Bundle Brent
Encyclopedia
It girl
"It girl" is a term for a young woman who possess the quality "It", absolute attraction.The early usage of the concept "it" in this meaning may be seen in a story by Rudyard Kipling: "It isn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just 'It'."...
" in two novels of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
(1890–1976), The Secret of Chimneys
The Secret of Chimneys
The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of, among others, Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent...
(1925) and The Seven Dials Mystery
The Seven Dials Mystery
The Seven Dials Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 24, 1929 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
(1929). Following her marriage to a Foreign Office official, Bill Eversleigh, to whom she was affianced in the final chapter of The Seven Dials Mystery, she would have been known as Lady Eileen Eversleigh.
Family
Bundle Brent was the eldest daughter of Clement Edward Alistair Brent, 9th MarquessMarquess
A marquess or marquis is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is also used to translate equivalent oriental styles, as in imperial China, Japan, and Vietnam...
of Caterham. She had two sisters, Daisy and Dulcie. She described her late mother as having “got tired of having nothing but girls and died". Her mother "thought someone else could take on the job of providing an heir”. Bundle’s uncle, the 8th Marquess, was Foreign Secretary in the British Government (a circumstance possibly suggested by Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC , known as The Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and as The Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman who was Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary...
's having held that post from 1919–24).
Chimneys
The Brents' seat was Chimneys, a country house based on Abney HallAbney Hall
Abney Hall is a substantial Victorian house surrounded by a park in Cheadle, Stockport, England . The hall dates back to 1847 and is a Grade II* listed building.-Early history:...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. The family’s residual links with the Foreign Office, including the presumption, resented by the 9th Marquess, that the house would continue to be available for purposes of state, as it had been when his late brother was in Government, were an important ingredient of the two Chimneys novels.
Bundle Brent's character
Bundle’s age is not given in either novel, but it seems that she may be nineteen in The Secret of ChimneysThe Secret of Chimneys
The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of, among others, Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent...
. That would be consistent with ages given or hazarded for characters whom readers would assume were, broadly speaking, her contemporaries. As a child she was "long-legged" and "impish", growing into a “tall, dark” adult with an “attractive boyish face”. She was resourceful, headstrong, vivacious and charming, with sharp, penetrative grey eyes that could be disconcerting to others.
"Simply it"
Bundle was very much a young woman of her times, with many of the characteristics of a "flapperFlapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
". Her future fiancé, drawing on terminology made popular by the film, It
It (1927 film)
It is a 1927 silent romantic comedy film which tells the story of a shop girl who sets her sights on the handsome and wealthy boss of the department store where she works. Because of this film, actress Clara Bow became known as the "It girl"...
(1927), starring Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
, remarked to a Foreign Office colleague, "Don't you know Bundle? Where have you been vegetating? She's simply it". When Bundle's father, with whom she clearly had a strong bond, observed that “you modern young people seem to have such unpleasant ideas about love-making", she attributed this to her having read The Sheik
The Sheik (novel)
The Sheik is a book by Edith Maude Hull, an English novelist of the early twentieth century. It is similar to many of her other books, but it was her most popular and was the basis for the film of the same name starring Rudolph Valentino in the title role. Published in 1919, it is still in print...
("Desert love. Throw her about, etc."), the novel by Edith Maude Hull
Edith Maude Hull
Edith Maude Hull was a British novelist best known for being the author of the romantic novel The Sheik which became an international best seller in 1921....
(1919) on which Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
's celebrated film
The Sheik (film)
The Sheik is a 1921 silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, and Adolphe Menjou...
of 1921 was based.
Bundle owned a Hispano-Suiza
Hispano-Suiza
Hispano-Suiza was a Spanish automotive and engineering firm, best known for its luxury cars and aviation engines in the pre-World War II period of the twentieth century. In 1923, its French subsidiary became a semi-autonomous partnership with the parent company and is now part of the French SAFRAN...
car, possibly an H6B
Hispano-Suiza H6
The Hispano-Suiza H6 was a luxury automobile from the 1920s. Introduced at the 1919 Paris Motor Show, the H6 was produced until 1933. Roughly 2,350 H6, H6B, and H6C cars were produced in total....
