Did Agatha Christie draw on real life female criminals as inspiration for her work? In A Bit of a Christie podcast, Teresa Peschel – expert in the 200+ Agatha Christie film and TV adaptations – finds a brilliant example. She argues that Bess Sedgwick, the famous adventuress in Christie’s novel At Bertram’s Hotel (published in 1965), was based on none other than Noreen Harbord, a 1950s smuggler.
Teresa was unaware of the case until she read Queens of the Underworld, where she came across Noreen’s story and my efforts to work out who Noreen really was and the details of her criminal career. ‘I guarantee Agatha Christie read those news reports when Noreen went on trial,’ says Teresa. Good bit of sleuthing!
Listen to the full podcast here.