Agatha Christie’s links with Torquay and Harrogate are well known. Her association with Ealing in west London is less so. Yet it played a pivotal part in her upbringing, for she was a frequent visitor there, staying at her Auntie- Grannie’s home. Several of her family were buried in Ealing. It provided inspirations for several of her stories as well as for one of her most famous characters. Ealing was also where she was first published in 1901.
This book explores the Ealing that Agatha Christie knew, when it was known as Queen of the Suburbs in the Edwardian era.
Dr. Jonathan Oates read Agatha Christie’s works as a teenager and has reread them all since. From 1999 he has been Ealing’s Borough Archivist. He has a doctorate in history from Reading University and has over 40 books published, including many on true crime and many on Ealing’s history.