Category: Agatha Christie
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Some of my favourite Christies are her stand alone novels, no Poirot or Miss Marple or the annoying Tommy and Tuppence, many of which are relatively unknown. I love The Man in the Brown Suit. This was published in 1922 and features an intrepid young heroine, Anne Beddingfield, an orphan in search of adventure one…
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I have had problems with the blog the last week or so as my host, Typepad, who I have been with for years, had a new update etc etc and like all updates it caused mayhem and the blog was unavailable. An irritant for me, but checking on Twitter I could see how upset so…
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I have just realised the days are moving quickly and I will soon be in 2021 before I talk about my reading this year. So here goes with the second lot. The Crown in Crisis; the Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman. This is one of the best, if not the best, of all…
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I recently reviewed Laura Thompson’s biography of Agatha Christie which I had mixed feelings about, but after finishing it I wanted to tackle some of her books again. I have read all of her output several times and it is always interesting to see what other readers think are her best books, or their favourite…
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It is one hundred years since the first Agatha Christie was published “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”. This biography by Laura Thompson was first published in 2007 and has been updated and revised with a new introduction to celebrate this occasion. I read this when it came out and I am wondering whether I found…
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Agatha Christie had her first murder mystery published in 1920 – The Mysterious Affair at Styles in which we meet Hastings and Poirot for the very first time. I am sure that when she created these characters she did not realise that they would have to be ageless because by the time she finished her…
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I had reached a reading hiatus last week when I was mooching around and could not settle to anything so when that happens to me I re-read. As I have just visited Agatha Christie’s house I decided to pull down a few titles from the tottering piles that I own and have had a good…
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I have wanted to visit Greenway for a long time. I hesitate to say it was on my bucket list as I have no intention of kicking the bucket just yet, but it was certainly on A List. There are various ways to get there but I decided to drive. I ignored the fact that…
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I was sorting through my bookshelves about a year ago and tidying up etc and I came to my shelves of Agatha Christie titles. A motley collection of paperbacks and old hardbacks with some recent editions among them. The covers I liked the most were, I discovered, illustrated and designed by Tom Adams. They are…
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The BBC have just shown their latest Agatha Christie adaptation. I tuned in with low expectations. I always do. It is safer that way. And my low expectations were justified. I watched the first episode, switched off and fumed. It was the usual. Glamorous house, beautifully furnished, high production values, gloss everywhere, pouting female characters,…
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Charging around like a mad thing the last week or so and my reading has been of the quick and easy variety and I have found myself revisiting old friends as I do not have time to concentrate and focus on new stuff. So I have been doing an Agatha – at the moment I…
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Those of you who follow me will know by now that when Wimbledon is on I am incommunicado and spend two weeks in a darkened room with the curtains drawn watching the tennis. We are now at the men's semi-final stage and the match currently on court is a borefest between Querry and Cilic which…
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It is no coincidence that the cottage where my friend Daphne and I stayed in Yorkshire had a second hand bookshop about 15 yards away and I think it is safe to say that we dropped in now and then and bought a few books. I am revisiting Dame Agatha Christie these days, not in…
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I was simply delighted when this dropped through my letterbox this morning and my grateful thanks to HarperCollins for sending me this (it was included with the new Maeve Kerrigan book by Jane Casey which was TERRIFIC more on that later). Look at the cover. Isn't it wonderful? Dame Agatha was rather dismissive of The…
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One old and one new book both swam into my ken in the last week. First up, the New Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie. This is a US publication and second edition printed in 1991 and I came across it at the NSPCC book sale which I attend each year. Came home…
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I have got off to a flying start with my Agatha Christie re-read and the danger is that I will blitz the lot so I am trying, not totally successfully, to limit them. This week I have read three but first up is Murder on the Orient Express. Mention this and most people I know…
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Some of my favourite Christies are her stand alone novels, no Poirot or Miss Marple or the annoying Tommy and Tuppence, many of which are relatively unknown. Today I am writing about The Man in the Brown Suit. This was published in 1922 and features an intrepid young heroine, Anne Beddingfield, an orphan in search…
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Just before Christmas I read 'Poirot and Me' by David Suchet. I have to say straight away that Mr Suchet is a superb actor but perhaps not so good a writer. Not that it matters in the slightest, his portrayal of Dame Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is the definitive one as far as I am…