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THOMPSON**, LAURA: : Agatha Christie - An English Mystery

LONDON.HEADLINE REVIEW/HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP,2007.

ISBN 9780755314874.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,6th imp.[Complete number line 6.,so 1st edn,6th impression.] FINE/FINE-.No owner inscrptn but a National Trust's GREENWAY Estate illustrated black ink stamp with pencilled annotated date 21/3/2010 alongside the stamp - presumably the owner as a visitor, had the book stamped,as there is also included a bright,crisp,gilt decorated - with the front facade of the house, GREENWAY and NT logo - to a dark green, fringed/tasselLed leather bookmark laid in loosely,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright, crisp,matt,subject's contemporary colour portrait photograph illustrated front of dw/dj with bright,crisp,gilt lettered part title remainder in grey lettering,the same but smaller image repeated to spine/ backstrip with b/w lettering; rear panel with critics' reviews for author's previous work; with negligible shelf-wear, bumpng,creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present.Slight grubbed thumbprint to front's lower edge. Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight, clean.solid and sound - no intenional dog-ear reading creases to pages' corners.Publisher's bright,crisp, clean,sharp-cornered,original plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip,two tiny dents to front board at its top edge and fore-edge too,a further tiny dent on rear board's lower edge and clean pale grey endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,6th imp,2-534pp [paginated] includes 11 chapters,plus The Works of AC,endnotes,an index and acknowledgements,16pp of contemporary b/w biographical photographs in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp150/1 and pp374/5 respectively; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,a dedication, contents list/table,and a John Fowles epigraph (from The Ebony Tower). See also my book IDs rja604916 and rja613416 for Lord Lucan biographies by Laura Thompson. In 1938,the writer Agatha Christie and her husband,the archaeologist Max Mallowan,became disenchanted with their home in Torquay.The town had changed in the previous years,and the once uninterrupted view of the sea from their house had become obstructed with new buildings.Looking around south Devon, Christie saw Greenway was available.She had seen the property during her youth and always thought it "the most perfect of the various properties on the Dart". In her later autobiography she wrote: "One day we saw that a house was up for sale that I had known when I was young ... So we went over to Greenway,and very beautiful the house and grounds were.A white Georgian house of about 1780 or 90,with woods sweeping down to the Dart below,and a lot of fine shrubs and trees – the ideal house,a dream house." The house was occupied by Christie and Mallowan until their deaths in 1976 and 1978 respectively,and featured,under various guises,in several of Christie's novels.Christie's daughter Roaslind Hicks and her husband Anthony,lived in the house from 1968 until Rosalind's death in 2004. The Greenway Estate was acquired by the National Trust in 2000.On 21st May,1985 Greenway House was made a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage (now Historic England).The gardens and parkland are Grade II listed in the national Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.Both the house and gardens are open to the public, as is the Barn Gallery.The large riverside gardens contain plants from the southern hemisphere,whilst the Barn Gallery shows work by contemporary local artists. Unarguably the world's best known and best-selling crime writer.But the greatest mystery remains the one surrounding her life.For behind the public persona of 'cosy,comfortable 'Queen of Crime' lies a remarkable and complex woman. With the blessing of Christie's family, full accss to unpublished letters, papers and notebooks,and a genuine passion for and appreciation of the craftsmanship of her subject's work,award-winning biographer Laura Thompson has embarked on the first full-scale investigation into the author since 1984.Turning detective, she explores Christie's Edwardian upbringing,her relationships with her two husbands and daughter and,perhaps most intriguing of all,the motive behind her eleven-day disappearance in 1926. Combined with a study of the highly revelatory novels that Christie wrote under the name of Mary Westmacott,Thompson is able to unravel both the detailed workings of Christie's fiction and the truth behind her private life.But this is not just a case of presenting the facts. This is a perceptive and stylish biography of Agatha Christie as a phenomenon,as a writer and as a woman. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US customers please be aware: US Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to USA can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,6th imp.
Not SIGNED.

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