Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making – Includes Two Unpublished Poirot Stories - Softcover

Curran, John; Christie, Agatha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007310579 ISBN 13: 9780007310579

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2010

Synopsis

A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie’s 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories.

When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide, she had achieved the impossible - more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was her output, it was even claimed that Agatha must have a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of planning her ingenious crimes?

Following the death of Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable legacy was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes which, though known about for years, had been largely ignored, probably because Agatha's unmistakable handwriting was so hard to read. But when archivist John Curran began deciphering the notebooks, the extent of this treasure trove became apparent...

This book lifts the lid on Agatha Christie's biggest secret - how her pencilled notes, lists and drafts led to her many successful books, plays and stories. Alternative plots, titles and characters, deleted scenes, even her plans for the books she didn't get to write - John Curran's investigation reveals a wealth of unpublished material, including two complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published: The Incident of the Dog's Ball and the unseen thirteenth Labour of Hercules!

About this title

Review

'Many of Curran's discoveries will shape how Christie is read in future... This book is fascinating.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

‘Agatha Christie’s notebooks have had to wait for the meticulous attention, dedication and prodigious knowledge of John Curran to achieve publication.’ THE TIMES

‘This book is the story of a love affair between Curran and the notebooks, revealing above all how hard Christie worked.’ INDEPENDENT

'A meticulously detailed study that is packed with shrewd perceptions about Christie's fiction... Curran has produced an enthralling miscellany of a book, in which her fans will rummage to their heart's content.' SUNDAY TIMES

'Curran has organized his material as efficiently as an Agatha Christie mystery... His enthusiasm for his subject carries us along.' IRISH TIMES

‘Something unimaginably unique: an unknown Poirot story, one that had lain silently between its covers for over 60 years.’ THE SCOTSMAN

From the Back Cover

When Agatha Christie died in 1976, at age eighty-five, she had become the world's most popular author. At the end of 2004, following the death of Christie's daughter, Rosalind, a remarkable legacy was revealed: seventy-three handwritten volumes of notes, lists, and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays, and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in the beloved author's unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story.

Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own autobiography, this remarkable book includes a wealth of excerpts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters--plus, two complete, recently discovered Hercule Poirot short stories never before published.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0007310579
• ISBN 13: 9780007310579
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 492