The most popular novelist in the world, Dame Agatha Christie, has died leaving rumours of a multi-million pound fortune and a final book waiting to be published. The British author, who sold an estimated 300 million books during her lifetime, had been in poor health for several years. She died at her home in Wallingford in Oxfordshire, aged 85.
Two London theatres dimmed their lights this evening – St Martin’s where her record-breaking "The Mousetrap" is now in its 24th year and the Savoy, where "Murder at the Vicarage" will have its 200th performance next week. Dame Agatha is believed to have left one last novel, as yet unpublished, featuring one of her most famous characters, the deceptively clever Miss Marple, as well as an autobiography.
Police search During her lifetime, Dame Agatha published 83 books, including novels, romances written under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott, short stories, poetry and the scripts for her plays. She married Colonel Archibald Christie in 1914. While he was away during the war she worked as a nurse at her local hospital in Torquay, where she learned about the poisons that later featured in so many of her crime novels.
Dame Agatha established her name as a crime writer with her first detective book in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which she created her much-loved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. In December 1926 she sparked a police search when her car was found abandoned in a chalk pit at Newlands Corner on the Surrey Downs.
It emerged she and her husband had had a row. Several days later she turned up in a hotel in Harrogate booked in under the name of a woman who was revealed to be her husband’s mistress. She divorced and married again, well-known archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and divided her life between several country and town homes, archaeological digs and the regular production of one thriller a year.
She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. Newspaper estimates of her fortune vary, but in the late 1950s she was reputed to be earning about £100,000 a year. The hugely successful play Mousetrap – first written as a radio sketch called Three Blind Mice for the 80th birthday of Queen Mary – is said to have made more than £3m. She gave the proceeds to her only grandson, Matthew Prichard.
She was known to be a shrewd businesswoman, anxious to avoid leaving too much of her personal fortune to the taxman. She once said: "I only write one book a year now, which is sufficient to give me a good income. If I wrote more, I’d enlarge the finances of the Inland Revenue who would spent it mostly on idiotic things." In 1955 she formed a company, Agatha Christie Ltd and to save its dividends from tax, she later sold 51% to Booker McConnell, a firm best known as sugar giants but also with other investments including authors’ copyrights.
In Context Dame Agatha Christie’s will was published on 30 April 1976 and revealed she had left only £106,683, having managed to dispose of most of her wealth before she died. She left most of her property to her husband and daughter with a number of smaller bequests such as £500 to her gardener, £250 to her secretary and £200 to her garden manager.
Sleeping Murder, Miss Marple’s last case, was published after her death. Her autobiography was also published posthumously. Her legacy lives on in Torquay, Devon, where her daughter by her first marriage Rosalind Hicks lived until her death in 2004. Today there is a museum and a bronze bust of the author at the harbourside. Her only grandson, Matthew Pritchard, is chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd.
Even the most music interested among us can sometimes get lost in all the different labels music journalists and record companies choose to put on recordings.
The 11 thorough well written articles in “The Rock Primer” takes us through the most important of the different categories in popular music in the period 1945 – 1980.
The categories are: Rock & Roll, Folk & Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Soul, Country, British Beat, California Sun, Dylan and after, Reggae, Punk and The seventies.
Initially designed by Eduard Bohtlingk way back in 1985, the Markies (or ‘Marquis’ in English) is now one of the available camping structures at Amsterdam’s fun and unusual Urban Campsite. – See more HERE
Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, and the Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the charge in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America, "bridging the color lines in music at the time."
With a string of hit singles composed mainly by Smokey Robinson, including "Two Lovers" (1962), the Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch" (1962) and her signature hit, "My Guy" (1964), she became recognized as "The Queen of Motown" until her departure from the company in 1964, at the height of her popularity. She was one of Motown’s first singing superstars.
