The lasting appeal of Agatha Christie
A surprising number of people I have talked to admit that, as children, they moved straight from reading Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie books. It is astonishing to think that although she died nearly 50 years ago her books still have a great appeal to readers and in fact as well as her own books being in constant demand there are still new titles being written under her name – for example Sophie Hannah, a popular crime writer has recently published her sixth novel featuring Hercule Poirot – Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night and there is a recent collection of 12 new short stories featuring Miss Marple written by 12 different writers entitled MARPLE.
Dr Mark Aldridge, an academic and Agatha Christie historian has recently published the award winning Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, following on from his last book Agatha Christie’s Poirot: the greatest detective in the world. These are basically biographies of these two beloved fictional characters shining a light too on their creator and her long career. There are a steady number of Christie afficionados across the world as evidenced by the number of Christie themed podcasts available as well as an International Christie festival held in Tenerife bi- annually. Favourite titles remain the ones which have been produced for the big and little screen but there are plenty to choose from as she wrote 66 novels and over 150 short stories as well as many screenplays.
The locations she chose to write about are wide and varied, from St Mary’s Mead, a small quiet country village to the hot deserts of Egypt. The characters she created are vividly drawn and from all walks of life – her later books using the backdrop of whatever was going on in the world at the time. Her plots are cleverly worked out culminating with the renowned ‘denouement’ often taking the reader by surprise. If by any chance you have never read one of her books then I would recommend A Murder is Announced or Peril at End House as good starting points.
Reading, or listening to one of the novels for yourself is a very different experience from watching someone else’s interpretation on TV or cinema, and it will certainly get those ‘little grey cells’ working overtime 😊 Enjoy!
• A Murder is Announced
• Peril at End House
• Marple 12 New Stories Marple : twelve new stories / Naomi Alderman [and eleven others] ; based on characters created by Agatha Christie
• Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night
