Agatha Raisin will continue to live in the Cotswolds because the very placid beauty of the place, with its winding lanes and old cottages, serves as a contrast to the often abrasive Agatha. I am only sorry that I continue to inflict so much murder and mayhem on this tranquil setting.
Hope Dellon is still my editor for the Agatha Raisin books at St Martin’s Press, Krystyna Green is my editor at Constable & Robinson in London, and the charismatic Barbara Lowenstein is still my agent.
Will Agatha and James Lacey ever get together again? I don’t know.
But if they do, you’ll be the first to know.
M.C. Beaton
We first meet the formidable Mrs Raisin at the newly cleared desk of her public relations firm, Raisin Promotions, in the smart surrounds of Mayfair’s South Molton Street. She is fifty-three, and about to launch into a long-dreamed-of retirement in the Cotswolds after a hugely successful career which has made her very wealthy. She is ‘a stocky, middle-aged woman with a round, pugnacious face and small, bearlike eyes. Her hair, brown and healthy, is cut in a short, square style, established in the heyday of Mary Quant and not much changed since. Her legs were good and her clothes expensive.’
Although a life in the tranquil valleys of the Cotswolds is one she has always dreamed of, it is not long before Agatha is lonely and bored. The guarded politeness of the villagers leads her to believe she will never fit in and she misses the hustle and bustle of London. She soon realizes that her work had also been her social life and that she has no true friends. Her first foray into village life, passing off a shop-bought quiche as her own in a local competition, ends in disaster when the judge is poisoned. Ironically, it is that very act, and her subsequent solving of the crime, that sees Agatha truly accepted by her neighbours.
Character
Agatha is a strong-willed, strident lady who never suffers fools gladly. She can be hugely insensitive, even to her closest friends, and tends to bulldoze her way through life not understanding that her manner and comments alienate people. Underneath her tough exterior, she is a mass of insecurities and frequently feels vulnerable, especially about her upbringing, her age and her looks. She is prone to falling in love and is hopelessly romantic, dreaming of Hollywood happy endings and scripting them in her head whenever her heart is aroused.
Smoking
Imploring Agatha to give up smoking only brings out her stubborn streak.
‘When would people grasp the simple fact that if you wanted people to stop smoking, then don’t nag them and make them feel guilty… smokers were hounded and berated, causing all the rebellion of the hardened addict.’ (Love from Hell)
Agatha gives up smoking after meeting Jimmy Jessop in Witch of Wyckhadden and becoming friends with the elderly residents of the Garden Hotel. She lasts a few days, but gives in to her craving after the body of the second victim is found floating in the sea.
Comments from her new neighbour, John Armitage, who tells her that ‘smoking is a sure way to ruin your eyesight and give you lots of lines around the mouth’, prompt her to kick the habit again. In Day the Floods Came, she visits a hypnotist in Gloucester who makes her think that every cigarette tastes ‘terrible, like burning rubber’ as soon as it is lit. This new resolve lasts until the beginning of the next case, Curious Curate, when the hypnotic spell wears off.
The long-threatened government smoking ban finally arrives in Spoonful of Poison, to the horror of dedicated nicotine addict Agatha. When she lights up in the village pub, landlord John Fletcher immediately takes her cigarette away from her. ‘Stalinist bureaucrats,’ mutters a disgruntled Agatha. Now forced to smoke outside, she throws her weight behind the purchase of a smoking shelter for the pub.
Superstition
Despite her no-nonsense approach to most aspects of life, Agatha is occasionally taken in by the superstitious and supernatural. In Fairies of Fryfam, for example, she consults a fortune teller who informs her that her destiny lies in Norfolk. Lonely and fed up, she believes every word and puts her house up for sale, renting a cottage in the county with a view to moving there.
Jealousy
Although she refuses to admit it to herself, Agatha is prone to stabs of envy in both her love life and her professional life. She is a huge lover of the limelight and hates to have anyone else taking the credit for the case, especially if that someone is younger and prettier.