, first marketed in 1922, though the model is not in fact identified. On her own admission, she tended to drive too fast and some, including Lord Caterham, were “terrified” of her driving. On one occasion, she thought that she had run a man down, whereas in fact he had already been shot dead. Bundle’s clothes were of the corset
Corset
A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...
less kind that young women favoured after the First World War; she wore only a “negligible trifle” under her dress. Although her attitude to politics and politicians was somewhat ambiguous, she claimed to be a socialist and indeed was described by her father as "a red hot socialist if she’s anything at all".
Suitors
Bundle was attractive to men. Towards the end of The Seven Dials Mystery, she received two proposals of marriage, the first from the Hon George Lomax, a pompous Cabinet Minister, only five years younger than her father, who was known behind his back as "Codders" and was described incongruously as "His Majesty's permanent [sic] Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs". Lomax's unctuous self-assessment of his suitability as a husband, and of the role he saw for Bundle, had much in common with Mr Collins' unsuccessful wooing of Elizabeth BennetElizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet, later Elizabeth Darcy, is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family...
in Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
's Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
(1813).
Lomax was duly rejected and Bundle opted instead for Bill Eversleigh (born c. 1900), one of Lomax's junior officials, described four years earlier as "very likeable" with a "pleasantly ugly face". Eversleigh plainly loved Bundle for herself, blurting out "darling, darling Bundle" several times when he thought she was dead ("I've killed her" ... "No, you haven't, you silly idiot"), and he was very acceptable to Lord Caterham because he was a scratch golfer.
In The Seven Dials Mystery Bundle told Superintendent Battle
Superintendent Battle
Superintendent Battle is a fictional character created by Agatha Christie. He appears as a detective in the following novels:* The Secret of Chimneys...
of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, who appeared in both of the Chimneys novels, that he was a "wonderful man" and that she was sorry he was already married.
Bundle Brent in the Chimneys novels
- For main articles about the Chimneys novels, see The Secret of ChimneysThe Secret of ChimneysThe Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of, among others, Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent...
and The Seven Dials MysteryThe Seven Dials MysteryThe Seven Dials Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 24, 1929 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery were published (and explicitly set) four years apart. The intervening period was momentous for Agatha Christie herself. The Secret of Chimneys, which concerned the future of the Herzoslovakian royal family and their jewels, was widely regarded as the best of her earlier novels, but marked the end of her association with the publisher Bodley Head. In 1926 she went missing for eleven days, ending up in an hotel in Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
, some two hundred miles from her home in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, and in 1928 she was divorced from her first husband.
The Seven Dials Mystery as a vehicle for Bundle
In The Seven Dials Mystery, Bundle turned to amateur sleuthDetective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
ing after the death of two Foreign Office officials, both house guests of the Coote family, who had been renting Chimneys. She was drawn, with a male companion, to a secret society in the Seven Dials
Seven Dials
Seven Dials is a small but well-known road junction in the West End of London in Covent Garden where seven streets converge. At the centre of the roughly-circular space is a pillar bearing six sundials, a result of the pillar being commissioned before a late stage alteration of the plans from an...
district of London, in effect competing with Superintendent Battle to get to the bottom of a sinister intrigue. According to her biographer, Christie played around with names and characters when drafting the story, although she always intended it to be a vehicle for the energetic young woman she had introduced in The Secret of Chimneys.
There were subtle differences between the Bundle of 1925 and that of 1929. Despite such consistent traits as her fast driving, she was seen as more mature in the second novel. For example, Lomax, who, in The Secret of Chimneys had dismissed her as "charming, simply charming, but quite a child", reminded her father, in The Seven Dials Mystery, that "she is no longer a child. She is a very charming and talented woman"; and, of course, by then, Lomax wished to marry her. Bundle's role was, any case, more central in Seven Dials; despite Battle's crucial contribution, she was clearly the heroine and intended to be so.
