatha took on the night of her disappearance.