The Tea and Scandal Garden Party

Join us for the grand finale of this year’s Agatha Christie Festival, a delightful garden party set within the stunning grounds of Torre Abbey. Spend a leisurely afternoon at a sociable soirée filled with live period music, sparkling conversation, and fascinating talks from a host of Christie-inspired speakers, including Orlando Murrin and Carla Valentine, with more special guests to be announced.

Why not embrace the spirit of the era and dress in period style as you wander through the beautiful gardens, including the intriguingly deadly Potent Plants Garden, created by Head Gardener Ali Marshall.

Your ticket includes:

• A welcome glass of prosecco
• A traditional Devonshire cream tea
• A mystery hunt to solve during the afternoon

Featured Speakers

Orlando Murrin

Food appears frequently in Agatha Christie's work, most famously as a murder method but also as an indicator of class and character. What does it tell us about the writer herself, and what was her favourite teatime treat?Orlando Murrin is a food writer and crime novelist. He has written six cookbooks and his first culinary whodunit, Knife Skills For Beginners, was shortlisted for four national awards; the sequel, also featuring chef Paul Delamare, is Murder Below Deck, comes out in paperback in July. His interest in mystery and detection was kindled by his grandfather, a Met detective and MI5 interrogator who retired to Torquay.

Carla Valentine

Carla Valentine is the Technical Curator of Barts Pathology Museum in London, and is responsible for the conservation, display and utilisation of 5000 anatomical specimens dating from as early as 1750.

Prior to this she worked in mortuaries as a qualified Anatomical Pathology Technologist (mortuary technician) assisting pathologists to carry out autopsies. She credits her choice of career as being inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, which introduced her to the world of forensic science at a young age.

After writing her first book about her years of mortuary work, Past Mortems, she wrote Murder Isn’t Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie to highlight Agatha’s knowledge of real-life forensics and high-profile crime cases. Her third book, The Language of Bones, which focuses on the skeleton and ossuary displays throughout Europe, is due to be published by Little Brown in October 2026, and she is now working on a book all about gardens, graves, petals and poisons in the works of Agatha Christie.

Tickets: £25
Includes welcome drink, speaker programme, live music and a Devonshire cream tea.

Please email admin@iacf-uk.org with any dietary requirements.