Early life and initial recordings Mary Esther Wells was born near Detroit’s Wayne State University on May 13, 1943, to a mother who worked as a domestic, and an absentee father. One of three children, she contracted spinal meningitis at the age of two and struggled with partial blindness, deafness in one ear and temporary paralysis. During her early years, Wells lived in a poor residential Detroit district. By age 12, she was helping her mother with house cleaning work. She described the ordeal years later:
"Daywork they called it, and it was damn cold on hallway linoleum. Misery is Detroit linoleum in January—with a half-froze bucket of Spic-and-Span."—Mary Wells
Wells used singing as her comfort from her pain and by age 10 had graduated from church choirs to performing at local nightclubs in the Detroit area. Wells graduated from Detroit’s Northwestern High School at the age of 17 and set her sights on becoming a scientist, but after hearing about the success of Detroit musicians such as Jackie Wilson and the Miracles, she decided to try her hand at music as a singer-songwriter.
In 1960, 17-year-old Wells approached Tamla Records founder Berry Gordy at Detroit’s Twenty Grand club with a song she had intended for Jackie Wilson to record, since Wells knew of Gordy’s collaboration with Wilson. However, a tired Gordy insisted Wells sing the song in front of him. Impressed, Gordy had Wells enter Detroit’s United Sound Studios to record the single, titled "Bye Bye Baby". After a reported 22 takes, Gordy signed Wells to the Motown subsidiary of his expanding record label and released the song as a single in September 1960; it peaked at No 8 on the R&B chart in 1961, and later crossed over to the pop singles chart, where it peaked at number 45.
Wells’ early Motown recordings reflected a rougher R&B sound than the smoother style of her biggest hits. Wells became the first Motown female artist to have a Top 40 pop single after the Mickey Stevenson-penned doo-wop song, "I Don’t Want to Take a Chance", hit No. 33 in June,1961. In the fall of that year, Motown issued her first album and released a third single, the bluesy ballad "Strange Love". When that record bombed, Gordy set Wells up with the Miracles’ lead singer Smokey Robinson. Though she was hailed as "the first lady of Motown", Wells was technically Motown’s third female signed act: Claudette Rogers, of Motown’s first star group the Miracles, has been referred to by Berry Gordy as "the first lady of Motown Records" due to her being signed as a member of the group, and in late 1959 Detroit blues-gospel singer Mable John had signed to the then-fledging label a year prior to Wells’ arrival. Nevertheless, Wells’ early hits as one of the label’s few female solo acts did make her the label’s first female star and its first fully successful solo artist.
Success Wells’ teaming with Robinson led to a succession of hit singles over the following two years. Their first collaboration, 1962’s "The One Who Really Loves You", was Wells’ first smash hit, peaking at No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 8 on the Hot 100. The song featured a calypso-styled soul production that defined Wells’ early hits. Motown released the similar-sounding "You Beat Me to the Punch" a few months later. The song became her first R&B No. 1 single and peaked at No. 9 on the pop chart. The success of "You Beat Me to the Punch" helped to make Wells the first Motown star to be nominated for a Grammy Award when the song received a nod in the Best Rhythm & Blues Recording category.
In late 1962, "Two Lovers" became Wells’ third consecutive single to hit the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100, peaking at No. 7 and becoming her second No. 1 hit on the R&B charts. This helped to make Wells the first female solo artist to have three consecutive Top 10 singles on the pop chart. The track sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Wells’ second album, also titled The One Who Really Loves You, was released in 1962 and peaked at No. 8 on the pop albums chart, making the teenage singer a breakthrough star and giving her clout at Motown. Wells’ success at the label was recognized when she became a headliner during the first string of Motortown Revue concerts, starting in the fall of 1962. The singer showcased a rawer stage presence that contrasted with her softer R&B recordings.
Wells’ success continued in 1963 when she hit the Top 20 with the doo-wop ballad "Laughing Boy" and scored three additional Top 40 singles, "Your Old Standby", "You Lost the Sweetest Boy", and its B-side, "What’s Easy for Two Is So Hard for One". "You Lost the Sweetest Boy" was one of the first hit singles composed by the successful Motown songwriting and producing trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland, though Robinson remained Wells’ primary producer.
Also in 1963, Wells recorded a session of successful B-sides that arguably became as well known as her hits, including "Operator", "What Love Has Joined Together", "Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right" and "Old Love (Let’s Try It Again)". Wells and Robinson also recorded a duet titled "I Want You ‘Round", which would be re-recorded by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston.
