Cockington Court

Cockington Court, near Torquay in Devon, England, is Grade II* listed on the English Heritage Register.

[3] A Major in the Royalist Army, the Civil War forced him to sell much of his property including Cockington Court, the new owner being Roger Mallock.

[5][6] A later owner, Charles Herbert Mallock, was with his wife a personal friend of Agatha Christie, who came frequently to Cockington Court for social and theatrical events.

[8] Agatha Christie was a friend of the Mallock family and came on numerous occasions to Cockington Court.

She said: "Then, a year or so later, I lost my heart again, when acting in a musical play got up by friends in Torquay – a version of Bluebeard, with topical words, written by themselves.

"As Agatha grew into her twenties, the amateur theatricals became grander, with a bigger cast: one set of photographs, taken in 1912 or so, shows her larking about with a dozen friends, the women in beads and veils and the men in baggy trousers, turbans and magnificent whiskers, for a performance of “The Blue Beard of Unhappiness”, an original work in part derived from A Thousand and One Nights, Blue Beard and light musical comedy.

My sister was expecting her twins when she was out on the road and was handed a telegram that her husband Charlie Mallock had been killed.

"[13] Agatha dedicated two of her books to Margaret's older sons Richard and Christopher who are mentioned above.