In There Goes the Bride, her jealousy of Toni, who manages to solve a high-profile missing teenager case and make the national papers, prompts her to give her young colleague all the small cases at the agency. When Toni confronts her, she is disarmingly honest and admits it: ‘Even if I’d broken the case, the photographers and reporters have only got to see you and they forget I exist,’ she sighs. In the past, she has been magnanimous to her fellow snoops, such as Roy and Phil, but has always bitterly regretted it when it is their story that appears in the paper.
When it comes to love, her jealousy can take a more extreme form, particularly when it concerns James. On finding her husband drinking with Melissa Sheppard, for instance, she accuses the attractive divorcée of being a ‘trollop’, then calls James a ‘philandering bastard’ and threatens to kill him before pouring a tankard of beer over his head.
Religion
Agatha has no religious leaning, although she often attends church in order to keep in with the villagers and to please her great friend, Mrs Bloxby.
She has also been known to pray to ‘Mrs Bloxby’s God’ in times of trouble. For example, when faced with a gun-wielding killer in Love, Lies and Liquor, ‘She didn’t know if there was a God, but Mrs Bloxby believed in one, so she asked Mrs Bloxby’s God either to let her die with dignity or to save her.’ The fact that her prayers are answered is never enough to convince her that the deity truly exists.
AGATHA’S FAVOURITE . . .
Exclamation: ‘Snakes and bastards’
Perfume: Yves Saint Laurent Champagne
Breakfast: Four cigarettes and three strong cups of black coffee
Dessert: Toffee Pudding
Beauty Parlour: The Beaumonde Beauty Salon in Evesham where a ‘pretty woman named Dawn works wonders.
Ageing Disgracefully
Agatha hates the reality of getting older and when she develops arthritis in her hip, she chooses to ignore it, putting the nagging pain down to a pulled muscle. Anxious to avoid a hip operation, she even goes to a private doctor for a cortisone injection which costs her £1,000. But her wonderful masseur Richard frequently tells her she will soon need a hip replacement.
The problem begins in Deadly Dance when she becomes aware of a nagging pain. ‘But her mind shrieked against the very idea of her having rheumatism or arthritis. Those were aliments of the elderly, surely.’
The realities of the middle-aged body are a depressing thought for Agatha, who does her utmost to hold the ravages of time at bay. After meeting new neighbour Paul Chatterton at the church, in Haunted House, Agatha pulls down her jumper to hide her stomach and vows to diet and exercise more. ‘What a bore ageing was! Things drooped and sagged and bulged unless one worked ferociously on them. The flesh under the chin was really showing a slackness which alarmed her. She had slapped herself under the chin sixty times that morning and had performed several grimacing exercises in order to try and tighten the flesh up.’
When faced with the effortless beauty of youth, in the shape of her assistant Toni or an attractive girl she meets on a case, Agatha’s age leaves her feeling miserable.
‘I feel on the outside looking in,’ mourns Agatha in Spoonful of Poison, after being told the music playing in a hairdresser’s is for young people. ‘I feel trapped in an age group that’s out of touch with every other age group.’
Fashion and Beauty
Agatha abhors cheap, badly made clothing and always dresses expensively. After a lifetime in power suits she only shops at the best boutiques and still favours wool two-pieces, expensive silk dresses and, when dressing down, well-cut linen trousers
. Her heels are as high as she can get away with and she often finds herself unsuitably dressed for the job, preferring to show off her legs to their best advantage rather than opt for comfort.
Her outfits are chosen carefully, particularly for a date, when she will spend hours trying on every dress in the wardrobe. Her wedding day, in Murderous Marriage, is another chance to buy an expensive outfit to impress her man.
‘She had picked out a white wool suit to be wed in. With it she would wear a shady hat of straw with a wide brim, a green silk blouse, high-heeled black shoes and a spray of flowers on her lapel instead of a bouquet. At times, she did wish she were younger again so she could get married in white.’
Agatha spends a great deal of time and money on her appearance and is rarely seen without make-up. Her main wish is to turn back the hands of time, using top anti-wrinkle creams and beauty treatments, and she is quite demoralized by the slightest hint of ageing.
