The places of Hercule Poirot

Anna Ignatenko

Hello to everybody!)

I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie's detective stories about Hercule Poirot from Russia.

The purpose of my writing here is a special english project called "The places of Hercule Poirot".

The project contains finding books about Hercule Poirot where a murder occured somewhere in the real british towns or cities like Brighton or Windermere (not in London or somewhere abroad). 

I want to find a connection between the crimes and the places where they were commited.

The final goal of this research is to prove or disapprove that the places of murders were choosed by Agatha Christie not by chance.

So, If this project has interested you, you could help with choosing the books for the researching! 

Looking forward to your offers,

And Best wishes to everyone!))

shana

@Anna Ignatenko is this a schoolproject? Connection between the crimes and the places. Interesting.

But you do know that AC sometimes has an existing place in mind but in the novel she names it differently. Do those places also count for your project?

Also it might make things easier to give us the titles and places you've already on your list. 

taliavishay-arbel

One book is "The A.B.C. murders". There the criminal murders people who's last name begins with the same letter as their place of residence (and murder), in A.B.C. order. He sends letters to Poirot in advance (well, sort of) with the name of the place. I checked the first two places and they are real place names in England.

Anna Ignatenko

Shana,
Thank you for your response! Yes, it's my schoolproject. I've never heard about AC names some existing places differently in her books, maybe i haven't investigated all her books.. But how do you know about it? As for titles, I need about 3-5 books where the places of murder really exsist or existed in Great Britain.

Anna Ignatenko

taliavishay-arbel,
Thank you very much for your help! It's just the book which I've choosen first for my project!

P_Lombard

You may want to check out the introduction to Passenger to Frankfurt in which Agatha Christie describes how she comes up with ideas, people, and settings for her stories. As Shana pointed out, you will have more options if you include books where Christie includes real places but changes their name. Some of the books that feature real places given different names that instantly spring to mind include: Peril at End House, Evil Under the Sun, and Dead Man's Folly.

Anna Ignatenko

taliavishay-arbel,
Thank you very much for your help! It's just the book which I've choosen first for my project!

Thank you very much for your help! It's just the book which I've choosen first for my project!)

Anna Ignatenko

@Anna Ignatenko is this a schoolproject? Connection between the crimes and the places. Interesting.

But you do know that AC sometimes has an existing place in mind but in the novel she names it differently. Do those places also count for your project?

Also it might make things easier to give us the titles and places you've already on your list. 

Thank you for your response! Yes, it's my schoolproject. I've never heard about AC names some existing places differently in her books, maybe i haven't investigated all her books.. But how do you know about it? As for titles, I need about 3-5 books where the places of murder really exsist or existed in Great Britain.

Anna Ignatenko

You may want to check out the introduction to Passenger to Frankfurt in which Agatha Christie describes how she comes up with ideas, people, and settings for her stories. As Shana pointed out, you will have more options if you include books where Christie includes real places but changes their name. Some of the books that feature real places given different names that instantly spring to mind include: Peril at End House, Evil Under the Sun, and Dead Man's Folly.

Thank you very much for the information!

shana

@Anna Ignatenko, hope you can get the necessary information in time. If I am not mistaken the websites offers students options to use for getting their info. Maybe you can check it out.

As for  real places AC named differently in her novel, one example is my first AC novel : And Then There Were None. Soldier Island is inspired  by BURGH Island. 

If that counts for your schoolproject you now have more than 5 titles, as the others provided you with 5 titles already. 

taliavishay-arbel

A possibility if you don't need really real places is Sittaford - while there is no village called Sittaford, in Dartmoor where the village is supposed to be, there is a Sittaford tor from which AC took the name. and the Dartmoor topography and weather certainly play a part in the book.

P_Lombard

If you can lay your hands on a copy of Vanessa Wagstaff and Stephen Poole's Agatha Christie: A Reader's Companion, I believe it would be pretty helpful. It has been a while since I read it, but if I recall correctly it does mention some of the places that inspired settings in Christie's novels. For some novels it even has gorgeous photographs to help immerse the reader into the time period.

Anna Ignatenko

P_Lombard said:

If you can lay your hands on a copy of Vanessa Wagstaff and Stephen Poole's Agatha Christie: A Reader's Companion, I believe it would be pretty helpful. It has been a while since I read it, but if I recall correctly it does mention some of the places that inspired settings in Christie's novels. For some novels it even has gorgeous photographs to help immerse the reader into the time period.

Thank you a lot for these very helpful comments!

Anna Ignatenko

shana said:

@Anna Ignatenko, hope you can get the necessary information in time. If I am not mistaken the websites offers students options to use for getting their info. Maybe you can check it out.

As for  real places AC named differently in her novel, one example is my first AC novel : And Then There Were None. Soldier Island is inspired  by BURGH Island. 

If that counts for your schoolproject you now have more than 5 titles, as the others provided you with 5 titles already. 

Thank you for the help!

Anna Ignatenko

taliavishay-arbel said:

A possibility if you don't need really real places is Sittaford - while there is no village called Sittaford, in Dartmoor where the village is supposed to be, there is a Sittaford tor from which AC took the name. and the Dartmoor topography and weather certainly play a part in the book.

Thank you for the idea!

Anna Ignatenko

shana said:

@Anna Ignatenko is this a schoolproject? Connection between the crimes and the places. Interesting.

But you do know that AC sometimes has an existing place in mind but in the novel she names it differently. Do those places also count for your project?

Also it might make things easier to give us the titles and places you've already on your list. 

Hello Shana,
probably you know the real names of the places from some of her novels.
Now I'm working with The Sittaford Mystery and I think that Exeter and Dartmoor are real names (I know that they exist nowadays), but I can't find the prototypes for Exhampton and Sittaford village. Do you know if they still exist? If yes, what are their names?
I'll be grateful for your help

Griselda

Exhampton would be based on the real Okehampton, don't you think, as Sittaford Tor is at Okehampton.

sirchristopherleefan

I like to have David Suchet as Poirot he plays him far better than any other actor. i am suprised they didn't ask Sir Christopher lee  has a poirot  as he has done Mycroft Holmes and Sherlock Holmes.or Peter Cushing these 2 actors would play the parts wonderfully.