Agatha Christie

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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Poppy »

Well that's good to know, thanks. It hadn't put me off the books, but it made me a bit less eager to watch the other Miss Marple episodes. I'll try some of those others that you recommended, though, if I see them on. And we're eager to watch Murder on the Orient Express. I told my mum and dad about the book and they are intrigued! Just right for a winters evening! Does this one appear often on TV?
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Carlotta King »

There are different versions of Orient Express, there's the David Suchet one, which is one of his most recent ones, and there's the older film starring Albert Finney as Poirot, which was made in the 1970s.

Personally, I found the modern Suchet one absolutely dire. I'm a huge fan of David, and to me, there is no other Poirot :) but this episode was dreary, depressing and really not very good. The 1970s film is way better, it's really atmospheric, the cast and costumes are brilliant, and it was very faithful to the book as well, almost perfectly so.
The film is perfect to watch on a cold day! :)

Also, there are film versions of Death On The Nile and Evil Under The Sun, they were made in the 70's/80's as well and they star Peter Ustinov as Poirot. Those too are brilliant.

The films do appear on tv from time to time, usually on bank holidays and that kind of thing, but the Suchet version of Orient Express doesn't seem to appear very often, probably because it's fairly new compared to the others.
They did have a run of the older Poirots on ITV4 a while back but not many of the more modern ones seemed to appear, it was mostly the ones from the 1990s and early 2000s.

I think the dvds of the older Poirot films are really cheap so you could probably get them on Amazon for a few quid, well worth it, they're wonderful to watch with a nice hot drink! :)
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Poppy »

Thanks for that, Cathy. I'll look out for it being shown. And then I'm sure I'll be tempted to look out a few DVD's!
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by rosy_posy »

After watching Murder in Mesopotamia I'll definitely be getting some of the dvds - I don't have a television so can't just wait for them to turn up there!
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Moonraker »

I did notice that Nemesis was on, it's a bad one to watch as a first example, it is very slow to get going and it doesn't seem very interesting, even when there's been a murder it's quite a bland episode and I don't like the casting either.
I thought the Joan Hickson version of Nemesis was excellent, remaining faithful to the book (that is the one about the coach holiday, isn't it?)
Personally, I found the modern Suchet one absolutely dire.
I wouldn't say "dire," but I tend to agree that it was much weaker than the Albert Finney version. I realise that it had to be done to complete the series, but not one of the best. For a truly dire adaptation, look no further than The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

As with Enid Blyton, it really is all about the books themselves.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by sixret »

Chrissie777 wrote:
sixret wrote:I feel sad( and a bit angry) when people say Blyton and Christie were inferior writers when million others have enjoyed reading their books. Usually those people who say that, have never read any Blyton and Christie books! :cry:

Am I the only one who feel like this? :oops:

Not at all, sixret! I feel the same.
I don't even understand why there are so-called superior writers like Charles Dickens (to be honest, I found his books very boring and hard to read), Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck or inferior authors like Edgar Wallace, Nelson DeMille and Danielle Steel.
O.k., they don't write master pieces, but they obviously satisfy many readers' needs, so what's inferior about that?
As long as they instill the longing for reading books in a human being, they are fulfilling a good purpose, aren't they?

Yes, I agree, many critics just depend on other critic's negative book reviews and don't bother reading those books themselves. If I would have taken seriously professional book critics, I would have missed many good books.
I rather trust my own instinct than a book critic's opinion. Same goes for movies.
Very much agreed, Chrissie. I rather follow my own instinct. :D
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by pete9012S »

A mention of digitalis on the informative herbal thread reminded me of Agatha Christie's use of poisons in her work;
Poisons Used In Agatha Christie
Foul Toxins From The Queen of Crime

“Poison has a certain appeal,” wrote Agatha Christie in They Do It With Mirrors, “…it has not the crudeness of the revolver bullet or the blunt instrument.” Death by poison is more frequent in Christie’s world than in the works of any other mystery writer. More than thirty victims fall foul to a variety of toxins (while others survive attempted poisonings.) Christie’s knowledge was extensive, a result of her work as both a nurse and a pharmacy dispenser during both World Wars. (Perhaps this is why physicians often make an appearance as murders in her novels.)

Some Common Poisons

Strychnine is used in Christie’s first who-dunnit, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. For a writer, strychnine is an ideal poison, being easily absorbed with a rapid onset of action, and its effects are impressively dramatic. An alkaloid derived from the seeds of the tree Strychnos nux vomica, strychnine works as a competitive antagonist of glycine, an important inhibitory neurotransmitter. Strychnine blocks motor neuron post-synaptic receptors in the spinal cord’s central horn, antagonising inhibitory tone. Uncontrollable muscle contractions result, classically beginning with trismus and risus sardonicus, then spreading distally, with contractions increasing in frequency and intensity. Death occurs some two - three hours after exposure, most commonly from respiratory failure compounded by lactic acidosis and rhabdomyalysis.

