John Curran - Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

unfolding of his plan, both before and after his supposed death, but it appears from these brief references that Christie toyed with the idea of mentioning the nameless ‘watcher’. Far more effective and less melodramatic, however, is the concept she adopted at the end of Chapter 11, and again in Chapter 13, when she allows us to share the thoughts of the six remaining characters, including the killer’s, but without identifying the thinker.

Hercule Poirot’s dentist’s appointment coincides with the murder of his dentist. A shoe buckle, a disappearance and more deaths follow before he can say ‘Nineteen, twenty, My plate’s empty.’

One, two, buckle my shoe Three, four, shut the door Five, six, pick up sticks Seven, eight, lay them straight Nine, ten, a big fat hen Eleven, twelve, men must delve Thirteen, fourteen, maids are courting Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting Nineteen, twenty, my plate’s empty…

The notes for this novel are contained in four Notebooks with the majority (over 75 pages) in Notebook 35. They alternate for much of that Notebook with the notes for Five Little Pigs. One, Two, Buckle my Shoe is Christie’s most complicated novel. It features a triple impersonation and a complex murder plot with its beginnings in the distant past. The novel turns on the identity of a dead body but, unlike Four-Fifty from Paddington, it is a tantalising, rather than an aggravating, question.

The only aspect of this novel that does not ring true is, ironically, the use of the nursery rhyme. It is strained and unconvincing and, apart from the all-important shoe buckle, the rhyme has little or no significance other than providing chapter titles. This is confirmed by the following extract from Notebook 35 where Christie jots down the rhyme and tries to match ideas to each section. As can be seen, they are not very persuasive and in fact few of them, apart from the shoe buckle, went into the novel:

One Two Buckle my Shoe—the Shoe Buckle—think of it—the start of this case

The Closed Door—something about a door—either room locked or something not heard through closed door when it should have been.

Picking up sticks—assembling clues

Lay them Straight—order and method

A good fat hen—the will—read—rich woman it was who died—murdered woman—fat elderly—two girls—man recently coming to live with rich relative?

Men must Delve—Digging up garden—another body—discovered buried in garden—wrong owner of shoe buckle?

Maids a courting—2 girls—heiresses of Fat Hen? Or would have been connected by husband of fat hen—in collusion with maid servant

Maids in the kitchen—servant’s gossip

Maids in Waiting?

My Plate is Empty

End

Clue—a shoe buckle

An example of the type of organised listing that occurs throughout the Notebooks, the plot of One, Two, Buckle my Shoe occurs as Idea H on a list from A to U. This list looks to have been written straight off with three or four ideas to a page in the same handwriting and with the same pen. Most of them have more detail included but Idea H below is exactly as it appears (the possibility of combining it with the twins or chambermaid idea—see also ‘The House of Dreams’, page 303—was not pursued).

Ideas

A. Poirot’s Last Case—history repeats itself—Styles now a guest house [ Curtain ]

B. Remembered Death—Rosemary dead [ Sparkling Cyanide ]

C. Dangerous drug stolen from doctor’s car. [See Hickory Dickory Dock below and ‘The House of Dreams’]

D. Legless man—sometimes tall—sometimes short

E. Identical twins (one killed in railway smash)

F. Not identical twins

G. A murderer is executed—afterwards is found to be innocent [ Five Little Pigs/Ordeal by Innocence ]

H. Dentist Murder Motive? Chart substitution? Combine with E? or F? or J?

I. Two women—arty friends—ridiculous—one is crook

J. Chambermaid in hotel accomplice of man

K. Stamps—but stamps on letter [‘Strange Jest’]

L. Prussic acid

M. Caustic potash in cachet

N. Stabbed through eye with hatpin

O. Witness in murder case—quite unimportant—offered post abroad

P. Third Floor Flat idea

Q. Figurehead of ship idea

R. Prussic acid—‘Cry’ in bath

S. Diabetic idea—insulin (substitute something else) [ Crooked House ]

T. Body in the Library—Miss Marple [ The Body in the Library ]

U. Stored blood idea, wrong blood

A few pages later, the germ of the plot emerges although, as can be seen from the question marks, the idea was hazy. As we saw in Chapter 3, Christie considered a multitude of possibilities in working out its plot. But apart from a name change this short musing is the basis of the novel:

Dead woman supposed to be actress? Rose Lane—(really is Rose Lane) but body shown to be someone else—

Why?

Why???

Why?????

From the (admittedly unscientific) evidence that the word ‘dentist’ occurs 65 times in the Notebooks against a mere 13 appearances for the word ‘buckle’, it would seem that the background came before the all-important clue, or, even the nursery rhyme. But this combination of dentist—his family, patients, surgery and, vitally, files—together with the rhyme and its accompanying main clue, gave Christie the ideal situation for creating confusion about the identification of an unrecognisable body. She could now get down to serious plot development:

Dentist Murder

H.P. in dentist’s chair—latter talking while drilling Points:

(1) Never forget a face—patient—can’t remember where I saw him before—it will come back to me

(2) Other angles—a daughter—engaged to a rip of a young man—father disapproves

(3) Professional character—his partner

Much hinges on evidence of teeth (death of dentist)

Dentist murdered—H.P. in waiting room at time—patients charts removed or substituted

Dentist—HP in waiting room—sent away

Rings Japp—or latter rings him

Do you remember who was in waiting room?

She begins to develop the novel’s characters, sketching in tentative notes about names and backgrounds, in a well-ordered list of the scenes that would introduce them:

Latest dentist ideas

Little silhouettes of the people going to Mr Claymore that day

1 Mr Claymore himself at breakfast

2 Miss D—mentions a day off or just gets telephone call

3 Miss Cobb or Miss Slob at breakfast—Miss C saying much better—not aching

4 Mr Amberiotis—talk of his landlady—about his tooth—careful English

5 Caroline—(young swindler?) or Mr Bell (dentist’s daughter lover—American? Trying to see father)

6 Dentist’s partner—rings—can he come up to see him—a service lift—unprofessional conduct?

7 Mr. Marron Levy—a board meeting—a little snappy—admits at end—toothache—gets into Daimler—29 Harley St.

8 H.P. His tooth—his conversation with dentist—meets on the stairs—woman with very white teeth?

Later Japp—suspicious foreigner

Not all of the characters that she sketched made it into the novel and those that did appeared under different names. The dentist victim became Morley instead of Claymore, Miss D became Gladys Neville, and Marron Levy became Alistair Blunt. Mr Bell possibly became Frank Carter, the boyfriend of Gladys, and Miss Cobb’s conviction that her toothache is improving is similar to our eventual introduction to Miss Sainsbury Seale. Miss Slob and Caroline were abandoned after this listing. Oddly, the shoe buckle is not mentioned at all here and the white-toothed woman mentioned in item 8 has replaced or, more likely, foreshadowed, Miss Sainsbury Seale.