In 1964, Wells recorded "My Guy". The Smokey Robinson song became her trademark single, reaching No. 1 on the Cashbox R&B chart for seven weeks and becoming the No. 1 R&B single of the year. The song successfully crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, where it eventually replaced Louis Armstrong’s "Hello, Dolly!" at No. 1, remaining there for two weeks. The song became Wells’ second million-selling single.
To build on the song’s success, Motown released a duet album recorded with fellow Motown singing star Marvin Gaye, Together. The album peaked at No. 1 on the R&B album chart and No. 42 on the pop album chart, and yielded the double-sided hits "Once Upon a Time" and "What’s the Matter With You Baby".
"My Guy" was one of the first Motown songs to break on the other side of the Atlantic, eventually peaking at No. 5 on the UK chart and making Wells an international star. Around this time, the Beatles stated that Wells was their favorite American singer, and soon she was given an invitation to open for the group during their tour of the United Kingdom, thus making her the first Motown star to perform in the UK. Wells was only one of three female singers to open for the Beatles, the others being Brenda Holloway and Jackie DeShannon. Wells made friends with all four Beatles and later released a tribute album, Love Songs to the Beatles, in mid-decade.
Former Motown sales chief Barney Ales described Wells’ landmark success in 1964: "In 1964, Mary Wells was our big, big artist, I don’t think there’s any audience with an age of 30 through 50 that doesn’t know the words to My Guy."
An electric tricycle, capable of a top speed of 15 mph, has driven into a safety row on its first day on the road. The Sinclair C5 – launched by the computer millionaire, Sir Clive Sinclair – is designed for short journeys around town and can be driven by anyone over the age of 14. But the £399 vehicle, driven by a battery-powered motor, only 2 ft 6 in high and six feet long, has raised safety concerns.
It’s a sort of milk float you’re putting into the traffic stream Dr Murray MacKay, Birmingham University
The British Safety Council says the vehicle is too close to the ground and the driver has poor visibility in traffic. He sits with his legs outstretched and the controls are beneath his thighs.
With a top speed of only 15 mph, safety experts say the C5 could be vulnerable to knocks from other cars. The vehicle is open-topped and the driver is not obliged to wear a crash helmet or even have a driving licence. Dr Murray MacKay head of the Accident Research Unit at Birmingham University said: "It’s a sort of milk float you’re putting into the traffic stream and that sort of dislocation is going to cause conflicts, particularly turning right."
Sir Clive claims his new vehicle will be a perfect runabout: "It’s ideal for shopping, going to the office, going to school, any trip around town." BBC News asked British motor racing legend, Stirling Moss, to take the C5 for a spin around town. His verdict: "I think it’s safe if you drive it realising it isn’t a car… ride it just like a bicycle and I think you should be alright."
In Context The Sinclair C5 was a commercial disaster. Only about 12,000 were ever produced. However, it has since achieved cult status and in 2002, a vehicle in mint condition could fetch up to £900 – compared with an original retail price of £399.
Prior to the C5, Sir Clive Sinclair had chalked up significant successes – the first pocket calculator, the first pocket television and the best-selling British computer of all time. He was awarded a knighthood by Margaret Thatcher.
Now in his sixties, Sir Clive still controls Sinclair Research. His recent inventions include a device which propels bicycles without the need for pedalling and a radio the size of a 10p coin, designed to fit in the ear.
The Scottish firm of Argyll operated from a vast terra-cotta factory at Alexandria, just north of Glasgow, although their output never matched the building’s potential. Their 1912 models offered technological refinements unique to this marque: single-sleeve valve engines and efficient four-wheel brakes. The 1913 15/30hp Streamline Limousine carries Argyll’s own coachwork.
1913 De Dion-Bouton
A direct competitor of the Renault FK was this little De Dion-Bouton, with a 12hp four-cylinder engine, selling at a chassis price of of £283 in 1913. Already De Dion were past their peak, however, and Renault were in the ascendant. In 1913, Renault sales passed the 10,000 mark for the first time, giving the company 20% of the French market. Well built though the De Dion was, it could not meet that kind of competition.
