Halfway through my BritBox “gift”, I have not yet developed a British accent, but wouldn’t be that surprised; the majority of the voices I’m hearing these days are British (or Australian).
As you can imagine, I’m getting my fill of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. It’s been years since I saw all of the Jeremy Brett/David Burke episodes. I do think they are my favorite. No offense to Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman or Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce but the Brett/Burke are more accurate to the original stories.
I’m a little hit and miss with Agatha Christie. Some of her stuff I can’t get to because it’s “Premium” and some of the stuff I’m finding is just dreck. But I’m getting enough. “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans” was excellent and I’ve watched a lot of David Suchet as Poirot. One of the most fun things was a documentary that followed the Christies on a worldwide trade mission trip around the world in 1922-23. Archie Christie was on the trip as an assistant to the British envoy and the Agatha was part of the mission to support the support. Although her first book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) had been published two years earlier and was a huge success, she still wasn’t the wildly famous author she was later to become.
The best tidbit in the documentary was that Agatha Christie learned to surf in Muizenberg, South Africa during that trip. In fact, she is believed to be the first Western woman to stand up on a surf board. She apparently adored surfing. This is an excerpt from a letter to her mother:
“Oh, it was heaven! Nothing like it. Nothing like that rushing through the water at what seemed to you a speed of about two hundred miles an hour. All the way in from the far distant raft until you arrived, gently slowing down, on the beach, and foundered among the soft flowing waves.”
There were also trips in her life to Hawaii, where she again spent time riding the waves. It’s wonderful to think of Agatha as young and vigorous, since most of her fame came after this and most of the photos we see of her are from her older years.
Makes me hope that some of my favorite authors have a secret life that we don’t know about. Maybe John Scalzi has swum with dolphins. Maybe Andy Weir has time traveled to another planet and back. Maybe Naomi Novik has flown dragonback.
What fun facts would you love to know about your favorite authors?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine, Baboons,
What a delightful find, VS. I had to read this through twice to be sure I got it right, and now I will repeat it–Agatha Christie became a surfer. I am not imagining this? This has sent me down an internal rabbit hole. Who is my favorite author? There are some I read whenever there is something new, but every author has stuff I do not like. Shelby Van Pelt is running 100% right now, but only because she only has one book I have read. Are there more? Do I want to know? Most authors just sit around writing a lot. Is there anything to see there?
I blame social media for my lack of curiosity about authors. Many of them post so much stuff on social media that I have no more interest in their lives. And I only follow one kind of obscure social media site. Then there is my sister. I enjoy her mystery novels. But I visited the little town the series is based on so there is little mystery left there for me. There is nothing there. And I knw a lot about her life. It is really not that interesting, plus I so dislike her religious beliefs. Uff Da.
Meanwhile, on BlueSky, VS, John Scalzi’s account, which I enjoy, says this:
“I enjoy pie.” He also is crazy about his wife, his cat and his dog. That is it.
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CHris Norbury, What do we need to know about you?
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LOL. Ask away. I’m an “open book.”
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“Have you ever stolen anything?”
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About $2 from our “lunch money cup” in the kitchen cupboard when I was about 9 or 10. Very vague memory. I think I got caught. Don’t recall the punishment if there was one.
One regret I have is never stealing a kiss. Would have liked to know what that was like with a girl I had a crush on. Probably not as romantic as I imagine. 😉
Chris
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This is wonderful to find out. Reminds me of learning about Julia Child’s career in OSS.
Really makes me wonder about the lives of other adventurous women and who they could have become and what they would have done given the chance.
I’ve know several women a generation above me that I know wanted to do things, but there were always smaller things that consumed their time and energy in the service of someone else.
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YA and I are going to see the Julia Child exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Center on Thursday night. Wonder if they’ll be anything about the OSS there.
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Well, first I’d have to figure out who is my favorite writer. I have a few, but Louise Erdrich is probably the winner. I also like Margaret Atwood. She must have a wild mind. I’ll bet she’s protesting in Canada.
I have favorite mystery writers who are more contemporary than Ms. Christie (Louise Penny, William Kent Krueger, Chris Norbury). I read their series with obsession. I heard Louise Penny has a new Gamache mystery coming, but I don’t know more. Of course, there is also Chris Norbury, whose Matt Lanier series was riveting. I’ve heard he’s an open book!
