Actor Aidan Gillen as Amyas Crale in Agatha Christie's Poirot
In the Hercule Poirot novel Five Little Pigs, Amyas Crale was a forty year old painter and the husband of Caroline. He had many affairs despite being married to Caroline Crale and had a passionate, high-handed and arrogant personality.
He also had one daughter, Carla. He enjoyed playing with her when he was in the mood. He was very fond of Caroline's half sister Angela. However, he was also jealous of the way Caroline always sided with Angela and put her first. After Angela pranked him, he considered sending her away to college.
According to Phillip Blake, Amyas was "one of those people that don't usually have health problems". He was also a very generous person, and was warm-hearted and lovable.
He was poisoned with coniine while painting.
Amyas does not appear in person in the novel, but he is described for Poirot by several characters. Amyas' life as a young man is described by Mr Jonathan. According to him, Amyas' mother was an admirer of Kingsley, which is why she wanted to name him Amyas. In Mr Jonathan's opinion, Amyas had profited by his mixed inheritance, inheriting his artistic nature from his mother, and his "driving power and ruthless egoism" from his father.
Amyas was strong, handsome, and virile, but he became a painter, which was a disappointment to his parents. Mr Jonathan was of the opinion that Amyas' father, Richard Crale, died of the shock.
Amyas and Caroline had "always fought and sparred", but they were "both crazy about each other", and eventually got married. Amyas loved Caroline, but never considered her in any way, and his art came first. In Mr Jonathan's opinion, Amyas was as fond of Caroline as he could have been of anyone, but she came a long way behind his art.
According to Mr Jonathan, Amyas was not sentimental or romantic, but he was also "not entirely a sensualist", because the only woman he truly cared about was his wife. He had affairs with women because they stimulated him, but he always "left them high and dry when he'd finished with them". According to Philip Blake, Amyas was always meeting some woman or other who was "different", but usually a month later, he would stare at you if you mentioned them, and wonder who you were talking about.
According to Philip, Amyas was not the sort of man who would believe easily in his own danger. For this reason, Philip thought that even if he had warned Amyas that Caroline had taken coniine from Meredith Blake's laboratory, Amyas might not have believed him.
Philip also tells Poirot that Amyas was not the kind of person who complained, and so he did not complain about his married life. However, sometimes he would say, "Damn all women", or tell Philip never to get married.
According to Angela, Caroline and Amyas used to have "the most fantastic and lurid quarrels", and they both liked drama and emotional scenes. Amyas liked "shouting and threatening and generally being outrageous", and was the kind of man who would bellow the house down if he lost a collar stud.
Amyas was "always inclined to be moody when painting". However, in the days preceding Amyas' death, Philip noticed "various signs of strain", such as "uncertain temper, fits of moody abstraction", and "general irritability of manner".
On the day before his death, Elsa told Caroline that Amyas was going to marry her, and Caroline asked if this was true. Amyas did not answer at first, and "stood there passing his finger round inside the neck of his shirt". According to Philip, this was something Amyas used to do as a child, when he was in trouble. Eventually, Amyas told Caroline that it was true that he was going to marry Elsa, but he did not want to discuss it.
Amyas later told Philip that everything would turn out all right. According to Philip, this was characteristic of Amyas, because he was an "absolutely unjustified optimist".
Amyas went to Handcross Manor for tea, with Caroline, Philip, Angela, and Elsa Greer. Meredith had remonstrated with him, saying that Amyas had put both Caroline and Elsa in a terrible position. However, Amyas said that both women had to "lump it". According to him, the picture he was painting of Elsa was the best thing he had ever done, and "a couple of jealous quarrelling women" were not going to upset it.
On the morning of his death, Amyas was overheard having a quarrel with Caroline in the library. He then went to the Battery Garden to continue his painting of Elsa. He was later overheard quarrelling with Caroline in the Battery Garden.
Amyas had complained that the beer in the Battery Garden was hot, and Caroline promised to send him some iced beer. When she had brought the beer, she poured it out and Amyas drank it in one draught, which was how he always drank beer. He complained that everything tasted foul to him that day.
When the bell went for lunch, Amyas said that he would not come up to lunch. He was later found dead in the Battery Garden when Caroline went down to bring him his coffee.
Role in the novel (warning; it may contain several spoilers)[]
He had been asked by twenty year old Elsa Greer to make a portrait of her. Amyas didn't regularly paint people (as Sir Montague Depleach noted: "Amyas didn't paint subjects like 'Mrs Blinkety Blank in satin and pearls'") but he made an exception for Elsa. Due to this, the latter thought that Amyas was going to leave his wife and marry her. However, when Elsa realized that Amyas didn't have such plans, she stole coniine from Meredith Blake's laboratory and poisoned his beer.
Paintings by Amyas Crale[]
Poirot has seen several Amyas' paintings:
- Two paintings at Tate Gallery
- One painting at a art dealer in London
- A still life, with roses, owned by Phillip Blake
- A painting of Elsa Greer, owned by Meredith Blake
Portrayals[]
In the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode adapted from Five Little Pigs, Amyas Crale was portrayed by actor Aidan Gillen.