A grey hair or a sprouting growth on her lip can send shudders of horror through the normally immaculate detective and sends her screaming to the beauty parlour.
‘She tried on the white suit again and then peered closely in the mirror at her face. Her bearlike eyes were too small but could be made to look larger on the great day with a little judicious application of mascara and eyeshadow. There were those nasty little wrinkles around her mouth and, to her horror, she saw a long hair sprouting from her upper lip and seized the tweezers and wrenched it out. She took off the precious suit, put on a blouse and trousers, and vigorously slapped anti-wrinkle cream all over her face.’
When Agatha feels terribly low, she occasionally lets her appearance slip, which is tantamount to a cry for help from the normally immaculate detective and one her friends pick up on very quickly. In Perfect Paragon, for example, Charles notices that her waistline is expanding and she has forgotten to apply make-up. ‘He couldn’t remember Agatha ever forgetting to put on make-up before.’ Bill Wong is also worried about her lack of grooming, prompting her into action. Seeing herself in the mirror she realizes ‘her hair was limp, her skin was shiny and she had a spot on her nose. Worse, she could see the shadow of an incipient moustache on her upper lip.’ A quick trip to Evesham, for a facial, a seaweed wrap and a visit to the hairdresser’s, has our heroine back on track.
Occasionally Agatha dabbles with a radical change in looks, usually finding herself dissatisfied with the results. In Curious Curate, she wonders if blondes really do have more fun and decides to find out. After the hairdresser has dyed her hair a ‘warm honey-blonde’ she entertains Bill and his new girlfriend, who instantly becomes jealous of their relationship. Although this amuses her young friend, Agatha begins to feel her new look is too brassy and resolves to go back to her natural brown colouring.
Battling the Bulge
London life, and walking everywhere to beat the traffic, had kept Agatha trim despite the expensive dinners that were an everyday part of the job. Country life means that she is soon driving everywhere in the car and this, combined with a love of comfort food and microwave meals, and a distinct lack of willpower, means she is soon putting on weight.
Soon after moving to the country, she discovers that she can’t fasten her skirt and has put on an inch and a half around the waist. ‘Carsely was not going to make Agatha Raisin let herself go!’ she vows, and she buys a bicycle to help her exercise. This is the start of a constant battle with the bulge which sends her from pub lunches with sticky toffee pudding to Pilates classes, a brief spell in a ramblers’ association and various other short-lived diet and exercise plans.
THE RAISIN DIET
(Not recommended by nutritionists)
Breakfast
Strong black coffee (three cups) Cigarettes
Lunch
Steak and kidney pudding with chips
Or Pub lasagne and chips
Or All day breakfast – egg, bacon,
sausage and beans
Followed by toffee pudding
Dinner
Extra-hot microwaved
vindaloo
Or Microwaved lasagne
Drinks
Gin and Tonic White wine Coffee Tea
Snacks
Mrs Bloxby’s teacakes
Agatha’s unhappy childhood in the Birmingham slums often comes back to haunt her, although she is proud of her achievements since. She was born in a tower block, the only daughter of Joseph and Margaret Styles, both unemployed alcoholics. Home life was terrible and even if they managed to scrape enough together to take their daughter on holiday, there was no joy in it for her. When Charles asks her where she went on holiday as a child, ‘Agatha remembered occasional holidays at holiday camps with a shudder. Her parents were usually drunk and raucous.’ Her only journey abroad as a child was a day trip to France.
As a poverty-stricken child, Agatha dreamed of receiving her first pay packet and walking into a sweet shop to buy all the chocolate she wanted. ‘But by the time that happened, her desires focused on a pair of purple high-heeled shoes with bows.’
Agatha was bright at school but very shy and sensitive. Life’s hard knocks taught her to develop a shell and she feigned an aggressive nature to keep other pupils away. At fifteen, her parents thought she was old enough to earn some money and made her leave school for a dull job in a biscuit factory. She disliked the women she worked with but hated being at home even more, so, in order to get out as fast as she could, she worked overtime and saved as much money as she could.