Cyanide is the poison Christie used most often to dispatch her victims, (followed by arsenic, strychnine, digitalis then morphine). Cyanide is derived from the seeds of the Prunus family, (which includes cherries, apricots and almonds) and is rapidly lethal. It works as a mitochondrial toxin, inhibiting cytochrome c oxidase in the electron transport chain, thus preventing cells from aerobically using adenosine triphosphatefor energy. High concentrations leads to death in minutes; the cyanide-haemoglobin complex can cause the skin to remain pink (in contrast to the cherry-red of carbon-monoxide poisoning), despite cellular hypoxia. Chronic ingestion causes a variety of symptoms ranging from generalised weakness, confusion and bizarre behaviour, through to paralysis and liver failure. Cyanide features in The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side , And Then There Were None , A Pocketful of Rye and, of course, Sparkling Cyanide .

Arsenic, favoured by the Borgias, makes an appearance in 4.50 From Paddington. A tasteless, odourless white powder, arsenic is minimally soluble in cold water but readily dissolves in hot fluids – such as tea or cocoa. Arsenic interferes with cellular longevity by inhibiting the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, resulting in cellular apoptosis. Acute exposure generally manifests with watery diarrhoea, causing dehydration and hypovolaemic shock. Lactic acidosis and hypokalaemia can also occur. Arrhythmias include QT prolongation and ventircular fibrillation. Chronic toxicity is more insidious, with the clinical effects dependent upon the length of exposure. Hyperkeratosis and Mees lines on the nails are classical, as is a painful, glove-and-stocking paraesthesia. Hepatic and renal impairment may also result, and a patient’s breath often has a garlic smell.

Unusual Poisons

In The Pale Horse, the murderer uses a coven of witches to curse victims, thus masking deaths due to thallium (used in rat poison). Thallium can be absorbed topically, ingested or inhaled, is colourless and tasteless, dissolves in water, and has a slow onset of vague symptoms. The first signs are usually vomiting then diarrhoea, followed by a range of neurological symptoms. A fatal cardiac toxicity occurs some three weeks after adequate exposure. Hair loss is also common - which triggers suspicion in The Pale Horse .

In A Pocketful of Rye, marmalade is laced with taxine. (The murderer later puts cyanide in another victim’s tea.) Derived from the leaves of the English yew tree, taxine has a bitter taste. By disrupting microtubular function, it inhibits cell division. Death can be so rapid, however, that the common signs of a staggering gait, seizures, respiratory failure and heart failure may be missed. Most parts of the tree are toxic (save the aril surrounding the seeds, allowing distribution by birds without them being poisoned).

In Five Little Pigs, the painter Amyas Crale is murdered with coniine. An alkaloid extracted from hemlock, coniine works peripherally as a neurotoxin, causing death by respiratory paralysis. Less than two hundred micrograms is fatal; Socrates consumed this poison when condemned to death in 399BC for corrupting the youth of Athens.

In Cards On The Table, a doctor murders his victim by contaminating his shaving brush with bacillus anthracis, knowing the bacillus could pass transcutaneously through any nicks made by the razor. In Dumb Witness, the victim’s liver pills are doctored with phosphorous. The hint is given by the ‘aura’ seen around the woman: the phosphoresence of her breath. Exposure can also lead to ‘phossy jaw’, a severe necrosis common in workers in match factories, where white phosphorous was an early component. Severe liver damage can also result.

Monkshood dispatches several victims in 4.50 From Paddington. Described by the Roman naturalist Plinius as ‘plant arsenic’, it was once used to coat spears, prior to hunting panthers and wolves. It was also reputed to also kill werewolves, (although other sources claim a brew will prolong the lycanthropic condition when a werewolf is under the influence of the full moon). The active component is aconitine, which causes salivation, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Medical Poisons

Belladonna (also known as Deadly Nightshade, Devil’s Berries or Death Cherries) features in The Caribbean Mystery and The Big Four. Foliage and berries are toxic, containing a mixture of alkaloids including hyoscine (scopolamine) and atropine (both anti-cholinergic anti-muscurinic in action) and hyoscyamine (an isomer of atropine). Both the Emperor Augustus and Agrippina (wife and sister of Claudius) used belladonna to poison contemporaries. Symptoms include dilated pupils, blurred vision, tachycardia, dry mouth, slurred speech, urinary retention, confusion and hallucinations.

The anti-dote for belladonna poisoning is physostigmine, which is itself used as a poison in Crooked House, administered via eye drops. Derived from the West African calabar bean, physostigmine is a cholinesterase inhibitor, reversibly blocking the action of acetylcholinesterase in the synaptic cleft of the neuromuscular junction. Overdose results in the cholinergic syndrome, due to central and peripheral increase of acetylcholine at muscurinic and nicotinic receptors.

