It looks like Agatha Christie's mother was right to be suspicious of Archie as he swayed when he met Nancy Neal playing golf. In the same period Agatha's mother died and while Agatha was packing up her childhood home, Archie told her that he wanted a divorce. On the evening of 3 December 1926, after a fight with Archie, Agatha drove off in her car leaving her daughter behind. She left a note saying she was going to Yorkshire. She was not wearing her wedding ring. In the morning her abandoned car was found near Guildford near a pit, a natural spring called The Silent Pool. Two children had drowned there. Christie was nowhere to be found. A massive manhunt with a £100 reward got underway, involving fifteen thousand volunteers, and pictures on the front page of newspapers as far away as The New York Times. Meanwhile however, on December 4 1926, Agatha arrived at The Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate in North Yorkshire 246 miles away. She registered under the name Teresa Neal and stayed there for ten days. Two members of a band playing at the hotel recognized Agatha and went to the police. Archie went to the hotel and confirmed his wife's identity. He told the press his wife had amnesia. Agatha refused to discuss the subject herself not even in her autobiography. The hounding she received from the press pushed her into reclusion. Agatha and Archie were divorced in 1928.
What do you think really happened to Agatha? To give your opinion about a past event, you can use past modals of deduction. The pattern is always modal verb + have + past participle Your choice of modal verb will depend on how certain you are that something is true. 100 % - must - It must have been a dreadful period in her life. 50/60% - could - Her amnesia could have been caused by depression 30/40% - may - Many people may have experienced a difficult time in their lives like that. 20/10% - might - It might have been a publicity stunt 0% - can't / couldn't - She can't have liked her celebrity. Now tell me your ideas in the comments Might she have been wandering around with loss of memory? May she have fallen down into the pit? Might she have been the victim of a serious crime? Could it have been a revenge attempt to frame her husband for her murder?
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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