VINTAGE PICTURES
Murder on the Orient Express was born here
Murder on the Orient Express was born here
This is Room 411 in Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express in which Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of Samuel Ratchett, a passenger on the train.
That's cool. Didn't realize she'd written it in a hotel room.
ReplyDeleteCharles, I'd only heard the Dame had written the book during her travels but didn't know exactly where. The internet has a way of throwing up little known and unknown stuff.
DeleteThat poster is a work of art. Thanks. For Agatha Christie fans, that hotel has to be on the must-visit list. I haven't seen the film since it was new but remember enjoying it immensely.
ReplyDeleteRon, absolutely! I'm sure the hotel room is on the itinerary of tourists. This was the first Agatha Christie book I read. I remembering liking it a lot. I saw the film adaptation with Albert Finney as Poirot, though I haven't seen the more recent version with Alfred Molina in the guise of the Belgian sleuth.
DeleteWhat a lovely room!
ReplyDeleteSarah, thanks for the comment. I wonder how long Agatha Christie stayed in the room and how much of the book did she write within its cozy confines. I also wonder if the drapes and furniture might have been a shade darker for her taste.
DeleteImagine doing any serious writing in a hotel room, no matter how attractive. But since Christie was so prolific it's not surprising she wrote wherever she happened to be. Hey, on second thought - room service would be quite welcomed while writing a classic.
ReplyDeleteMy friends who are on a Mediterranean cruise right now will be stopping in Istanbul, maybe they'll stumble onto a mystery.
My brother and his wife once rode on the Orient Express but they didn't find any bodies. Too bad. Ha!
Yvette, it's possible Christie wrote only a part of the book in this hotel room and I don't think she was on a sabbatical long enough to complete the mystery, though there's no evidence of one or the other. Dead bodies in suitcases, sometimes hacked to pieces, are frequently found in railway compartments and on platforms across India. Unfortunately there's no Poirot to investigate these heinous crimes. I'm sure he'd have been repulsed.
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