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Westmapod: Agatha Christie's Secret Identity

The Rose and the Yew Tree

26 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

8.873 - 11.138

Thank you.

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38.557 - 44.769 Mark Aldridge

Hello, welcome to WesmerPod, the Christie Time podcast about Agatha Christie's secret identity.

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Chapter 2: What is the significance of The Rose and the Yew Tree in Agatha Christie's work?

45.35 - 60.058 Mark Aldridge

I'm Mark Aldridge. I research and write about Agatha Christie a lot, including for my books, Agatha Christie's Marble, Agatha Christie's Poirot, and forthcoming, The Swinging Christie's Book, which you can pre-order now, which I wrote with...

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Chapter 3: How does the context of post-war Britain influence the themes in The Rose and the Yew Tree?

60.038 - 83.548 Gray Robert Brown

me i'm grey robert brown and i'm a writer i'm a christy fan i'm a westmer fan and this is episode four book four the rose and the yew tree yes a real change of rhythm this week for this book we are in torquay if you can hear noises behind us because we are the bustling seafront we are slightly dodging out of the wind although but it is a lovely sunny day it's

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83.528 - 108.473 Mark Aldridge

funny isn't it yeah it's like too blustery to record outside without ruining our lovely listeners ears but beautiful sunshine as well so we're sort of looking out onto the sun yes uh and the and the quite choppy green sea yes very green we've just been at the spring gathering the festival the international act of christy festival holds i guess each april they don't have the last two yeah but if you haven't got tickets yet

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Chapter 4: What autobiographical elements are present in The Rose and the Yew Tree?

108.453 - 134.933 Gray Robert Brown

to come and see us in September there are a few still available there are so at the time of recording anyway so do go and snag a couple and come and see us yeah do and you're doing your own talk as well and I'm doing mine yes so there's three opportunities to get some sort of Westmer swinger energy goodness we hang around we're around we're very easy to get yeah

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134.913 - 156.077 Gray Robert Brown

we're very excited about the book so we are we've just we've literally just announced it having sat on the secret finished it actually as well just finished it yeah more importantly yeah sorry yeah more importantly we've written it we do know what i was thinking was we've just uh publicly announced it having sat on the secret of his existence for almost a year no more than a year

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Chapter 5: How does Agatha Christie engage with politics in this novel?

156.057 - 158.42 Gray Robert Brown

It's more than a year since I wrote the pitch.

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158.801 - 159.481 Mark Aldridge

Oh, definitely.

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Chapter 6: Is there a romantic subplot in The Rose and the Yew Tree?

159.501 - 161.864 Mark Aldridge

Yeah, yeah. We signed the contract last summer, I think.

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Chapter 7: What are the recommendations if you enjoyed The Rose and the Yew Tree?

161.924 - 164.488 Gray Robert Brown

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, very exciting.

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Chapter 8: Who is Mary Westmacott and what does this reveal about Agatha Christie?

164.548 - 179.567 Gray Robert Brown

So excited. So yes, pre-order now. Yes. And today, not only are we doing The Rose and the Yew Tree, but this is a bit of a... I mean, they're all significant as entries to the Mary Westmore Bacot canon, but this one's particularly significant.

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179.547 - 186.841 Mark Aldridge

Well, it's the last secret Mary Westmacott, but we will go into that in more detail.

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186.861 - 193.995 Gray Robert Brown

Stay tuned to find out how the secret of Mary Westmacott was finally uncovered very soon.

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196.152 - 215.899 Mark Aldridge

In The Rose and the Yew Tree, our narrator, Hugh Norries, is recuperating in the Cornish town of St. Lou after a serious car accident. Here lives the charismatic but complicated Major John Gabriel, a parliamentary candidate who is popular with locals, especially women. Is John Gabriel what he appears to be?

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218.09 - 224.602 Gray Robert Brown

So in terms of context, we like to start with the context. We love context. Our story starts in 1948 this time.

224.622 - 226.846 Mark Aldridge

Oh my goodness, I'm so out of era.

227.066 - 239.929 Gray Robert Brown

I know, we're so used to, for the listener obviously over on Swinging Christies, we're so used to languishing in the 60s and specifically 59 to 71. So any date that isn't that feels...

239.909 - 253.25 Mark Aldridge

Do you know I'm quite interested in this immediately post-war era because when I did my PhD about early TV, I was like, my next thing might well be a book about those few years of TV just after the Second World War.

253.35 - 254.112 Unknown

Oh, interesting.

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