Wodehousian comparisons
Several commentators have drawn parallels between the Chimneys novels, with their light hearted banter and amusing characters, and those of the humorist P. G. WodehouseP. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
, of whom Agatha Christie was a great admirer. Christie herself described The Seven Dials Mystery as "the light-hearted thriller type". Lord Caterham was in the mould of eccentric Wodehousian peers, such as the Earl of Emsworth, who was also the ninth of his line; Bill Eversleigh has been described as "an amiable if vacuous young man who has staggered in from a Wodehouse novel"; while Bundle herself could easily have been one of Wodehouse's feisty young women, the archetype of which, Bobbie Wickham
Bobbie Wickham
Roberta "Bobbie" Wickham is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Mr Mulliner stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a troublesome redheaded girl, enamoured of practical jokes which often result in general pandemonium.-Overview:...
, first appeared in Mr Mulliner Speaking
Mr Mulliner Speaking
Mr Mulliner Speaking is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on April 30, 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, and in the United States on February 21, 1930 by Doubleday, Doran....
in 1929. There was even an aunt, Marcia, Dowager Marchioness of Caterham, who, having thought Bundle lived largely for pleasure, nevertheless recognised (as did George Lomax) her potential as a political hostess. In this context, Aunt Agatha
Aunt Agatha
Agatha Gregson, née Wooster, later Lady Worplesdon, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Aunt Agatha, Bertie Wooster's least favourite aunt, and a counterpoint to her sister, Bertie's Aunt Dahlia...
's aspirations for Bertie Wooster
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of...
in the Wodehouse books have a certain resonance, while Lord Caterham's ready acceptance of Eversleigh's golfing credentials matched Lord Emsworth's preference for young people who showed interest in his pigs
Empress of Blandings
Empress of Blandings is a fictional pig, featured in many of the Blandings Castle novels and stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Owned by the doting Lord Emsworth, the Empress is an enormous black Berkshire sow, who wins many prizes in the "Fat Pigs" class at the local Shropshire Agricultural Show, and is...
.
Bundle on television (1980 & 2010) and stage (2006)
A dramatisation of The Seven Dials Mystery was broadcast by London Weekend TelevisionLondon Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
in 1980, with Cheryl Campbell
Cheryl Campbell
Cheryl Campbell is an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early years:Cheryl Campbell was educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School, St Albans; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art...
(born 1949) in the role of Bundle Brent. This production was, with LWT's Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in September 1934 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1935 under the title of The Boomerang Clue.The UK edition retailed at seven shillings...
and Partners in Crime
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime is a 1983 British television series based on the short stories of the same name by Agatha Christie. It was directed by John A. Davis and Tony Wharmby, and starred James Warwick and Francesca Annis in the leading roles of husband and wife sleuths Tommy and...
, in the vanguard of a resurgence of classic crime fiction on British television in the 1980s.
At Christmas 2010 ITV broadcast an adaptation of The Secret of Chimneys, set in 1955 (but harking back to a ball in 1932), which, unlike the novel, imported Christie's perennial Miss Marple
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
(Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
) and made a number of other changes. Dervla Kirwan
Dervla Kirwan
Dervla Kirwan is an Irish actress famous for roles in British television shows such as Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart...
, in her late thirties, played Bundle, who, though still the daughter of Lord Caterham, was cast as the sister of 23-year old Lady Virginia Revel (Charlotte Salt
Charlotte Salt
Charlotte Salt is an English actress. She attended St Dominic's Priory School ....
), an unrelated character in the original story. Of the two, Lady Virginia appeared to have more in common with the Bundle of the novels. The Radio Times observed that this production was "classic Agatha Christie, even though it's only distantly related to her original ... purists will be utterly flummoxed - and the plot has more holes in it than the murder victim".
An audiobook of The Seven Dials Mystery, read by Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appears as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second...
, was released in 2005, while Christie's stage play, Chimneys
Chimneys (play)
Chimneys is a play by crime writer Agatha Christie and is based upon her own 1925 novel The Secret of Chimneys. The play was written in 1931 and was due to open at the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage in December of that year...
, which she wrote in 1931, eventually received its premiere at Pitlochry
Pitlochry
Pitlochry , is a burgh in the council area of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. Its population according to the 2001 census was 2,564....
, Scotland in 2006. In the latter production, Bundle was played by Michele Gallagher.