How a mysterious Harrogate hotel became a Mecca for crime fiction fans

The Old Swan Hotel, a grand old establishment in the centre of Harrogate, was once at the centre of crime writing’s greatest mysteries. This was the place that Agatha Christie chose to escape to when she went missing for 11 days in December 1926.

After her husband allegedly revealed that he was in love with another woman, Christie left him and their young daughter in their family home in Berkshire without a word. Her abandoned Morris-Cowley car was soon found in nearby Guildford, but there was no other trace of her. Home secretary William Joynson-Hicks pressured the police to find the renowned author, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle even tried to help, albeit in his own odd way. He took one Christie’s gloves to a medium, hoping this might uncover some clues.

Finally, after 11 days, Christie was identified as being a guest at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel, the former name of the Old Swan, registered there as Mrs Teresa Neele from Cape Town, and the spirit of Christie lives on in the hotel thanks to the brilliant Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.