1913 T Ford
This 1913 variant of the Model T Ford was known as the Commercial Runabout in America. as its rear seat hinged forward into its footwell to form a flat luggage deck. That rear seat’s solitary isolation earned it the nickname ‘Motherlaw seat’.
1913 GN
This lethal-looking device is a 1913 Grand Prix GN cyclecar, the ancestor of the vintage Frazer Nash. It has a 900 GN vee-twin engine (whose elegant induction pipes were adapted cycle handlebars) set in an ash chassis and driving the rear wheels via a twospeed chain-and-dog transmission, through belts and pulleys. It also has cable-and-bobbin steering, a feature which, combined with rather nebulous braking, made the 60mph top speed an exciting prospect.
Jimmy Page turns 70 to day. Put on your headsets and play some Led Zeppelin people. I suggest “Kashmir”. Listen to those well over 8 minutes and send a warm thought to one of rock’s greatest guitarists – Ted
The Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon is a series of scooters made in Japan by Mitsubishi between 1946 and 1963. The first was the C-10, based on a scooter imported from the United States by Koujiro Maruyama, which began production at the Nagoya Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Along with the Mizushima three-wheeler pickup truck it represented Mitsubishi’s first contributions to the Japanese post-war personal transport boom. The Silver Pigeon’s primary competitor was the Fuji Rabbit (and in 1954, the Honda Juno). Motor scooters were so important to the post-war vehicle industry that In May 1948 both a Silver Pigeon and a Rabbit were presented to the Emperor of Japan. The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (Japanese) lists the Silver Pigeon C-10 model introduced in 1946 as one of their 240 Landmarks of Japanese Automotive Technology.
The Silver Pigeon proved sufficiently successful to remain in production for almost twenty years. Motor Cyclist magazine voted it "best in styling" for three consecutive years in the 1950s, a decade after its introduction, while from 1950 to 1964 it maintained an average 45 percent share of the domestic scooter market. By the time production came to an end in 1963 over 463,000 had been manufactured, with the 1960 C-200 proving the most popular individual model, with almost 38,000 sales.
Helen Richey (1909–1947) was a pioneering female aviator and the first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline in the United States.
Richey was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. She graduated from McKeesport High School in 1927. Her father, Joseph B. Richey, was superintendent of schools in McKeesport from 1902 to 1935. During her teens, Richey was one of the few girls in McKeesport who wore pants. She learned how to fly a plane at age 20. Her father bought her a plane when she obtained her pilot’s license.
In 1933 Richey partnered with another female pilot, Frances Marsalis, to set an endurance record by staying airborne for nearly 10 days, with mid-air refuelling. In 1934 Richey won the premier air race at the first National Air Meet for women in Dayton, Pennsylvania. Also in 1934, Central Airlines, a Greensburg, Pennsylvania–based carrier that eventually became part of United Airlines, hired Richey as a pilot; she made her first regular civil flight with them on December 31, taking a Ford Trimotor on the Washington to Detroit route. She eventually was forced to step down from the cockpit by the all-male pilots union.
After leaving Central Airlines, Richey continued to perform at air shows. In 1936 she teamed with Amelia Earhart in a transcontinental air race, the Bendix Trophy Race. Richey and Earhart came in fifth, beating some all-male teams. Later, Richey flew with the British Air Transportation Authority during World War II.
In addition to being the first female commercial airline pilot, Richey also was the first woman sworn in to pilot air mail and one of the first female flight instructors.
At a jumble-sale this summer I picked up a stack of small cookbooks and among them was the one you can see in the illustration above, “Rumford Bakebok” from 1927. I suspect that it is translated from English as Rumford is not a Norwegian product, but who cares. With a bit of fancy PhotoShoping I managed to place both the book and a tin of Rumford into the intro illustrations for the recipes from the little book.
The book had been appreciated as it was obvious that several generations of the woman in the Grindalen family had used it frequently (two generations had scribbled their name inside and one on the outside) before it ended up in my vast collection of old printed matter.
