The Agatha Christie auction

For some reason this news makes me feel a bit sad, though I suppose it’s necessary to save the home and make the estate open to the public:

EXETER, England, Sept. 11 (UPI) — Thirty novels by British mystery

writer Agatha Christie are being auctioned in Exeter, England, to

maintain the late novelist’s estate.

Many of the detective novels are first editions and personally

inscribed — one to her late daughter Rosalind, another to a nephew and

a third to her brother-in-law James Watts, the Telegraph reported.

Bearne’s of Exeter auctioneers said the books would be the “nucleus”

of the more than 700 items auctioned Tuesday, which include antiques,

artwork, jewelry and articles of clothing worn by the novelist.

Among the books is a 1936 second-edition copy of “Murder in Mesopotamia,” which is expected to bring almost $1,500.

She bought the estate, Greenaway, in 1938 and although she never wrote any of her books
there, it became a holiday home and a retreat for her until her death
in 1976.