Disgusted by her parents’ behaviour, she finally took her savings and bolted to London, leaving without saying goodbye when they were both in a drunken stupor. Settling in the big city she waited tables seven days a week at a restaurant she later described as ‘a bit like one of those Lyon’s Corner Houses. Good food but not French. She used her tips to pay for shorthand and typing lessons, and secured a good position as a secretary in a public relations firm. There she set about learning the trade, but her studies were interrupted by a brief and disastrous relationship with Jimmy Raisin, who she foolishly married.
Once away from her violent drunk of a husband, she threw herself into work and became a rising star in PR, choosing expensive clothes and getting the results she wanted from journalists and clients with a mixture of cajoling, bullying and blackmail.
Her ambition and ruthlessness eventually led to her starting her own PR firm, Raisin Promotions, and being the boss suited her down to the ground. She had a smart office in South Molton Street, a flat in Mayfair, and a new accent to match. The financial rewards were substantial and Agatha became a very rich woman. All the hard work, however, had been a means to an end. As a child, when she was taken on a rare holiday by her parents, she had dreamed of a cottage in the Cotswolds. ‘Her parents had hated it, and had said that they should have gone to the Butlin’s Holiday Camp as usual, but to Agatha the Cotswolds represented everything she wanted in life; beauty tranquillity and security. So even as a child, she had become determined that one day she would live in one of those pretty cottages in a quiet, peaceful village, far from the noise and smells of the city.’
At fifty-three, Agatha finally decided to realize her dream, so she sold her business and found her dream cottage in the village of Carsely While the cottage was perfect, and the village of Carsely friendly, Agatha soon missed the hustle and bustle of London and often felt lonely in her new home. That was, until she found her new calling as an amateur sleuth.
Agatha has put her childhood and her parents, who are now dead, firmly behind her and her accent belies her true upbringing. Occasionally, however, in times of extreme stress, her Birmingham twang creeps in and her impoverished background often leaves her with a feeling of inferiority when she is mixing in the upper echelons of society. When she first meets Sir Charles, for instance, ‘she found she was dithering over the idea of having lunch with a baronet. Logic screamed at her that Sir Charles was a mere baronet who lived in a Victorian mansion described in the guidebooks as “architecturally undi
stinguished”. Deep down, the old Agatha, product of the Birmingham slum, trembled.’
In Day the Floods Came, Agatha assumes John Armitage only made his ungallant pass at her because she revealed her true background to him. After she’d told him his detective story, set in the Birmingham slums, didn’t ring true, he asked how she knew. ‘I told him because we’d had a fair bit to drink. He propositioned me, just like that. He hadn’t uttered one word of praise about my appearance. He hadn’t shown me any affection, he hadn’t even shown me he desired me. So I thought it was because of my poor background he felt he could dispense with the preliminaries,’ she tells a friend later.
Even so, Agatha’s driving ambition is the one thing that has prevented her from wallowing in the past. Ambition is a great drug,’ she says. ‘I just forged ahead the whole time. Never really looked back at yesterday.’
Jimmy Raisin
While she was still very young and new to London, Agatha fell in love with Jimmy. One night, he came into the restaurant where she was working as a waitress, with ‘a rather tarty blonde, a bit older than him’. The couple seemed to be at odds and he amused himself by flirting with Agatha. That evening, as she left work, he was waiting for her and asked to walk her home. She liked his light-hearted, jovial banter and the pair got on well. However, when they reached her tiny bedsit in Kilburn, Jimmy confessed he was homeless and Agatha said he could sleep on the couch, for one night only. The next day, they had a day out at the zoo, which was not to Agatha’s taste but, as she later told James, ‘I had been so very lonely and here I was with a handsome fellow of my own and it all seemed marvellous.’
Somehow, Jimmy ended up moving into the flat and, as Agatha was not keen on getting pregnant out of wedlock, Jimmy laughed and suggested they got married. They tied the knot in London and had a brief honeymoon in Blackpool. Jimmy, she later revealed, ‘was the only man in my life who ever made me feel pretty’. Before the relationship went sour, ‘He made me feel good, made me feel exhilarated, as if the world was a funny place where nothing much mattered.’
Agatha Raisin Companion Page 2