Heritage Britain

Abstract

Who created the cosy, reassuring cinematic (and televisual) image of Britain fondly held by many foreigners throughout the world — even in the twenty-first century? One woman might be said to be the locus classicus here. Agatha Christie is indirectly the progenitor of a certain heritage view of Britain, in which the upper classes hold the reins of power (however much they may be distracted by murdering each other in ingenious ways — without rupturing social protocol), while the lower orders know their place (usually as forelock-tugging domestics). The middle class has its function in the Christie universe: doctors and other facilitators for the famously ingenious plots.