How Agatha Christie arranged a secret wedding with a trip to Skye in 1930

She’s still regarded as the Queen of Crime; the woman whose mysteries have baffled and bewildered generations of readers and TV viewers.

And, even now, 50 years after her death on January 12 1976, Agatha Christie’s works are still being adapted and re-purposed, whether with Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot films or a proposed new TV series about the life of the young Jane Marple.

Christie, of course, was the subject of global headlines when she vanished for several days, following the collapse of her first marriage in 1926.

She was on the world’s front pages

The incident sparked a massive police investigation, was international news, and even led to psychics being recruited to discover what had happened to the author.

So you can understand why she was wary of the media for the rest of her life. And why her second marriage – to archaeologist Max Mallowan – was carried out in secret.

Christie led everybody a merry dance… over the sea to Skye.

Indeed, the storyline sounds like it came from one of her novels – and the then 40-year-old adjusted certain facts and figures to suit her needs.

All of it was designed to ensure there was no more barrage of photographers and reporters when she and Max tied the knot in Edinburgh.

She enjoyed being on the island

She said: “I had received so much publicity and been caused so much misery by it that I wanted things kept as quiet as possible.

“We agreed that [her friends] Carlo and Mary Fisher and [Christie’s daughter] Rosalind and I should go to Skye and spend three weeks there.

“Our marriage banns could be called there and we would be married quietly in St Columba’s [sic] Church in Edinburgh.

“I found Skye lovely, but I did sometimes wish it wouldn’t rain every day, even though it was only a fine, misty rain which did not really count [when she visited the Fairy Pools].

The old ladies liked talking about it

“We walked miles over the moor and the heather and there was a lovely soft earthy smell with a tang of peat in it.

“The days passed peacefully in Skye, my banns were duly read in church, and all the old ladies beamed on me with the kindly pleasure they take in something romantic.”

These words gloss over some awkward details such as the fact the ceremony actually took place not in St Columba’s, but St Cuthbert’s, a picturesque little church which has become a favourite visiting place for Christie aficionados.

There’s a shrine to the couple and a copy of the marriage certificate on the premises.

It is a popular attraction

It reads: “On September 11, 1930, after banns according to the Church of Scotland [the marriage took place of] Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, age 31 and Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller or Christie, age 37 [divorced from Col Archibald Christie].”

However, by the date of the wedding, Christie, born in Torquay on September 15 1890, was just a few days short of turning 40. And Mallowan, born in 1904, was only 26.

The decision to change these ages sprung from Christie’s reservations about marrying again after the traumatic breakdown of her relationship with her previous husband.

She wrote in her posthumously-published autobiography: “I was so miserable, so uncertain, so confused. At first, I decided that the last thing I must do was marry again.

I found my arguments changing

“I must be safe, safe from ever being hurt again – and thought that nothing could be more stupid than to marry marry a man many years younger than myself.

“But then, I found my arguments changing. It was true he was much younger than I was, but we had so much in common.

“And I could take far more interest in Max’s archaeological work and his ideas than in any of Archie’s deals in the City.”

Christie spoke to friends and relatives, swore them to secrecy and heard both sides of the argument before choosing to take the plunge.

And she planned the trip to Skye to guarantee she was out of the limelight at a time when the island was not the thriving tourist destination it has become 100 years later.

The wedding tactics worked

As Rev Peter Sutton, the minister at St Cuthbert’s, said: “It might seem peculiar she served the banns so far away from where she lived or where she was being married.

“But, in many ways, I think she was covering her tracks and doing her best to stay one step ahead of everybody else.

“She was very famous at that time and her works are still remarkably popular. I know that people have come here just to take a look at the wedding certificate.”

The secrecy worked to perfection. If the author feared there might be any invasion of her privacy, her clandestine arrangements paid dividends.

Not even the most tenacious investigative journalist had a clue what was happening. Her Skye vocation and serving of the banns on Broadford went unnoticed.

The honeymoon was on a train

Christie described it as a “triumph” and returned to London before joining Max again for their honeymoon, with the first stopping place being Venice.

And it carried on with the couple travelling on a train forever associated with her.

She said: “The honeymoon was wonderful – nobody could have enjoyed ourselves more.

“There was only one jarring spot on it and that was on the Orient Express which, even in its early stages, was plagued by the emergence of bed bugs from the woodwork.”

The pair were very happy together

The whole occasion may have been staged with a host of red herrings and the couple might have been economical with the truth about their ages.

But they were very happy and remained together for the next 46 years.

In fact, as the years passed, Christie joked about how she had formed an alliance with somebody who had the ideal vocation.

As she said: “The good thing about being married to an archaeologist is that the older you get, the more interested he becomes.”

[Source: Press and Journal]