Agatha Christie's Devon by Bret Hawthorne

Published by Halsgrove Discover Series, £14.99

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YOU can almost hear the collective groans as yet another Christie book hits the market.

Is there no end to the Agatha volumes which line the 'local interest' sections of our bookshops?

Do we have room for one more? Yes, if the truth be known.

Paignton-based Hawthorne, who ran a language school in Vicenza near Venice for 19 years, now runs the Devon School of English in Paignton.

He has written a well researched and quite entertaining account of all the nooks and crannies the Queen of Crime Fiction knew and wrote about during her distinguished literary career.

It was interesting to learn that town planners may have allowed the demolition of Christie's birthplace — Ashfield — without realising its significance.

A cutting from the Herald Express, giving an account of the planners' final decision, suggests the matter was of no great account.

When Christie heard of the looming loss of her old home she made a last-ditch effort to intervene — but it was too late.

The famous publicity-shy author remained true to type and made little fuss after her offer to buy the place and have it turned into a home for the elderly fell on deaf ears.

Other notable Christie landmarks which slip into delightful view include the Grand Hotel which only this week hit the headlines when a man fell to his death from a suite named in her memory.

The book reveals the number of the room in which the writer spent her honeymoon at the Grand is lost in the mists of time.

Hawthorne will be signing copies of his book at the Torbay Bookshop in Paignton on Saturday, April 4, from 10.30am.