Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse: Plot, Pub History and a Ploughman's Lunch Recipe (Whodunnit Dinners Podcast #24)

by Helen Barbour & Katie McLaughlin September 7, 2026

Spoiler note: this post covers only the opening chapters of the book. It does not reveal who did it.

In short

The book: The Pale Horse is Agatha Christie's 59th mystery, published in 1961. It is a dark, spooky story set in an English village around a converted inn called The Pale Horse, which is now home to three modern "witches".
The podcast: In episode 24, Katie introduces Helen to the book, and Helen answers with a food challenge: a typical English pub meal.
The dish: A ploughman's lunch, a cold plate of crusty bread, English cheese, pickled onions and chutney. Full ingredient list below.
The history: Helen traces pubs from Roman tabernae to the "public houses" of the 1500s, and explains why evening pub meals only went mainstream in the 1970s.
Play it yourself: If the book puts you in a spooky mood, our Halloween murder mystery game is Spectre at the Feast.

What’s the story of Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse?

It starts with Mark Easterbrook, the main narrator, witnessing a fight between two girls in London. Soon afterwards, he finds out that one of the girls has died. The plot thickens when Mark learns her name was included on a list found in the shoe of a murdered priest called Father Gorman. It turns out that an elderly lady called Mrs Davis has given him her last confession, as she was dying. At the same time, she gave him a list of names and a dreadful secret. Father Gorman is struck dead in the fog before he is able to do anything with this information. And this is all in the first few chapters! It’s quite a complex and gripping tale and Katie rated it pretty highly, as you will hear in the podcast.

What's the history of pubs in the UK?

Unsurprisingly, considering the story’s title refers an old inn, Katie’s food challenge for Helen was to share some food that you might find served in a typical English pub.

As Helen explains in more detail in the podcast, pubs or ‘public houses’ find their roots way back in the Roman Empire, who having built road across the British Isles, needed refreshments during the long journeys. Ale was a native British drink before the Roman arrival in the first century, but it was with the construction of the Roman road network that the first pubs, called tabernae (the origin of modern English word tavern), began to appear.

Following various different incarnations over the centuries, by the mid 1500s so-called ‘public houses’ had arrived. English common law required public houses to shoulder certain social responsibilities for the well-being of travelers, in that they should receive all travelers in reasonable condition who were willing to pay the price for food, drink, and lodging.

What is British 'pub grub' like?

In the podcast, Helen goes into more detail about the rise of the humble potato in pubs and the evolution of finger food and snacks at the start of the 20th century, and how it was the 1970s when evening pub meals started to become mainstream. However, in the end she decided that the dish she would share was one that would sit comfortably in a Roman tavern, a Saxon alehouse or a modern pub. For a pub meal you can do no better than a simple, satisfying ploughman’s lunch.

What is a ploughman’s lunch?

A ploughman's lunch is a very simple cold meal based around fresh, crusty bread, a local range of cheese, and fresh or pickled onions. Additional items can be added, such as ham, salad, hard-boiled eggs or an apple. Usual accompaniments are butter and a sweet pickle or chutney. As its name suggests, it is most commonly eaten at lunchtime. The saltiness of the cheese was noted to increase thirst and enhance the "relish of the beer".

How to Make a Ploughman’s Lunch

To be honest, you can play with the concept of a ploughman’s lunch as much as you want, but here are some ideas for ingredients. Pick and choose whatever takes your fancy, as long as there’s cheese, bread and chutney or pickled onion in there, as non-negotiables!

How do you make a ploughman's lunch?

You can play with the concept as much as you like. The non-negotiables are cheese, bread, and chutney or pickled onion. Pick and choose from the rest.

Ploughman's lunch ingredients

Essentials

English Cheddar, sliced, and/or Stilton
Crusty white rolls or thick slices of country bread, with butter
English chutney (such as Branston, or apple and ale chutney)
Pickled onions, halved

Extras

Cornichons or small gherkins
Tomato, sliced
Cucumber, sliced
Apple, cored and sliced
Watercress
Thinly sliced smoked ham (optional, for extra flavour)
Whole grain mustard
Honey, to drizzle over the cheese

Seasoning and dressing

Black pepper
Maldon sea salt flakes
Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle over the vegetables
Red wine vinegar, to splash over the salad greens

Method

Choose your cheese, bread, chutney and pickles, plus any extras.
Dress the salad elements with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
Arrange everything attractively on a board or plate, placing contrasting colours and textures side by side.
Drizzle honey over the cheese if using, and serve.

Frequently asked questions

Who wrote The Pale Horse? Agatha Christie. It was published in 1961 and is her 59th mystery.

Is The Pale Horse a Poirot or Miss Marple book? [PLACEHOLDER: confirm and add one line on whether a series detective features, and who narrates. In this post, the narrator is Mark Easterbrook.]

Where does the word "tavern" come from? From taberna, the name for the first pubs that appeared along Roman roads in Britain.

When did pubs start serving evening meals? Helen explains in the podcast that evening pub meals became mainstream in the 1970s.

What goes in a ploughman's lunch? Crusty bread, cheese, and pickled onions or chutney are the essentials. Ham, salad, boiled eggs and apple are common extras.

Where can I listen to the episode? On the Whodunnit Dinners podcast page
On Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/whodunnit-dinners-podcast/id1838120693
On Spotify Podcasts - https://open.spotify.com/show/2vrjjuq80PfkB2nQOFA8Li

Listen to the podcast

If you’d like to hear more about the history of pubs, you should take a listen to the full Whodunnit Dinners podcast, which will also take you through the many delights of the book ‘The Pale Horse’ and why it was such a cracking read. To hear the full Whodunnit Dinners podcast, click here.