2014 Agatha Christie Festival: Part 5 - A Garden Party to Die For...

Afternoon Tea, Torre Abbey

Torre Abbey hosted a Garden Party to Die For as part of the Agatha Christie Festival. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and it was quite warm - not bad for September. The grounds of Torre Abbey were immaculate and the gardens were in full bloom. Afternoon tea was served with a selection of sandwiches, pastries, scones, cakes, macaroons and, of course, a cup of tea!

Everyone was dressed in 1930s outfits, and there were deckchairs and bunting. There were even a couple of Hercule Poirot's wandering - including the official one and a German one.

Ally Marshall, the head gardener at Torre Abbey talked about the poisonous plants garden she's created based on the poisons Agatha Christie used her in novels.

Poison was by far the most popular method of murder in Christie's novels. I suppose her training as a pharmacy dispenser helped her gain her in-depth knowledge of poisons and the exact dosage required to be harmless - and deadly!

I think I read somewhere that more than 80 victims were poisoned in her novels. That's a lot of poisoning!! The most popular poison Christie used was arsenic - which was quite easy to acquire in those days.

Among the plants in the garden were:

• Monkshood, also known as aconite - which was used in They Do It With Mirrors (1952) and 4.50 From Paddington (1957)
• Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade - which was used in The Caribbean Mystery (1964) and The Big Four (1927)
• Poppies, from which Morphine is derived - which is used in Hickory, Dickory, Dock (1955) and Sad Cypress (1940)

The advice from Ally Marshall was that we can look - but do not touch!!

Also, at Torre Abbey was the Agatha Christie Book Bench, painted by Mandi Pope. The bench was one of fifty that were commissioned by the National Literacy Trust. They were in London last year but were auctioned off in October. Among them was a Great Expectations bench, James Bond bench, Terry Pratchett bench, Paddington Bear bench and Peter Pan bench. You can find a full list on the Books about Town webpage. Unfortunately, we didn't get chance to go down to London to see them.

At least we got to the Agatha Christie Bench though. The images for the Agatha Christie Bench were based on the Tom Adams cover for Dead Man's Folly. Here are a few photos...