A nice little project here that I found in the “Home Workshop Handbook” published sometimes in the thirties. The author mean that it is a one evening project, but take as long as you like 😉 – Ted
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress and author. She is best remembered for her performance in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), for which she was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. By her marriage to actor Tony Curtis, she was the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis.
Discovered by actress Norma Shearer, Leigh secured a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and made her film debut with a starring role in The Romance of Rosy Ridge in 1947. Over the following years, she appeared in several popular films of a wide variety of genres, including Act of Violence (1948), Little Women (1949), Holiday Affair (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), The Naked Spur (1953), Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) and Living It Up (1954).
After two brief marriages at a young age, Leigh married actor Tony Curtis in 1951. The couple received significant media attention and starred in five films together: Houdini (1953), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), The Vikings (1958), The Perfect Furlough (1958) and Who Was That Lady? (1960). Leigh played mostly dramatic roles during the latter half of the 1950s, in films such as Safari (1955), and Touch of Evil (1958). She continued to appear occasionally in films and television, including The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and two films with her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis: The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
Leigh died in 2004 at the age of 77, following a year-long battle with vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels. She was survived by her fourth husband of 42 years, Robert Brandt, and her two daughters by actor Tony Curtis.
The American Austin Car Company was founded in 1929, in Butler, Pennsylvania in premises that had belonged to the Standard Steel Car Company. Their intention was to assemble and sell in the United States a version of the Austin 7 car, called American Austin. After some initial success the Great Depression set in, and sales fell off to the point that production was suspended. In 1934 the company filed for bankruptcy.
The automobile was designed in the hopes of creating a market for small-car enthusiasts in the United States. The cars had 747 cc (45.6 cu in) inline-four engines, enabling the car to return 40 mpg-US (48 mpg-imp; 5.9 L/100 km) (and 1,000 mi (1,600 km) per 2 US qt (1.7 imp qt; 1.9 l) fill). It was capable of 50 mph (80 km/h) in high gear. Styling resembled small Chevrolets, with Stutz- and Marmon-style horizontal hood louvres. The bodies were designed by Alexis de Sakhnoffsky and made by the Hayes Body Company of Detroit. The coupe was billed as a sedan, and sold for $445, slightly less than a Ford V8 roadster. The Great Depression made the cheaper secondhand cars more appealing, so sales dropped off.
More than 8000 cars were sold during the company’s first (and best) year of sales, but sales fell off to the point that production was suspended in 1932. It restarted in 1934 with bodies now made in-house but stopped again between 1935 and 1937.
About 20,000 cars were produced.
Beginning in the 1960s, the car gained a following with hot rodders, as well as among drag racers, who used them as for Altereds. The 75 in (1,900 mm) wheelbase made it attractive, even compared to the Anglia.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Soviet sniper during WWII. A student at the time, Pavlichenko was among the first to volunteer for the armed forced when the Soviet Union was invaded and declined the opportunity to serve as a nurse instead of a soldier so as to put her badass shooting talents to good use. She went on to record 309 kills, making her the most successful female sniper in history. After she was wounded in battle, Pavlichenko traveled to the United States. Lyudmila Pavlichenko
The Red Army had over 2,000 woman snipers during WWII
The Soviet Union deployed women snipers extensively, and to great effect, including Nina Alexeyevna Lobkovskaya and Ukrainian Lyudmila Pavlichenko (who killed over 300 German soldiers). The Soviets found that sniper duties fit women well, since good snipers are patient, deliberate, have a high level of aerobic conditioning, and normally avoid hand-to-hand combat.
Nina Alexeyevna Lobkovskaya
Nina Alexeyevna Lobkovskaya (Russian: Ни́на Алексе́евна Лобко́вская; born c. 1925) served as a sniper for the Red Army of the Soviet Union during World War II attaining the rank of Lieutenant.
Lobkovskaya was one of 300 women sent to Veshnyaki to train as snipers. From February 1945 until the end of the war, Lobkovskaya commanded a company of female snipers who eventually participated in the Battle of Berlin.
Dunoon (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Omhain) is a Town situated on the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It sits on the Firth of Clyde to the south of Holy Loch and to the west of Gourock.
