Agatha Christie

[pete9012S]

A great choice Splodj.

You can listen or download the play:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/RE-Warehouse/a ... l_call.mp3

Personal Call - SUMMARY
James Brent receives a chilling telephone call seemingly from beyond the grave. His dead wife, Fay, is waiting for him at the very place she met her grisly end. At his new wife’s insistence, they go to meet her as requested and in the process discover a terrifying and disturbing truth...

[pete9012S]

Your Marple Magazine

Welcome to St Mary Mead. Wherever you are in the world, you can feel like a true local with this exclusive Parish and Village News magazine. An extract from each short story in the upcoming Marple collection is featured alongside village notices, puzzles and a recipe! Download your copy now:

https://mcusercontent.com/7f6b76e8b1a7d ... b-27741105

[Boodi 2]

As a great Miss Marple 'fan I enjoyed that, although I prefer our own journal!!!

[pete9012S]

Have a go at this digital jigsaw - it can be enlarged:

We're so excited about the new 1000 piece puzzle, The World of Agatha Christie, that we had to share a preview of the illustration (by Ilya Milstein) in our own digital jigsaw series. We've taken just a small section for you to complete, but the physical puzzle contains 90 nods to the author, perfect for fans of the Queen of Crime to uncover as they piece it together.

Click here to have a go:
https://www.agathachristie.com/news/202 ... 1-27741105

[Chrissie777]

Did I mention that I ordered three biographies on Agatha Christie at amazon dot de for my birthday?
One arrived yesterday. Now I'm waiting for the two others. One of them is about Agatha Christie's years in Greenways.

[Susie9598]

I haven’t read the full thread, so apologies if someone’s already mentioned this … but for anyone who likes listening to radio plays, I can recommend the Nostalgic Mystery Radio podcasts. They’re very good, faithful adaptations of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple books. There are plays based on the works of other crime writers too, but I haven’t listened to them. Really enjoyable.

[Machupicchu14]

I started reading Agatha Christie when I first came to Sweden and approximately a week ago I finished my first Miss Marple novel! And I'm absolutely worshipping Agatha Christie. I tend to read modern thriller and crime books every now and then but the more I read them the more I can definitely tell why Agatha Christie is considered the Queen of Crime Fiction. And about Miss Marple, what can I say? While I really love Hercule Poirot I think Miss Marple has left me mesmerized, and she is now one of my favorite detectives, alongside Sherlock Holmes. And perhaps even more so than Sherlock Holmes because I find it absolutely interesting and unique how Miss Marple can appear to be the anonymous town woman one often meets, and yet possessing an unparalleled intellect, sensitivity and knowledge to understand human nature. Absolutely incredible! Can't wait to continue reading more of Agatha Christie's works.

[pete9012S]

I love Miss Marple too!

You may enjoy the Patricia Wentworth Miss Silver books when you have read all the Miss Marple stories.
She is quite similar and the books were written around the same time period.

[Moonraker]

the more I read them the more I can definitely tell why Agatha Christie is considered the Queen of Crime Fiction.

The title, "Queen of Crime" is copyrighted by the Agatha Christie Estate. However, Val McDermid has started using it. She has been ordered by the ACE to stop immediately or she will be sued. McDermid thinks this is childish. I must say, AC has always been the Queen of Crime to me, so McDermid should come up with her own phrase.

Full report

[Anita Bensoussane]

I must admit I view the expression "Queen of Crime" as being in the same category as "Queen of Fashion", "Queen of Cuisine", "Queen of Storytelling", "Queen of Rock" or whatever, and I think people should be free to apply it to anyone who is top of the game. For that reason, the idea of the Agatha Christie Estate copyrighting it (and being allowed to do so) does seem rather pathetic.

[Katharine]

Not sure how I feel about this.

Although I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie's books, I can't really see how it can be justified to copyright the Queen of Crime title, as it's just a term coined by someone at some point (fans?, PR?, the media?), it's not as far as I'm aware an official title passed down through generations, or awarded by a governing body (correct me someone if I'm wrong ).

Having said that, it doesn't seem very imaginative of Val McDermid and/or her publishers to copy a phrase that has been used to describe someone else for so long. Surely if her books are good enough they don't need to 'borrow' someone else's title, and will sell of their own accord.

Actually I'd never heard of Val McDermid and after Googling her, find I've only heard of 2 of her books, which I believe were made into TV programmes. From the advertising I saw on-screen, neither appealed to me, and personally, they could give her and her books as many fancy titles as they liked but I can't see me ever wanting to pick one up and read it. Similarly, I've never read Agatha Christie because she was described as a Queen.

I guess it's a good bit of publicity for Val McDermid though, so maybe the Christie estate have scored an own goal here? Or maybe it's good PR on their part as it brings Agatha's books into the public's mind again?

[Boatbuilder]

I just came across this article in The Guardian from 27th August. I don't know if anybody else has seen it.

‘I just wanted my life to end’: the mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance

If anybody wants a PDF copy of the article they can download one HERE

[John Pickup]

I've just read Pale Horse by Agatha, one of her best books.

[pete9012S]

A brilliant, spooky, scary book John.
When my Nan gave it to me as a young boy, I was a bit 'frit' as Yan would say..

[Courtenay]

I just came across this article in The Guardian from 27th August. I don't know if anybody else has seen it.

‘I just wanted my life to end’: the mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance

If anybody wants a PDF copy of the article they can download one HERE

That's excellent and very interesting, John — I didn't know Lucy Worsley had written a biography of Agatha Christie! My mum (who's a major fan of murder mysteries and especially of AC) will probably be interested.