Murder on the Orient Express A murder is discovered, and Poirot's trip home to London from the Middle East is interrupted to solve the murder. The US title of "Murder in the Calais Coach" was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel "Stamboul Train" which had been published in the United States as "Orient Express". After taking the Taurus Express from Aleppo in Syria to Istanbul, private detective Hercule Poirot arrives at the Tokatlian Hotel. There he receives a telegram prompting him to return to London. He instructs the concierge to book a first-class compartment on the Simplon-route Orient Express service, leaving
The Gate of Calais Finchley", which he painted in 1749/50, provides a companion theme to "The Gate of Calais": it depicts a fictional gathering of robust English guardsman who are to march north to defend London against the invasion of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobites in 1745. Further anti-French sentiment is apparent in his two "Invasion" engravings, published in 1756, and in "Beer Street", where Rev. James Townley's accompanying verses stress the superiority of the English. "The Gate of Calais" secondary title, "O, the Roast Beef of Old England", is a reference to the popular patriotic ballad 'The Roast Beef of Old England' from Henry