Waterfront Dunoon Pier originated in 1835; however, the current structure was built in 1895 (now derelict). Prior to the late 1960s, fleets of paddle steamers brought holidaymakers doon the watter from Glasgow to it and numerous other piers on the Clyde Estuary. Until June 2011 the pier was used daily by Caledonian MacBrayne, who ran a regular car-ferry service to Gourock and by the PS Waverley, the last surviving seagoing paddle steamer.
Overlooking the Breakwater is a large statue of Robert Burns’ love, Highland Mary, also known as Bonny Mary O’ Argyll, which is located on Castle Hill, just below the remains of the 12th-Century Dunoon Castle. Very little remains of the castle, which would originally have belonged to the Lamont family but became a royal castle with the Earls of Argyll (Campbells) as hereditary keepers, paying a nominal rent of a single red rose to the sovereign. In earlier times, Mary, Queen of Scots stayed at the castle circa 1563 and granted several charters during her visit. The castle was destroyed during the rebellion in 1685.
In the spring of 2005, a new Breakwater was built just to the south of the Victorian Pier. As well as protecting the Victorian Pier from storm surges, a new linkspan was also installed alongside the Breakwater. This was to allow the berthing and loading of ro-ro ferries instead of the side-loading ferries that used to serve the Victorian built pier. A tendering competition to serve the new linkspan between two interested parties, namely Caledonian MacBrayne and local operator Western Ferries, failed when both parties withdrew from the tendering process. In June 2011, the outcome of a renewed tendering process saw a passenger-only ferry service (Argyll Ferries aka Caledonian MacBrayne) using the Breakwater for berthing. The PS Waverley also berths at the Breakwater when sailing on the Firth of Clyde during the summer season.
Transport Dunoon is accessible by direct land and sea routes. Indirectly by Rail at Gourock.
Road The town lies towards the southern end of the A815 road. At its northernmost point, near Cairndow, this road joins the A83 and provides access to the town by road from the East Loch Lomond / Glasgow and from the North Inverary / Oban and from the West Campbeltown.
Ferry There are two ferry operators who provide services from Gourock to Dunoon.
Local company Western Ferries carries motor vehicles and foot passengers. Western Ferries ply the McInroy’s Point-to-Hunters Quay route.
Whilst David MacBrayne Ltd subsidiary, Argyll Ferries, runs the Public Service route (town center to town center), this is an intermittent service as is liable to weather disruption, it is a foot passenger only service from Gourock Pier to Dunoon Breakwater.
Train At Gourock Pier, a First ScotRail train service provides access to the National Rail Network via the Inverclyde Line at Glasgow Central Station.
Bus Public transport within Dunoon and the surrounding area is provided under Government subsidy by bus and coach operator West Coast Motors.
West Coast Motors 486 service provides a regular return journey from Dunoon town centre to Inveraray, where it connects with a Scottish Citylink service onward to Campbeltown, Oban and Glasgow, and points in-between.
McGill’s Bus Services operate service 907, a frequent coach service from Dunoon town center to Glasgow Buchanan Street Bus Station. The service travels aboard the Western Ferries crossing and operates via Greenock and Braehead Shopping Centre.
“Copa Room showgirl Lee Merlin poses in a cotton mushroom cloud swimsuit as she is crowned Miss Atomic Bomb 1957 photograph. Above-ground nuclear testing was a major public attraction during the late 1950s, and hotels capitalized on the craze by hosting nuclear bomb watch parties, which usually included the dubbing of a chorus girl as Miss Atomic Bomb. Merlin was the last and most famous of the Miss Atomic Bomb girls” – Las Vegas Sun
As wonderfully tasteless as only the fifties could make it – Ted
The most popular novelist in the world, Dame Agatha Christie, has died leaving rumours of a multi-million pound fortune and a final book waiting to be published. The British author, who sold an estimated 300 million books during her lifetime, had been in poor health for several years. She died at her home in Wallingford in Oxfordshire, aged 85. 
Dame Agatha established her name as a crime writer with her first detective book in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which she created her much-loved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. In December 1926 she sparked a police search when her car was found abandoned in a chalk pit at Newlands Corner on the Surrey Downs. 
Retrorambling 