Agatha Christie’s “Picnic 1960” is the final entry of Poems, a collection of her verse published in 1973, thirteen years after she wrote it. At seventy and feeling elegiac about her age and her life’s worth. But what is unusual is that the setting of the picnic is alongside a busy road, presumably where she’s parked her favorite automobile, a Rolls-Royce. Christie’s picnic is symbolic of her life, and she loves it, though the rolls may be flavored with dust.
Afternoon tea by the side of the road
That is the meal that I love
Hundreds of cars rushing past all the time
Sunshine and clouds up above!
Get out the chairs and set up the tea,
Serviettes, too, are a must,
Never a moment that’s quiet or dull,
Sausage rolls flavoured with dust!
Time to go home? Strew the orange peel round,
Leave paper and portions of pie,
Pack up the crocks and get into the queue,
Perfect picnic place, love, and goodbye…
Russell Lee. Fourth of July Picnic, Vale, Oregon (1941). Library of Congress Farm Security Administration Photo Archives.LC-USF33- 013067-M3 [P&P]
Alfred Hitchcock. Rebecca (1940). The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison, Philip MacDonald, and Michael Hogan was based on du Maurier’s 1938 novel.
Alfred Hitchcock. Rebecca (1940). The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison, Philip MacDonald, and Michael Hogan was based on du Maurier’s 1938 novel. George Sanders as Jack Flavel, Joan Fontaine as Mrs. de Winter, and Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter. Lunch, I say, what a jolly idea, rather like a picnic. Isn’t it?” Unasked, Jack eats a chicken leg and sarcastically inquires, “By the way, what do you do with old bones?”
Alfred Hitchcock. To Catch a Thief (1955). Screenplay by John Michael Hayes based on David Dodge’s novel (1952). Francis Stevens (Grace Kelly) and John Robie (Cary Grant) picnic in her Sunbeam Alpine sportscar
Francis Stevens (Grace Kelly) and John Robie (Cary Grant) are eating chicken-in-a-basket.
John Burningham. “Of course, everyone was delighted with the idea, and while Commander and Jeremy and Jemima went to get Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-Bang ready,” in Ian Fleming, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car (1964)