Novel places - South West

An area shrouded in magic, history and superstition, the South West is a prime location for Murder Mystery’s. The often considered master of the murder mystery genre, Agatha Christie was a South West resident herself, basing many of her classics in and around Torquay, making the South West a hot destination for crime lovers everywhere.

Greetings, Carbon Based Bipeds by Arthur C Clarke

Minehead was more than my birthplace; it was my home for the first decade of my life. I was born only a few hundred yards from the sea, in a house that still stands, virtually unchanged – except that it has shrunk to half the size I remember.  (Extract from Greetings, Carbon Based Bipeds)

Arthur C Clarke writes...

Most of my childhood memories are associated with the beach – that great crescent of sand from which I could see the coast of Wales, and the mysterious islands of Flat Holme and Steep Holme. Every day the tide’s long withdrawal exposed a wonderland of rock pools; among them I would construct elaborate sand castles surrounded by protective moats, and await their demolition by the returning tide. This much loved playground was the inspiration for my short story “Transcience”, set to music by David Bedford, and sung by Peter Pears (The Tentacles of the Dark Nebula [Decca Headline, 1974]).

Later I was also to discover the lines of A. E. Houseman that not only described the locale perfectly, but also gave me the title of my first novel: “Here on the level sand, between the sea and land, what shall I do or write against the fall of night?”

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Agatha Christie and The West Country

PERIL AT END HOUSE

No seaside town in the south of England is, I think, as attractive as St Loo. It is well named the Queen of Watering Places and reminds one forcibly of the Riviera. The Cornish coast is to my mind every bit as fascinating as that of the south of France.

We were sitting on one of the terraces of the Majestic Hotel. It is the biggest hotel in St Loo and stands in its own grounds on a headland overlooking the sea. The gardens of the hotel lay below us freely interspersed with palm trees. The sea was of a deep and lovely blue, the sky clear and the sun shining with all the single-hearted fervour an August sun should (but in England so often does not) have. There was a vigorous humming of bees, a pleasant sound – and altogether nothing could have been more ideal.

Peril at End House, written in 1932, is set in the fictional Cornish town of St Loo, based on Agatha Christie’s own hometown of Torquay in Devon. Hercule Poirot is holidaying at the Majestic Hotel, a thinly disguised version of the imposing real-life Imperial Hotel, and witnesses the annual Torquay Regatta fireworks.

THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY

The tiny hamlet of Sittaford was not in the valley like most of the villages and farms, but perched right on the shoulder of the moor under the shadow of Sittaford Beacon.

There were still a few people who from choice or necessity like to live right out of the world. The village itself consisted of three picturesque but dilapidated cottages, a forge and a combined post office and sweet shop. The nearest town was Exhampton, six miles away, a steady descent which necessitated the sign, ‘Motorists engage your lowest gear’, so familiar on the Dartmoor roads.

The Sittaford Mystery, written in 1931, revolves around a séance in a snowbound house on Dartmoor. The fictional village of Sittaford is located on Bridestowe and Stourton Common, Dartmoor, close to Agatha Christie’s home of Torquay. The real Sittaford Tor is situated five miles south-east.

DEAD MAN’S FOLLY

They drove away from the station over the railway bridge and turned down a country lane which wound between high hedges on either side. Presently the ground fell away on the right and disclosed a very beautiful river view with hills of a misty blue in the distance. The chauffeur drew into the hedge and stopped. 

‘The River Helm, sir,’ he said. ‘With Dartmoor in the distance.’ 

It was clear that admiration was necessary. Poirot made the necessary noises, murmuring Magnifique! several times. 

They went on, down a  steep hill though woods, then through big iron gates, and along a drive, winding up finally in front of a big white Georgian house looking out over the river.

Dead Man’s Folly (written in 1956) is set in and around the fictional Nasse House, closely based on Greenway in Devon, the house Agatha Christie bought in 1939 and which her family later gave to the National Trust. The real-life neighbouring Maypool Youth Hostel becomes the Hoodown Youth Hostel, and the nearby village of Galmpton features as Nassecombe in the book. The location of the murder, the boathouse on the River Helm (the River Dart), is exactly as described in the book.

ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE

Arthur Calgary was left alone waiting on the quayside. How wild the scenery was here, he thought. One could fancy oneself on a Scottish loch, far from anywhere. And yet, only a few miles away, were the hotels, the shops, the cocktail bars and the crowds of Redquay. He reflected, not for the first time, on the extraordinary contrasts of the English landscape...

At the end of the road was a gate with SUNNY POINT in Gothic letters on it. The view was magnificent. The river here curved sharply round the point almost turning back on itself. Wooded hills rose opposite; up-stream to the left was a further bend of the river with meadows and orchards in the distance… One should have built a castle here!

Ordeal By Innocence (written in 1958) is set in rural Devon. The fictional Sunny Point house is based on Agatha Christie’s own home of Greenway, overlooking the River Dart, which becomes the River Rubicon in the novel.

EVIL UNDER THE SUN

When Captain Roger Angmering built himself a house in the year 1782 on the island off Leathercombe Bay, it was thought the height of eccentricity. A sturdy house, as it needed to be, on the little windswept gull-haunted promontory – cut off from the land at high tide.

In 1922 the great cult of the Seaside for Holidays was finally established and the coast of Devon and Cornwall was no longer thought too hot in the summer. The sturdy house was added to and embellished. A concrete causeway was laid down from the mainland to the island. ‘Walks’ and ‘Nooks’ were cut and devised all round the island. There were two tennis courts, sun-terraces leading down to a little bay embellished with rafts and diving boards. So the Jolly Roger Hotel, Smuggler’s Island, Leathercombe Bay, came triumphantly into being.

Various Devon locations appear in Evil Under the Sun (written in 1941): Torquay is called St Loo, the fictional Smuggler’s Island is Bigbury-on-Sea’s Burgh Island (which Christie also used as the setting 1939’s And Then There Were None), and Bigbury itself is renamed Leathercombe.

TOWARDS ZERO

Lady Tressilian’s house was situated on a steep cliff overlooking the River Tern. On the other side of the river was the newly created summer resort of Easterhead Bay, consisting of a bif sandy bathing beach, a cluster of modern bungalows and a large hotel on the headland looking out to sea. Saltcreek itself was a straggling picturesque fishing village set on the side of a hill. It was old-fashioned, conservative and deeply contemptuous of Easterhead Bay and its summer visitors.

Everyone had expected her to sell Gull’s Point and leave Saltcreek, but Lady Tressilian had not done so. She had lived on in the house, and her only visible reaction had been to dispose of all the boats and do away with the boathouse. There were no boats available for guests at gull’s Point. They had to walk along to the ferry and hire a boat from one of the rival boatmen there.

Towards Zero (written in 1944) features various Devonshire localities: the real Yealm River is the River Tern, Salcombe is Saltcreek, the town of Kingsbridge with its estuary features as Saltington , and Bolt Head becomes Stark Head. Agatha Christie once again features Torquay as the fictional St Loo.

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