A love of crime
Fri 8 Dec 2017Love From A Stranger, which comes to our theatre in April, is a 1936 adaptation of a story called Philomel Cottage, first published in 1924. It centres around Cecily Harrington, a young woman from a staid and proper background who longs for adventure. After coming into money, she falls for the dashing adventurer Bruce Lovell, and abandons her friends and job for married bliss in a rural cottage. However, her handsome new husband may not be what he seems…
Love and its nastier side effects are common themes in Christie’s work, and it’s tempting to see some of the roots of that in her own life. Also, not only did Agatha write mysteries, she created one in her own life, when in 1926 she vanished, sparking a national search.
At the time Christie was just starting to enjoy success as a writer. Her first novel The Mysterious Affair At Styles having been published in 1920, followed by several other works, all of which enjoyed modest success. In late 1926, her husband, Archie Christie, told Agatha he wanted a divorce, having fallen in love with a woman named Nancy Neele.
Immediately after this, Christie disappeared. She drove away from her home, having first gone to kiss her daughter goodbye. Her car was found abandoned. Despite a nationwide search and feverish press interest, she wasn’t found for 11 days – when she was discovered staying at a hotel in Harrogate, using the surname of her husband’s mistress. Christie never explained what had been in her mind when she ran away, and the there is no reference to it in her autobiography. Doctors at the time diagnosed amnesia, and speculation since has suggested that she had a mental breakdown, and was in a ‘fugue state’ – a type of dissociative disorder. Others have diagnosed depression, suggesting she planned to commit suicide, but her Christian faith prevented her, and she was later ashamed of the impulse. More sensationally, others have suggested she planned to disappear permanently, and frame her adulterous husband for murder.
If it was an attempt to bring about a reconciliation, it certainly failed – Archie divorced Agatha in 1928, and married his mistress. But: one of the probable reasons for the continued success of Christie’s work is the reliability of the endings – justice is done, the guilty are punished, and the innocent survivors have the promise of a happy future. Christie’s own life after the end of this drama was also satisfying. Her career went from strength to strength (her sales are surpassed only by the Bible and Shakespeare), and she found lasting marital happiness with her second husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan, whom she married in 1930. Mallowan was 15 years her junior; she is said to have commented: “An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”
Love From A Stranger: Tuesday 3 to Saturday 7 April