While Agatha Christie’s personal legacy and many of her stories are firmly rooted in Devon, there are a number of stories that involve the neighbouring West Country County of Cornwall. This connection was deepened in 2024 through the debut publication of six of her short stories in the Cornish language.
Translation into a less common British language has a precedent. In 2014, Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express was translated into Gaelg (Manx Gaelic) by Joan Caine under the title Traen-Tappee Yn Niar. This added another language to the long list of languages that Christie’s work has been translated into. With the addition of this Cornish-language printing, that list of languages is now one larger – cumulatively well over 100 languages and more than 7,000 actual translated works.
Christie’s Cornish Stories.
But first let’s review the short stories that all have connections to the West Country County of Cornwall. It is interesting to note that they were all first published in the 1920s and early 1930s. While Christie often returned to Devon in her writings throughout her career, Cornwall was not. Given its wonderfully atmospheric landscape and coastline, this was potentially a missed opportunity, or perhaps it was an acknowledgement that Du Maurier had Cornwall so Christie claimed Devon… but I speculate.
1923: The Cornish Mystery. This short story first appeared in The Sketch magazine (UK) in November 1923. It was one of a series of Poirot stories under the collective title The Grey Cells of M. Poirot: Series II. This was the 10th instalment in the series.
In the US it first appeared in October 1925 in Blue Book magazine. Surprisingly it didn’t appear in any hardback collection until Dodd Mead (US) published The Under Dog and Other Stories in 1951. It was until 1974 that a U.K. hardback contained the story and that was Collins’ Poirot's Early Cases.
As to the story’s Cornish connections, it is set in the small, but fictional, Cornish market town of Polgarwith. The story features the characters of both Poirot and Hastings, who travel together to the town to assist Mrs. Pengelley, but unfortunately she is dead when they arrive leaving them to solve the crime.
1928: Ingots of Gold. This short story first appeared in The Royal Magazine (UK) in February 1928. In the US it first appeared in Detective Story magazine on June 16, 1928 under a different title - The Solving Six and the Golden Grave. It was collected in The Thirteen Problems (Collins, UK, 1932) and The Tuesday Club Murders (Dodd Mead, US, 1933).
The story is told by Miss Marple’s nephew, Raymond West. It set in Polperran. a small village on the west coast of Cornwall that has a pub named The Three Anchors. While this is a fictional place, it is likely that Christie was inspired by Polperro, a fishing village on the south coast, whose oldest pub is The Three Pilchards.
1928: The Blood-Stained Pavement. This story first appeared in March 1928 in The Royal Magazine (UK). In the US, it appeared in Detective Story magazine on June 23, 1928, under the alternate title Drip! Drip! The story also appeared in The Thirteen Problems (US: The Tuesday Club Murders).
The story is told by Joyce Lempriere (aka Joan West). It is set in Rathole, a fictional fishing village in Cornwall. However, it is almost certainly based on Mousehole (pronounced ‘Mow-zul’), a real Cornish village. In the story it is stated that the village is very old and had nearly been fully destroyed when it was attacked by Spanish troops in the fifteenth century. This is an accurate description of the real Mousehole. In the short story, the Polharwith Arms inn is said to be the only building which survived the assault and is the oldest building in the village. In reality, the building that survived is Keigwin, part of an old manor house (but it is not a pub).
1930: The Resurrection of Amy Durant. This story first appeared in February 1930 in The Story-Teller, a UK magazine. In the US it was published in Pictorial Review in March 1930 titled Companions. It was also published in The Thirteen Problems (The Tuesday Club Murders), but the story’s title was now The Companion which is how it is generally known today.
It was told by Colonel Bantry (the same one from Gossington Hall in The Body in the Library). While the story’s narrative is primarily based in the Canary Isles, a key element of this short story involves a character, Miss Barton, who is from Cornwall.
1932: The Rich Woman Who Only Wanted To Be Happy. This Parker Pyne short story first appeared in the US in Cosmopolitan magazine (August 1932). There was no UK magazine publication. When it appeared in book form in Mr. Parker Pyne Detective (Dodd Mead, US, 1934) and later than year in Parker Pyne Investigates (Collins Mystery) it was titled The Case of the Rich Woman.
While the story is set on a farm in Cornwall, no fictional or real location of the farm within the County is provided.
1933: The Hound of Death. This short story first appeared in the book collection The Hound of Death and Other Stories, published by Odhams Press in October 1933. It did not appear in a US book until Dodd Mead published The Golden Ball and Other Stories in 1971.
One of the story’s locations is Folbridge, a fictional Cornish village on the eastern bank of the mouth of the river Fol. With a nod to Poirot’s back-story, this village was also the home to Belgian refugees during the Great War.
An Rin Kernewek ha Hwedhlow Erel – The Cornish Mystery & Other Stories.
Given that the six stories discussed above all have connections to Cornwall, it is no surprise that they were the ones chosen to be translated for this new Cornish language book, titled An Rin Kernewek ha Hwedhlow Erel (The Cornish Mystery and Other Stories). The collection is published by Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (the Cornish Language Society), with full approval from Agatha Christie Limited and it was translated by Roger Henley.
The translated titles of these six short stories are as follows:
An Rin Kernewek (The Cornish Mystery)
An Gowethes (The Companion)
An Hond a Ankow (The Hound of Death)
An Kons Gosek (The Blood-Stained Pavement)
Kas an Venyn Rych (The Case of the Rich Woman)
Yngotys a Owr (Ingots of Gold).
These are the first translations of Agatha Christie’s stories into Kernewek, the Cornish
language. “We are so proud of publishing these stories for the first time in Kernewek,” said Lianne Wilson, chair of the publishing branch of Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek. “It’s no secret that areas of Devon and Cornwall are important in Agatha Christie’s writing, and finally the time has come for some of her work to be available in Kernewek.”
Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (the Cornish Language Society) is a small charity dedicated to the minority language of Cornwall that, as part of its work, publishes books in Cornish. At the present time they have no plan to translate further material of Agatha Christie. Part of the goal of this translation is that the stories will prove interesting to all students learning Cornish. The translation is written in the Standard Written Form and is suitable for third grade students and above. The book is available from the Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek website and would make a unique addition to any expansive Christie collection. Link: https://cornish-language.org/product/an-rin-kernewek/
Updates, Subscribe & the Socials.
Did I forget another story or novel with Cornish links? Do get in contact with me if there's an improvement to be made to this article. I view all my articles as collaborative efforts and want them to be an accurate resource for collectors.
If you are not a subscriber to my website, please consider subscribing here: link. This ensures you receive an email any time I write and post an article. Re: Social Media accounts - do consider following me on X (formerly Twitter) @collectchristie , on BlueSky @collectchristie.bsky.social and on Facebook (link). The content on X and BlueSky is identical, but will vary on Facebook. All should be of interest for any fan of Agatha Christie.
I have lots more articles I'm working on but if there's something you'd like me to consider do let me know by writing to me at: collectchristie@gmail.com
Happy Hunting!
Comments