This is how it happens. I am currently reading a beautifully written book about Agatha Christie’s disappearance in December 1926 entitled On the Blue Train by Kristel Thornell. It’s a subject that has fascinated me since reading Agatha Christie’s autobiography and the possibility that the famous author suffered from a rare form of memory loss – the fugue state. Her disappearance is an incident that Christie barely referred to afterwards and never explained. I’ve only now just found out that Miss Marple first appeared in a short story in 1927. I find this telling. An alter ego created to help her cope with the disintegration of her marriage which precipitated her flight in the first place? We’ll never know of course but Thornell offers up what might have happened during those eleven days.
I thought at first that the title referred to depression – the blue train of depression. An odd expression that I had never heard of but early in Thornell’s book there is mention of a novel set on a train that Christie was working on at the time of her disappearance.Two days ago I googled The Blue Train and discovered Le Train Bleu.
“The Calais-Mediterranee Express was a luxury French night express train which operated from 1886 to 2003. It gained international fame as the preferred train of wealthy and famous passengers between Calais and the French Riviera in the two decades before World War II. It was colloquially referred to as Le Train Bleu in French… and The Blue Train in English because of its dark blue sleeping cars.”
Perfect! I am so excited by this. I am right now nearing the end of the first draft of a trilogy set in Sydney and Paris in the 1920s. By the end of the first novel my character is on her way to Southhampton periodically locked in her cabin by her abusive husband. Somehow she must escape him on the docks and find her way to Paris where her best friend Louise is now living with her husband, a Russian Jew named Lucien Grinberg.
This is what makes writing so exciting, a discovery like this. I now need to find out how I can get her on that train and visiting the Riviera, obviously spending time celebrating her freedom. Back to Hemingway who has written some wonderful stories about the rich and famous, my favourite Love in the Night is actually set in the French Riviera in the 1920s. May all the writers reading this blog have lots of happy accidents or synchronicity as I prefer to call it.
Fantastic Debbie. This kind of writing synchronicity is so exciting. It’s like a gift from the universe.
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It is, isn’t it! How is your writing going?
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Thanks for asking. I’ve (finally) more or less stopped researching and have started writing my novel, set around WWI in Asia Minor and based, a little, on my family history. First drafts are hard work! but I’m getting there.
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That’s great to hear. Congratulations. First drafts are definitely hard work!
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And many more happy accidents to you! There’s a great interview in a podcast from Books and Arts with Thornell about this book. I enjoyed listening to her talking about it.
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Thanks so much Karen. Will have to check it out. She’s a very interesting writer.
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How exciting, Debbie! It’s as though the fates are with you…
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Thank you Margaret. It’s nice to have their company sometimes, lol
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You know, I did read this – but for some reason got distracted before I could comment. I love this story. Have you got her on the train?
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No that will be the next book. I’m writing a trilogy lol. But she’s definitely going to have a trip on the train as well as researching her grandmother’s time sketching in Paris. I’ve left her locked up in a cabin of the SS Ormonde with an abusive husband. Gosh I’m awful!
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Oh you are awful – poor thing!
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Yep, that’s me. Actually she’s a crossover character – a minor one from Tomaree. Having lots of fun featuring her as a young woman and what finally brought her to Port Stephens in the 1930s.
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