The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

January 12, 2020

January 12, 1976

...He interrupted me....A little more of this and I shan't care whether I get into Parliament or not."..."Do you think she's shocked--disgusted? Does she think I'm a complete swine?"

Again I found pleasure in telling him the simple truth. That I did not know what Isabella thought.....

"But I think," I said, looking through the window, "that she is coming here now."

Gabriel went very red in the face and his eyes took on a hunted look. He took up his position in front of the fireplace, an ugly position...his chin thrust forward....It gave me pleasure to observe he looked common, and furtive and mean.

"If she looks at me as though I were something the cat had brought in — " he said, but did not finish the sentence. Isabella, however, did not look at him as though he were something the cat had brought in. She said good morning....


Our excerpt is from The Rose and the Yew Tree (1947) which is "one of the finest explorations of the human heart, the compelling story of a deep and abiding love, the conflicts it encompasses, and the price that must be paid," according to a Google blurb.

The author is Mary Westmacott. 

Mary Westmacott is of course a pseudonym used by Agatha Christie, (September  15, 1890 to January 12, 1976). We have below a denouement of another mystery, one Christie did not conclude.  We quote bookriot.com:

When Jennifer Grant bid on an old trunk at an auction of Agatha Christie’s personal effects, she only intended to bring home a memento of an author she admired. What she got was a mystery of her very own: bolted to the bottom of the trunk was a locked strongbox with no key. “The strongbox made the trunk a great heavy thing, so it sat at the bottom of the stairs for years,” Mrs Grant said. “I almost didn’t want to open it because then the mystery would be over. When friends came round we would tip the trunk from one side to the other and listen to hear if anything rattled. “If you were very quiet you could just about hear something light sliding inside”. (BBC News.)....

When she finally did take a crowbar to her mystery strongbox, Grant found a purse of gold coins, a diamond buckle brooch, and a three stone diamond ring.

Being a true fan, Grant recognized the jewels from their description in Christie’s biography. The brooch and the ring were heirlooms belonging to Agatha Christie’s mother. The author and her sister were to have inherited the diamonds, but the jewels had gone missing years earlier. The entire situation already sounds like the beginning of a Poirot mystery, but it gets even better.

The ring and brooch were auctioned in early October at Bonhams and both sold for tens of thousands of dollars above their auction estimates. 


[The new owner says]  whole situation is fantastic.


Fantastic that is for everyone but Agatha Christie, who probably would have liked to know where her mom’s jewelry was all those years).


No comments: