Literary Trails of the West Country

After breakfast this morning we head down into Devon for a day on the trail of the most celebrated crime writer of them all, Dame Agatha Christie. On arrival in Torquay we will view the sights on the ‘Agatha Christie Mile’, including the Grand Hotel, where Agatha spent her honeymoon night on Christmas Eve 1914; Torre Abbey and Princess Gardens, the Princess Pier before visiting the Torquay Museum which has the UK’s only dedicated Agatha Christie gallery.

Later we continue to Greenway, Agatha’s holiday home which she referred to as ‘the loveliest place in the world’. This relaxed and atmospheric house is set in the 1950s, when Agatha and her family would spend summers and Christmases here with friends, relaxing by the river, playing croquet and clock golf, and reading her latest mystery to their guests. The family were great collectors, and the house is filled with archaeology, Tunbridgeware, silver, botanical china and books.

In the garden a large and romantic woodland drifts down the hillside towards the sparkling Dart estuary. The walled gardens are home to a restored peach house and vinery, as well as an allotment cared for by local school children. A visit to Greenway isn't complete without seeing the Boathouse, scene of the crime in 'Dead Man’s Folly', and the battery complete with cannon.

After breakfast, assuming we are not all detained while a little Belgian detective investigates a mysterious murder, we depart for Dorchester, which has become synonymous with the novelist Thomas Hardy. We first visit Hardy’s Cottage, where the author was born in 1840. Built of cob and thatch by his great-grandfather, the house has been altered little since the family left. The garden reflects most people's idea of a typical cottage garden, with roses around the door, and the sound of birdsong. Once inside we will discover that 19th-century rural life, with its open hearths, small windows and stone floors, was not always idyllic.

In the afternoon we visit Max Gate, the house which Thomas Hardy designed and lived in from 1885 until his death in 1928. This is where he wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge, as well as much of his poetry. The National Trust has recently opened up the small dressing room where Hardy used to take his morning bath, and we will also learn about his faithful but rather grumpy Fox Terrier, Wessex.

Following our visit we return to our original departure points, where we expect to arrive in the late afternoon.