Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tories in the regattas. Their modern incarnation, during August's Torbay Week, still sees
hundreds of vessels competing in races.
TORQUAY'S AGATHA CHRISTIE CONNECTION
Torquay is the birthplace of a one-woman publishing phenomenon:
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie
(1890-1976), a detective writer who is beaten only by the Bible and William Shakespeare in terms of sales. Her
characters are world famous: Hercule Poirot, the moustachioed, immodest Belgian detective; and Miss Marple,
the surprisingly perceptive busybody spinster.
Born Agatha Miller in Torquay's Barton Rd, the young writer had her first piece published by the age of 11. By
WWI she'd married Lieutenant Archie Christie and was working at the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay Town
Hall, acquiring the knowledge of poisons that laces countless plot lines, including that of her first novel
The Mys-
terious Affair at Styles
(1920). Christie made her name with the cunning plot device she used in
The Murder of
Roger Ackroyd
six years later. Then came 1926 - in one year her mother died, Archie asked for a divorce and the
writer mysteriously disappeared for 10 days, her abandoned car prompting a massive search. She was eventually
discovered in a hotel in Harrogate, where she'd checked in under the name of the woman her husband wanted to
marry. Christie always maintained she'd suffered amnesia; some critics saw it as a publicity stunt.
Christie later married again, this time to the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and their trips to the Middle East
provided masses of material for her work. By the time she died in 1976, Christie had written 75 novels and 33
plays.
Christie connections crop up all over south Devon, in Torquay and near Dartmouth, where you can visit her
holiday home, Greenway (
Click here
)
. A combined
vintage boat and bus service
( 01803-844010;
www.greenwayferry.co.uk
;
adult/child return £15/11; one daily Apr-Oct) also runs there from Torquay. Dart-
mouth's Royal Castle Hotel (
Click here
)
is the Royal George in
Ordeal by Innocence
, while Burgh Island Hotel
(
Click here
)
features in fictional form in
And Then There Were None
and
Evil Under the Sun
. For further invest-
igations, there's the comprehensive
Exploring Agatha Christie Country
(£4), by David Gerrard.
Sights
Torquay leads into Paignton a few miles south along the shores of Tor Bay (not to be con-
fused with Torbay, the local council area). The fishing port of Brixham is 5 miles further
south again. The resort of Teignmouth is 8 miles north of Torquay, while the nature re-
serve at Dawlish Warren is 5 miles north from there.
Living Coasts
MAP
ZOO
GOOGLE MAP
( 0844 474 3366;
www.livingcoasts.org.uk
; Beacon Quay; adult/child/family £10/8/32; 10am-5pm, to 4pm
Nov-Mar; )
Clinging to the cliffs beside Torquay Harbour, the open-plan Living Coasts
aviary brings you closer to exotic birds than ever before. The immense enclosure features
a series of underwater viewing tunnels and mocked-up microhabitats that include Penguin
Beach, Auk Cliff and Fur Seal Cove. The result is an up-close view of free-roaming pen-
