Major Belcher with Archie (far left) and Agatha Christie on the British Empire Exhibition Tour in 1922
In 1921 Major Ernest Belcher became Assistant general manager of the British Empire Exhibition which was to be held in 1924 and 1925. He invited Archie and Agatha Christie to join him on a tour of the Empire to promote the forthcoming exhibition. Christie outlined the tour in her autobiography and letters. Many details of the tour can also be found in the posthumously published collection of her letters The Grand Tour.
Agatha Christie describes Belcher as an insufferable man who was prone to temper tantrums. A good description of him is given in a book.
- "Belcher's presence dominated the tour, to an extent that Agatha could not have imagined, that she found insufferable at the time and comical in retrospect. He was a very modern type, for all his old-school-tie manner. He would have thrived on quangos or talking impressive-sounding nonsense on television; he was one of nature's politicians, although not from any sense of public duty: again, his sense of duty was directed towards his own advancement." (Thompson, Laura (28 March 2013). Agatha Christie)
Christie also felt that it was difficult to know whether to believe his stories or not. In her autobiography she said:
- “He was a man with terrific powers of bluff. He had, according to his own story, bluffed himself into the position of Controller of Potatoes during the war. How much of Belcher’s stories was invented and how much true, we never knew.” (Christie, Agatha (14 October 2010). An Autobiography)
Christie’s assessment of Belcher seems to have been supported by an incident that happened in 1915, seven years before the tour when Belcher was invited as part of a group to visit former United States President Theodore Roosevelt at his home for a very short informal social gathering. Belcher wrote up the event as if Roosevelt had given him an exclusive interview on foreign policy and gave it to the London Morning Post and several other newspapers. The article was a complete fabrication of what Roosevelt had said and was so bad that the former President issued a statement to the New York Times rebutting the whole event.
External links[]
- Eliz Akdeniz, "Fans of Agatha Christie can now embark on their very own grand tour," The Tatler, 7 Feb 2022.URL