The International Agatha Christie Festival - Exhibition & Vintage Fair at Torre Abbey

The town I live in happens to be the birthplace of Agatha Christie, who was known throughout the world for her novels, largely of the murder mystery genre. The author would have been 125 years old this year and, to mark the occasion, The International Agatha Christie Festival was (and still are) holding all sorts of events. Last Sunday (the 13th), at Torre Abbey, I went to see the Agatha Christie: Unfinished Portraits exhibition and also attended a vintage fair there, which was a collaboration between TIACF and Miss Ivy Events.

The exhibition was initially housed in London's Bankside Gallery on the South Bank, but moved down to Torre Abbey for the second half of its run, which is the 11th September - 18th October. The exhibition consisted of photographic portraits of Christie from birth all the way up until her death, with biographical information and diary excerpts included alongside them. In addition to that, there was a timeline of her books, and cases containing original letters, notebooks, and other items. Photos were not permitted inside the exhibit, for obvious reasons.

It was an enjoyable exhibition and I found Christie's musings about becoming an author particularly interesting. She said that she had first wanted to become a musician, but soon realised that she didn't have the talent for it and so eventually ended up writing because it was the thing that she was good at. Yet even when her books were selling well she still never considered herself to be a "professional".

Vintage cars on display

The vintage fair consisted of over 30 various stalls and stands both outdoors and within the walls of Torre Abbey. There were vintage and vintage-inspired clothes, accessories, homewares, crafts, food & drink on offer and it was a wonderful setting in which to wander around. There were so many beautiful treasures on display and I rather wish I'd had money the money with me to buy some of the gorgeous dresses and rings being offered!

Some of the stalls outside

Arches in the gardens

A view of the Abbey from outside

As we were already there, my friend and I decided to explore the gardens of Torre Abbey as well because they're quite lovely. In addition to the pretty gardens, we also discovered some sculptures, like these cows:

I saw some gorillas at Torre Abbey before, but I don't know where they moved onto... 

"The Rower" by Sharon Windebank, 2007

There were also little bits of garden planting that perhaps weren't really sculpture, but looked just as lovely.

Then we headed over to the greenhouse to take a look around. I took lots of photos of the plants inside, but I won't post those here.

...and caught a glimpse of this cute little fellow guarding the hosepipe:

We then found another sculpture hiding amongst the plants:

And, for our own ridiculous reasons, my friend made me take a photograph of this plant and sign:

It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon indeed!

Tomorrow, with any luck, we'll be off to another vintage fair, so there will be more fabulous things to see and do~