Christie continued to write during this period. The lovable Miss Jane Marple first appeared in Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. Miss Marple became a rival sleuth in Christie’s fiction and Christie received many letters from fans requesting that Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple be featured together in a story. She justified her refusal in her autobiography by stating that she was sure the investigators would not have enjoyed it at all: ‘Hercule Poirot, the complete egoist, would not like being taught his business by an elderly spinster lady.’

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In 1930 Christie married Max Mallowan, an archaeologist, whom she accompanied on his excavations in Syria and Iraq, spending several months a year there. She wrote about these travels and experiences and used the material in several of her detective stories, including Death on The Nile and Appointment with Death.

Although she travelled to such exotic locales, Christie’s life was forever intertwined with her beloved Torquay and she often returned to its sites and buildings in her stories, sometimes under different names. Today the Torre Abbey in Torquay has a room in its tower dedicated to Agatha Christie, filled with memorabilia of her life. Her trusty old Remington typewriter sits there in a place of honour.

In 1990, the Torquay Museum created the Agatha Christie Exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Torquay’s most famous native. The first part of the exhibition focuses on the years from her birth up to the First World War with text from the author’s autobiography accompanying rare family photographs. The second part of the exhibition displays scenes and characters from her stories.

Christie had a passion for food and might have enjoyed the excellent cuisine at Remy’s in Torquay. This French restaurant, which opened more than a decade ago, provides an elegant atmosphere for dinner. For something less formal, the Poppy Tearooms offers breakfasts, light lunches, and traditional Devonshire cream teas in a Victorian setting.

The Imperial Hotel in Torquay offers a comfortable choice for an overnight stay. Agatha Christie often used this hotel in her stories, calling it ‘The Majestic’ in The Body in The Library, and featuring it in Sleeping Murder when Miss Marple enjoys the view from its terrace.

Follow up your visit to Torquay proper with a side excursion to Dartmoor National Park, an area that Christie knew and adored.

Local bus service is available from Torquay into the Park. By car, follow signs from Torquay for the A380 and then the A382, which crosses the Park. The distance to the village of North Bovey is about 20 miles.

This area of dark natural beauty was one Christie knew well and visited often. She stayed at the Moorland Hotel at Haytor in the Park in 1916 to work on her first mystery. In her autobiography she describes how she spent her mornings writing and her afternoons walking the moors and working out her plots aloud to herself. Her portrait hangs in a prominent spot today in the Agatha Christie Bar at the hotel. The 13th-century Ring of Bells Pub in the nearby village of North Bovey also offers good food.

Agatha Christie lived the last years of her life in the historic town of Wallingford, near Oxford. She died there on 12th January, 1976, and is buried at Cholsey, about 3 miles south-west of Wallingford. Although an autobiography as well as several biographies have been published, Agatha Christie valued her privacy and rarely granted interviews. She felt that writers should be judged by their work, not by who they are. Even today, an air of mystery lingers over her memory.

Once you have returned to London, you might spend some time at Murder One on Charing Cross Road. This bookshop specializes in mystery stories, and here you’ll be able to complete (or begin) your collection of the works of England’s best-loved mystery writer.

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