The Guessing Game by Mathew

I thought you might be entertained by this little bit of family history.

I remember the year when Nima read us a chapter or two of A Pocket Full of Rye after dinner each night.  It must have been 1953 and I can remember the scene as if it were yesterday.  All the family sitting round the drawing-room at Greenway, coffee cups empty, a little cigar smoke rising from my grandfather's cigar, mauve chintzy covers on the chairs and a piano in the corner of the room.  Nima sat in a deep chair with a light directly above her ...

• Posted 28 September 2009 at 7:32a.m. GMT
• 2 comments

Adapting Christie, or, How I Learned to Start Complaining and Hate the Changes by Chris_Chan

Fandom is a strange yet wonderful phenomenon.  Some professed “fans” of Agatha Christie are content to read the occasional Christie novel once in a while, when they have the time.  Other fans feel compelled to read every book that Christie ever wrote.  Still other fans seek out every movie and television adaptation of Christie novels ever filmed.  Some fans with the time and money to travel actually visits locations from Christie’s life and novels.  Then, there are fans like me, who want to help preserve, perpetuate, and polish Christie’s legacy.

Ever since the first film adaptations of Christie ...

• Posted 2 September 2009 at 1:45p.m. GMT
• 12 comments

How did Nadine Boynton know about the Orient Express Case in Appointment with Death by Chris_Chan

How did Nadine Boynton know about the Orient Express case in Appointment With Death?

By Chris Chan

(SPOILER WARNING!  THIS ESSAY CONTAINS POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, CARDS ON THE TABLE, AND THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD.  READ WITH CAUTION.)

In Appointment with Death, the suspect Nadine Boynton asks Poirot to cease his investigation of her mother-in-law’s death, claiming that bringing the killer to justice would further destroy the lives of those who had suffered under the twisted matriarch’s mental sadism.  In order to justify her pleas for Poirot to abandon this case, she cites ...

• Posted 6 July 2009 at 6:58a.m. GMT
• 6 comments

Another World Record? by David_Brawn

‘Wouldn’t it be good if Agatha Christie could break another world record?’ It was one of those mornings. Our monthly meeting to discuss sales figures and forward plans with Agatha Christie Limited is usually eventful enough, as there’s always something interesting going on, but today Mathew Prichard was in attendance and there was an air of excitement in the room.

Agatha Christie has held two world records for many years now. As the best-selling novelist of all time, having sold two billion books worldwide in over 45 languages, and as the author of the longest-running play, The Mousetrap ...

• Posted 19 May 2009 at 10:29a.m. GMT
• 7 comments

Did Achille Poirot really exist? by Chris_Chan

SPOILER WARNING!  THIS ESSAY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BIG FOUR AND CURTAIN.  DO NOT READ THIS ESSAY IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THESE BOOKS

We know very little about Hercule Poirot’s family life, and the few details that Poirot reveals may not be reliable, since he often makes up details about his wife to advance his investigations.  For example, in one story in Poirot Investigates, Poirot lies and claims to have a sick wife in order to gain entrance into an apartment.  There are a few references to his career as a Belgian police officer, but he rarely speaks ...

• Posted 6 April 2009 at 9:38a.m. GMT
• 3 comments

The Loveliest Place in the World by Tamsen_Harward

Tomorrow, Greenway House, Agatha Christie’s Summer home, opens to the public for the first time.  Those lucky enough to be able to make the trip to Devon will be able to see the house (and gardens) Dame Agatha described as “the loveliest place in the world”. I had the honour of a sneak preview on Tuesday and thought I would share some highlights with you.

The National Trust’s restoration/conservation has been very sensitive – there are no ropes cordoning off cupboards and rooms and for a fan, while one can’t quite have a good poke around, it ...

• Posted 27 February 2009 at 4:50p.m. GMT
• 6 comments

The Domineering, The Meek and the Downright Gullible by Tony_OSullivan

One of the many interesting features of Agatha Christie’s work is her recurring focus on the dynamic that exists between strong forceful characters and subdued introverted ones. Throughout her work, these two character types are brought together in many different guises and through a wide variety of circumstances. From the sadistic bully that is Mrs Boynton, who exerts total control over her traumatised family in Appointment With Death, published in 1938, to the self-righteous Mrs. Price-Ridley who holds sway over the subordinate Miss Hartnell and Miss Wetherby over tea and gossip in St Mary Mead ( The Murder at the ...

• Posted 5 February 2009 at 7:49a.m. GMT
• 3 comments

Playing the Game by Chris_Chan

First of all, I want to welcome all of the Agatha Christie fans who are visiting this blog.  I hope that you enjoy my essays, and that what I write helps to enhance your appreciation for the works of Agatha Christie.

I intend to produce several different styles of essays.  Some of what I write will be critical essays, evaluating some of Christie’s work or certain adaptations of her stories.  Others may be factual essays about real-life crimes that may have affected Christie’s work, or true anecdotes about Christie’s impact on fans.

Other essays that I write ...

• Posted 18 November 2008 at 9:36a.m. GMT
• 4 comments

My Grandmother by Mathew

Before writing this I have read through your replies to my last blog.  Quote, “Hi Mathew, Could you please tell me about your grandmother....”  Well, Malou, how long have you got?

The feelings that remain uppermost in my mind at the end of October, 2008 are how different she was to so much that is going on around us now.  No cheap, sensationalist, lewd or self-serving entertainment for her.  Good solid hard-work, good solid entertainment, modesty, self-effacement, love and respect for family and decency, respect for country and professionalism allied to a huge sense of fun and enjoyment.  I think ...

• Posted 3 November 2008 at 10:23a.m. GMT
• 14 comments

Marmalade and Marple by Phil_Clymer

It’s slightly disturbing to realize that it was a year ago that we embarked on one of the most intensive and demanding projects imaginable: eight ninety-minute television films (four Poirots and four Marples) started production on October 1st 2007, with Mrs McGinty’s Dead filming exteriors in a bleak and blustery autumnal landscape, and actors and crew alike muttering grimly ‘whatever happened to the summer?’ … and here we are, having just started shooting the final film, They Do It With Mirrors, with (predominantly) the same crew making the same complaints about the same weather. Plus ca change …

Except, of ...

• Posted 22 September 2008 at 11:29a.m. GMT
• 15 comments