{"id":2401,"date":"2026-01-03T22:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/passenger-to-frankfurt-christie-agatha\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:27:27","slug":"passenger-to-frankfurt-christie-agatha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/passenger-to-frankfurt-christie-agatha\/","title":{"rendered":"Passenger to Frankfurt – Christie, Agatha"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Book Preview<\/h3>\n
\n
\n

Introduction<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n

The Author speaks:<\/span><\/p>\n

The first question put to an author, personally, or through the post, is:<\/p>\n

\u2018Where do you get your ideas from?\u2019<\/p>\n

The temptation is great to reply: \u2018I always go to Harrods,\u2019 or \u2018I get them mostly at the Army & Navy Stores,\u2019 or, snappily, \u2018Try Marks and Spencer.\u2019<\/p>\n

The universal opinion seems firmly established that there is a magic source of ideas which authors have discovered how to tap.<\/p>\n

One can hardly send one\u2019s questioners back to Elizabethan times, with Shakespeare\u2019s:<\/p>\n

\n

Tell me, where is fancy bred,<\/span><\/p>\n

Or in the heart or in the head?<\/span><\/p>\n

How begot, how nourished?<\/span><\/p>\n

Reply, reply.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You merely say firmly: \u2018My own head.\u2019<\/p>\n

That, of course, is no help to anybody. If you like the look of your questioner you relent and go a little further.<\/p>\n

\u2018If one idea in particular seems attractive, and you feel you could do something with it, then you toss it around, play tricks with it, work it up, tone it down, and gradually get it into shape. Then, of course, you have to start writing it. That\u2019s not nearly such fun\u2013it becomes hard work. Alternatively, you can tuck it carefully away, in storage, for perhaps using in a year or two years\u2019 time.\u2019<\/p>\n

A second question\u2013or rather a statement\u2013is then likely to be:<\/p>\n

\u2018I suppose you take most of your characters from real life?\u2019<\/p>\n

An indignant denial to that monstrous suggestion.<\/p>\n

\u2018No, I don\u2019t. I invent them. They are mine<\/span>. They\u2019ve got to be my<\/span> characters\u2013doing what I want them to do, being what I want them to be\u2013coming alive for me, having their own ideas sometimes, but only because I\u2019ve made them become real<\/span>.\u2019<\/p>\n

So the author has produced the ideas, and the characters\u2013but now comes the third necessity\u2013the setting. The first two come from inside sources, but the third is outside\u2013it must be there\u2013waiting\u2013in existence already. You don\u2019t invent that\u2013it\u2019s there\u2013it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

You have been perhaps for a cruise on the Nile\u2013you remember it all\u2013just the setting you want for this particular story. You have had a meal at a Chelsea caf\u00e9. A quarrel was going on\u2013one girl pulled out a handful of another girl\u2019s hair. An excellent start for the book you are going to write next. You travel on the Orient Express. What fun to make it the scene for a plot you are considering. You go to tea with a friend. As you arrive her brother closes a book he is reading\u2013throws it aside, says: \u2018Not bad, but why on earth didn\u2019t they ask Evans?\u2019<\/p>\n

So you decide immediately a book of yours shortly to be written will bear the title, Why Didn\u2019t They Ask Evans?<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t know yet who Evans is going to be. Never mind. Evans will come in due course\u2013the title is fixed.<\/p>\n

So, in a sense, you don\u2019t invent your settings. They are outside you, all around you, in existence\u2013you have only to stretch out your hand and pick and choose. A railway train, a hospital, a London hotel, a Caribbean beach, a country village, a cocktail party, a girls\u2019 school.<\/p>\n

But one thing only applies\u2013they must be there\u2013in existence. Real people, real places. A definite place in time and space. If here and now\u2013how shall you get full information\u2013apart from the evidence of your own eyes and ears? The answer is frighteningly simple.<\/p>\n

It is what the Press brings to you every day, served up in your morning paper under the general heading of News. Collect it from the front page. What is going on in the world today? What is everyone saying, thinking, doing? Hold up a mirror to 1970 in England.<\/p>\n

Look at that front page every day for a month, make notes, consider and classify.<\/p>\n

Every day there is a killing.<\/p>\n

A girl strangled.<\/p>\n

Elderly woman attacked and robbed of her meagre savings.<\/p>\n

Young men or boys\u2013attacking or attacked.<\/p>\n

Buildings and telephone kiosks smashed and gutted.<\/p>\n

Drug smuggling.<\/p>\n

Robbery and assault.<\/p>\n

Children missing and children\u2019s murdered bodies found not far from their homes.<\/p>\n

Can this be England? Is England really<\/span> like this? One feels\u2013no\u2013not yet, but it could be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fear is awakening\u2013fear of what may be. Not so much because of actual happenings but because of the possible causes behind them. Some known, some unknown, but felt<\/span>. And not only in our own country. There are smaller paragraphs on other pages\u2013giving news from Europe\u2013from Asia\u2013from the Americas\u2013Worldwide News.<\/p>\n

Hi-jacking of planes.<\/p>\n

Kidnapping.<\/p>\n

Violence.<\/p>\n

Riots.<\/p>\n

Hate.<\/p>\n

Anarchy\u2013all growing stronger.<\/p>\n

All seeming to lead to worship of destruction, pleasure in cruelty.<\/p>\n

What does it all mean? An Elizabethan phrase echoes from the past, speaking of Life:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026it is a tale<\/span><\/p>\n

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,<\/span><\/p>\n

Signifying nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And yet one knows\u2013of one\u2019s own knowledge\u2013how much goodness there is in this world of ours\u2013the kindnesses done, the goodness of heart, the acts of compassion, the kindness of neighbour to neighbour, the helpful actions of girls and boys.<\/p>\n

Then why this fantastic atmosphere of daily news\u2013of things that happen\u2013that are actual facts<\/span>?<\/p>\n

To write a story in this year of Our Lord 1970\u2013you must come to terms with your background. If the background is fantastic, then the story must accept its background. It, too, must be a fantasy\u2013an extravaganza. The setting must include the fantastic facts of daily life.<\/p>\n

Can one envisage a fantastic cause? A secret Campaign for Power? Can a maniacal desire for destruction create a new world? Can one go a step further and suggest deliverance by fantastic and impossible-sounding means?<\/p>\n

Nothing is impossible, science has taught us that.<\/p>\n

This story is in essence a fantasy. It pretends to be nothing more.<\/p>\n

But most of the things that happen in it are happening, or giving promise of happening in the world of today.<\/p>\n

It is not an impossible story\u2013it is only a fantastic one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Read the full book by downloading it below.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD EPUB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Preview Introduction The Author speaks: The first question put to an author, personally, or through the post, is: \u2018Where do you get your ideas from?\u2019 The temptation is great to reply: \u2018I always go to Harrods,\u2019 or \u2018I get them mostly at the Army & Navy Stores,\u2019 or, snappily, \u2018Try Marks and Spencer.\u2019 The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-2401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agatha-christie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}