(Click on the title to view the whole piece)
 

Cat and Mouse:
Christie, Tynan, Redgrave
and that Infamous 11-Day Gap
(Spotlight Runner-Up!)
 
YouTube preserves a two-minute clip of Agatha Christie, who rarely consented to interviews, undergoing the ordeal in Lisbon in 1960. Wedged between the Queen of Crime and interviewer: Christie's silent second husband, Max Mallowan, hands folded upon his belly, benignly smiling. Christie wears a suit, pearls, a lapel broach, a wide-brimmed dark hat and what appears to be, from the side view, cat-eye glasses. Given her thoroughly documented dislike of the press, the author's cooperation during the give-and-take is an interesting performance. No viewer could mistake her for someone at ease with the process or delighted to be in the situation.
 
Kat Meads