Savills Portugal

The country house has long been a natural setting for a good old-fashioned murder mystery. Whether in the pages of escapist fiction or on screen in a compelling drama, these properties provide a spacious and often isolated location with plenty of nooks and crannies and secret hideaways for a spot of nefarious intrigue.

The Queen of Crime herself, Dame Agatha Christie, set many of her stories in country mansions or large estates – a tradition she began in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which was originally published in the UK 100 years ago this year.

Christie’s former home, Winterbrook House in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, is currently on sale with our Henley office – and it’s easy to see how the now Grade II listed property provided the creative spur for some of her most popular whodunits.

The elegant five-bedroom house has a beautiful Queen Anne façade with gardens that back onto the River Thames, while the high ceilings, large windows and fine period features combine to create a home of immense character and charm.

Christie bought Winterbrook House with her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, in 1934, living there until her death in 1976. During that time she wrote several of her most famous novels – with Winterbrook believed to have been the inspiration for Miss Marple’s fictional home of Danemead in St Mary Mead.

Extracts from Christie’s autobiography published in 1977 include several details about Winterbrook and it is clear that it was a much-loved family home – although not quite the 'tiny cottage' she and her husband had originally intended to purchase.

She describes the property as a 'delightful, small, Queen Anne house' with meadows sweeping down to the river and a cedar tree perfect for taking tea underneath on hot summer days.

The sale itself seems to have been completed in somewhat of a hurry, with Christie saying they had no time to 'dilly-dally' as they were soon to leave for Syria. She goes on to explain how the house was 'remarkably cheap' and that she and her husband made up their minds 'then and there' – ringing the agent, signing the papers and speaking to lawyers and surveyors.

The couple’s trip to the Middle East meant they did not see Winterbrook again for another nine months – with Christie saying they spent much of the time wondering if they had been 'terribly foolish'. 'We had meant to buy a tiny cottage, instead we had bought this Queen Anne house with gracious windows and good proportions,' she says in the autobiography. But – as Christie herself remarks – 'Wallingford is a nice place' and the couple thought they would be very happy living there.

And it appears they were – making Winterbrook their home for more than 40 years and, in doing so, ensuring it will forever have a special place in the history books as the birthplace of some the greatest murder mystery novels ever written.