The prospect was irresistible. Thirty-five years ago, as an archaeology graduate, I was dispatched to Winterbrook House, Agatha Christie's home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, to collect several hundred books bequeathed to the University of London by her husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan. So when the National Trust first acquired Greenway, Agatha and Max's holiday retreat beside the River Dart in south Devon, I had to find an excuse to go. As the then chairman of the Trust's Archaeology Panel I knew about the collection of Middle Eastern antiquities that Max had kept there. I was not, however, aware of the passionate collecting habits of the rest of the family, including those of Agatha's daughter Rosalind and her husband Anthony Hicks.
展开▼
