With 66 novels to her name and numerous short stories and plays, the Queen of Crime remains the world’s biggest selling author of all time and Torquay's best known resident. Every September, there are Agatha Christie events  to celebrate the esteemed author’s birthday and people travel from all over the world to make the occasion.

All year round the Torre Abbey Gardens celebrate her achievements and her knowledge of pharmacy with a Potent Plants Garden (some poisonous, some a little more benign!). The garden has generated great interest particularly from national and international journalists and media organisations.

Given that over half of Christie’s characters were poisoned we are sure that you will be intrigued and surprised at the range of beautiful but sinister plants on show, including the sources for cyanide, morphine and ricin - to name just a few!

Fans of the writer can also interpret the plants and clues in the four outside beds and solve the mystery of the missing story titles. Dangerous or not every plant in this feature appears in one or other of her stories or is connected in some way to her life.