I have some favorite poets (e.e.cummings, Wendell Barry, Mary Oliver, Yeats). I love the way Mary Oliver makes sense of the world. Yeats too. Wendell Barry speaks to the environmentalist in me, and e.e.cummings speaks to my heart. He must have a wild mind too.
I guess I don’t care what they do when they’re not writing. I’m just grateful for the way they craft words together into phrases that hit me in my heart.
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Lucy Worley mentions Agatha’s love of surfing in her excellent biography; highly recommend.
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Lucy Worsley, apologies for the misspelling.
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The top irritating thing about my BritBox gift is that almost every single darn thing that Lucy Worsley has ever filmed is on the premier package so I can’t get to it. Ticks me off.
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i quit subscribing to or rather quit following a guy even though i enjoy him because he keeps suckering me into reading his stuff then puts juicy stuff behind his paywall and it pisses me off. im not supporting that move
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Louise Erdrich is one of my favorites, and at one time I knew her personally (worked in her Birchbark Books…). She loved to have little staff gatherings in her back yard, and she had a winter party once where we went ice skating first at the Lake two blocks away…
Several of my favorites mystery people are listed above, but I’ll try and name some authors not yet mentioned..
I do enjoy Anne Lamott, Ann Patchett, Maggie O’Farrell, Sarah Stonich, Margaret Renkl, Frederic Backman… (Had to look up names in my reading log, though.)
And for mysteries Laurie R. King, Jacqueline Winspear, Anne Perry…
The main question I’d ask any of them is: How DO you keep coming up with these new stories?
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To reverse your original question, I felt like I knew something about Ruth Reichl from her several memoirs, Comfort Me With Apples, Tender at the Bone, andSave Me the Plums and a little about her work as a restaurant critic but I hadn’t been aware of her novels. I recently discovered The Paris Novel and Delicious and thoroughly enjoyed them both.
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I would like to know more about Dorothy Sayers and Shakespeare.
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bill brysons shakespeare is well done
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I’d like to read more about Jean Craighead George. She was something of an authority on many animal species. I don’t suppose there many dull moments in her vicinity.
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Knowing more about your favorite author is a double-edged sword. I love Dickens but he treated his wife horribly. More recently Neil Gaiman, who has written some of my favorite novels, has been accused of shocking abuse by a former employee. It becomes hard to separate the art from the artist.
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i find asking what fun facts would you like to know to be an impossible ask.
would you ever have guessed to ask to know that agatha christy liked surfing?
what makes it fun is that it came as a surprise.
margeret atwood was a weird experience for me. i saw her speak at pen pals and lined up at an after party for a booksigning and thought of a question to ask or a comment to make as i handed her my book and she scowled and made a very derogatory response as if she was disgusted i was there.
this happened twice so i believe she either has a negative vibe about me or i remind her of someone or something she is not fond of.
how can you ask what fun facts youd like to know about kurt vonnegut, amy tan, herman hesse, pat conroy, jesper fford, dr suess, etc.
dr suess wore hats to change his writing brain, amy tan was a childhood chess champion, pat conroy and kurt vonnegut were both strongly affected by mental illness in their family … but these are things i discovered because i am interested and did a somewhat deep dive into their backgrounds.
i dont know how to wish for fun facts. you disciver fun facts.
captain kangaroo was a war hero
yo yo mas dad started him on cello at age 3 with a violin that had a hole drilled in the bottom so he could put a floor peg in it
eddie murphy had 180 speakers installed in his car so he could have the best sound system ever.
jimmy page quit led zepplin when his son died
eric clapton left his wife when his son died
authors? kate dicamillo was really sick as a child and her brain works like it does because she was so isolated,
i could make stuff up that would be fun
kurt vonnegut made more money breeding orchids than he did writing his first 30 years of life
bill bryson loved whitewater kyacking
id like to discover ee cummings playrd slide guitar and david sadaris designed race cars as a hobby but probably not.
agatha on a surfboard reminds me of a featue story on cbs sunday morning this past week about a guy who became a surf junkie and couldnt figure out how to make it a job so instead he went up to the most unlikely candidates and taught them to surf for free. hes happy theyre happy but the punchline is he learned to love giving, hes still starving to death,
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