And Then It Was Done

After putting up with so much bad news over the last year, it’s a relief to hear some good news for a change. Consider: Actor Jeff Goldblum is finally set to make his debut on Law & Order: Criminal Intent in April. The Mystery Writers of America is handing out scholarships of $500 apiece to would-be novelists wanting to take part in genre conferences and limited-time writing programs. And while Republicans look toward outdated, partisan strategies in the search for their political relevance, President Barack Obama enjoys stratospheric approval ratings and has won widespread support for his approach to reviving the U.S. economy.

Oh, and the stuccoed Georgian villa known as Greenway in Devon, England--“the only surviving home of Agatha Christie”--will open this weekend to public tours. As the Associated Press reports:

Visitors can see the bedroom where Christie slept, the dining room where she entertained, and the drawing room where she thrilled friends with readings from her latest whodunit.

Craftsmen worked for two years to restore the 18th-century home, Greenway, and the rooms are much as they were when Christie lived there, complete with books, papers, boxes of chocolates and bunches of flowers. Even the scratches on the bedroom door made by the family dog remain.

“It does feel very much in a time warp,” Robyn Brown, who manages Greenway on behalf of the National Trust heritage group, said Tuesday.

Visitors shouldn’t come to this country estate, though, in search of clues to Dame Agatha’s career as a renowned crime-fictionist. Explains The Telegraph:

You won’t see a writing desk, or a study used by the great crime writer when completing one of her 79 mysteries, although she came here every summer from 1938 until her death in 1976. There is no physic garden stocked with deadly nightshade or spotted hemlock. And while three novels and a couple of murders are recognisably set here (the artist Amyas Crale dies in the garden after drinking hemlock-laced beer, and the girl guide Marlene Tucker is found strangled in the boathouse), none were written in the house. Christie saw Greenway as a place of relaxation, not of work, as a chance to enjoy family, friends and the benevolent surroundings of the River Dart. It was also somewhere to indulge the family passion--or obsession--for collecting.

In addition to her basic report on Christie’s refurbished abode, Telegraph travel writer Sophie Campbell offers a video tour and an interview with the National Trust’s Brown.

Click here for the full package.

READ MORE: “The Loveliest Place in the World” (Agatha Christie Web Site); “Witness for the Restoration,” by J. Kingston Pierce (The Rap Sheet); “The Big Question: How Big Is the Agatha Christie Industry, and What Explains Her Enduring Appeal?,” by Jerome Taylor (The Independent).