Morphine is another poison favoured by Christie. In Sad Cypress, morphine is administered through, it is thought, fish paste on sandwiches; instead it is served in a pot of tea, the murderer also drinking from the pot to ally suspicion, then surruptiously self-administrating an emetic. In Death Comes As The End, (set in Ancient Egypt), the poison added to the wine which kills Sobek is never discovered, but assumed to be the juice of the poppy. (The priest-physician tests the remaining wine on animals, all of which rapidly succumb.) The matriarch Esa meets her death by means of an ungent made of poisoned wool fat.

Murder mysteries would be incomplete without the use of sleeping tablets. In Lord Edgware Dies, Carlotta Adams meets her end due to an overdose of veronal. The first commercially available barbiturate, veronal had a slightly bitter taste, and a therapeutic dose far below the toxic dose. However, tolerance occurred with chronic use, requiring higher doses for effect, and fatal overdoses, either accidental or intentional, were not infrequent.

The Death Of Hercule Poirot

Curtain, in which Poirot makes his final appearance, is a lesson in polypharmacy. (Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in The Times.) Freda Clay poisons her aunt with morphine; Barbara Franklin is poisoned with physostigmine. Poirot drugs Hasting hot chocolate with sleeping tablets (unnamed, but possibly veronal) to prevent him committing murder; Mrs Franklin chooses the wrong coffee cup and dies from the poison she had added to kill her own husband; Poirot laces two cups of coffee with his sleeping tablets, so drugging Norton (who, suspecting, chooses Poirot’s cup) but not himself, as he is tolerant to the tablets. After shooting Norton, Poirot himself dies, not by poison, but by its absence: with terminal heart disease, Poirot places his supply of amyl nitrate out of reach, thus ensuring his own death during the night.

Agatha Christie’s writing reflects English life from the end of WWI to well after the Second World War. Despite the changing social mores, human nature is constant, and her writing offers an historical-social insight into this time. Most of the poisons used by her murderers were readily available, sometimes through their work, but more often to be found under the kitchen sink, or growing amongst the beauty of an English country garden.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Poppy »

That's very interesting, thanks, Pete. :D

I am currently alternating between The Mystery of the Hidden House and The ABC Murders.

And just recently I've introduced my Mum to Agatha Christie! She is reading and thoroughly enjoying Murder on the Orient Express at the moment.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Courtenay »

My mum is a huge Agatha Christie fan, Poppy - she has almost every book Agatha wrote, and often remarks on how much she prefers a nice clean genteel little murder to so many of these modern thriller mysteries with all their spies and shoot-outs and what-have-you. 8) (Her other favourites are Dorothy L. Sayers and, I think, P.D. James.)

I have read two or three Christies and didn't mind them, but I'm afraid murder mysteries aren't really my cup of tea - I'm not fond of stories where people get killed in cold blood. :(
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by pete9012S »

Here's the official Agatha Christie newsletter for October 2014
Editor's Note
Pumpkin lanterns and a certain crime solving duo are the flavor of your October Agatha Christie newsletter, so make a nice cup of tea, sit down and read all about it below.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Poppy »

Courtenay wrote:My mum is a huge Agatha Christie fan, Poppy...
My Mum reads Murder-Mystery regularly, but having just finished Murder on the Orient Express, she says this is the best she's read for a long time. I really like the Agatha Christie books because they aren't dark and depressing like some murder-mystery books. They are full of humour, entertainment and memorable characters.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Chrissie777 »

Courtenay wrote:Her other favourites are Dorothy L. Sayers and, I think, P.D. James.
I love both authors!
One Adam Dalgliesh novel (when he inherit's his aunt's windmill) was such a beautiful read (particularly the landscape descriptions) that I had to go to East Anglia. Too bad I couldn't find the windmill of his aunt. :wink:

From Sayers I enjoyed the 4 Harriet Vane crime novels, particularly the one with the dead body on the beach found by Harriet. Great plot and so atmospheric. I never really cared for Lord Peter Wimsey though.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Katharine »

Just been to see The Mousetrap - a dream come true - excellent. :D
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Re: Agatha Christie

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Great for you :). I'm envious! :mrgreen:
I did read years ago that "The Mouse Trap" is the longest running theater play in London.
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Re: Agatha Christie

Post by Katharine »

I still can't quite believe I've just seen it. I've wanted to go and see it ever since I started reading Agatha Christie books, and heard that she'd written the play. It's never been practical to go to London to see it, and then I heard it was going on tour, and amazingly coming to Ipswich, so we booked tickets ages ago, as soon as they went on sale. Tonight was the first night here. Can't believe I've managed to reach the grand old age of 47, and hadn't heard anything about the plot/suspects etc., so each minute was a delicious experience as I had no idea what was coming next.
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