‘Agatha was a rule breaker in a man’s world’
JEFFREY DAVIES chats to acclaimed TV historian and author Dr Lucy Worsley about her fascinating new Agatha Christie biography as she prepares to take to the Bath Pavilion stage
WHY did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was ‘just an ordinary housewife’ when clearly she wasn’t? And why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, did she present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure?
With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, the acclaimed TV historian and author Dr Lucy Worsley is touring the West Country over the next few weeks in
An Evening with Lucy Worsley to talk about how she researched and wrote her authoritative new biography Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, which has recently been published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Born into a world which had its own rules about what women could and could not do, Agatha Christie was, says Lucy, thrillingly and scintillatingly modern. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology which helped her through devastating mental illness.
Lucy’s book is not only about an internationally renowned bestselling writer who has been dubbed the ‘Queen of Crime’; it is also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. Fascinating, authoritative and entertaining, the book makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie really was. “Truly a woman who wrote
the 20th century,” says the tome’s highly acclaimed author.
Chief curator at the charity Historic Royal Palaces, a TV presenter of history programmes and documentaries for the BBC, and an author of many bestselling books, Lucy is certainly busy. How does she manage to fit it all into 24 hours?
Lucy laughed a most engaging laugh at the impressive list of commitments I reeled off.
“Well the honest answer is that most of my different activities involve talking to people about history. I love doing that. It’s a pleasure for me. I’m really lucky that my work is also my joy. I work as a curator, as a writer and in television as you said, Jeffrey, but all of these involve the same thing,” she told me.
An Evening with Lucy Worsley sounds like a great relaxed format. What can audiences expect to hear from the Reading-born historian?
“Well firstly I’m going to be talking people through Agatha Christie’s life. I’m going to be explaining that even though she might seem like a British institution – part of the wallpaper of our lives – I want to introduce people to the real woman who created all of those wonderful books. I’d like to put forward my argument which is that she was really a rule breaker, somebody who achieved all of her success in what was a world that was made for men,” the Oxford and University of Sussex graduate said with a warm smile.
“Because she was so successful, people think there
I look at the past through the eyes of the present. I try to pull out things about the past that will have relevance for people today.
Lucy Worsley
was something sort of inevitable about her achievements. But she was somebody who was really cutting-edge I would say. And she had a really long life as well. She was born a Victorian in 1890 and didn’t die until 1976 so her life story is also the story of the 20th century in Britain actually.
“I wanted to look at her as this extraordinary genius but also as an ordinary women who lived through the First World War and the Second World War, and through things like the changes to the divorce law, entering the workplace as a woman, marriage and child care, as well as other things that were universal too.”
I informed Lucy that I had actually talked with the ‘grand old lady of crime fiction’ informally back in 1972 – 50 years ago this year – when I was working in television.
“I should have interviewed you Jeffrey. Oh what a chance I’ve missed. You were in touch with greatness!” Lucy responded excitedly.
“Agatha Christie was a person completely without pretentions it seems to me having looked at a lot of evidence of her life. She was very easy-going. Shy, but once you got to know her she was chatty and normal,” Lucy said after first questioning me about the chat I had with the Queen of Crime half a century ago.
Lucy is a well-known television face, but now her fans can see her in person as she takes on her tour. Does Lucy enjoy meeting a live audience in this face-to-face way?
“I shall be giving my talk and then we’ll have a short break when everybody can have a drink. Hopefully they will come back again for the questions and answers bit, Jeffrey! The audience will be able to ask me anything they like which will fill me with horror and joy!” the most likeable historian said with a smile.
“The audience can ask me about Agatha Christie which will be the subject of my talk, but can also ask about history, Hampton Court, television programmes, life, the universe. Anything. But I’m always completely terrified that I’ll end up enjoying it!
Lucy went on: “I’m always fascinated to hear what people want to know about. Their questions are always really, really interesting because they are the ones that interest them, and that helps me in my work with my next historical programme or whatever. I look at the past through the eyes of the present. I try to pull out things about the past that will have relevance for people today,” she said.
As chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces - what does Lucy’s day-to-day working remit entail?
“Well my office is in Hampton Court Palace. It’s up a spiral staircase of 51 steps and is, I think, the world’s best office. Me and the other curators up there are researching the history of Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London and Kensington Palace, and working on things like guide books and new exhibitions.
“We are also acquiring historical artefacts for the collection, working on official media things to send out to the world, and organising events and so on for our members and our learners. But in one way or another we are learning about history and we’re trying to make it as interesting for other people as well,” she explained enthusiastically.
Hampton Court Palace is bestremembered by primary school children for being the home of the notorious Henry VIII. Is his ghost in residence there?
“No not Henry. But there are ghosts of two of his wives, Catherine Howard and Jane Seymour,” Lucy replied.
As presenter of highly acclaimed TV history programmes and documentaries - does TV presenting come easily to her?
“Well I don’t find it categorically different from taking a guided tour or going to a school and speaking to the kids. It’s just my job. It is fun because I love my subject. I love trying to convey the interest of the past. There are such great stories and great personalities. But what is also in my mind is trying to say something about the skills of the historian as well,” Lucy said.
Viewers of Lucy’s riveting programmes will know that she often makes a cameo appearance as the historic figure whose story she is narrating by getting dressed up in the costume of the character. How did that element to her storytelling come about? It’s so very effective I remarked.
“Well thank you, Jeffrey. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is just a shameless love of showing off and wearing costumes. Number two is actually to do with costs. A lot of my programmes have been made on very small budgets. The television people would often say ‘OK we would like an hour of television and we would like 15 ladies of the Tudor Court. Your budget is £15.99!’
“We couldn’t afford that but we could afford one lady. ‘Get into your costume Lucy!’ That is another way my dressing up for the part happened,” Lucy said with a laugh, adding that she feels she might well have a career ahead in pantomime!
“But slightly more seriously, I do think that clothing – like anything from the past – can just open up a little window into a lost world,” she added, before informing me that she doesn’t really come into contact with the Royal Family very often, although she did meet our late Queen and the new King Charles III, in a formal setting several times.
Does Lucy have a favourite historical figure?
“How could you ask me my favourite historical figure, Jeffrey? Like every senciente human being it’s the person who said: ‘I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a king’. Yes it’s Queen Elizabeth I,” she answered.
An Evening with Lucy Worsley takes to the stage of Bath Pavilion on October 13 (01225 486902), the Octagon Theatre, Yeovil (01935 422884) on October 24 and Cheltenham Town Hall (01242 528764) on November 7