Category: Talks

Book launch – and publicity!

It’s been a busy couple of months with the launch of my new book Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, now out worldwide. The UK publication neatly coincided with the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay, which meant there were plenty of opportunities to discuss my work. This included sell-out talks on both Miss Marple and, with Gray Robert Brown, our podcast The Swinging Christies. We even teamed up with Kemper Donovan of All About Agatha for a special crossover episode!

Kemper Donovan, me, Gray Robert Brown

Elsewhere, I’ve been doing plenty of publicity, including an appearance on ITV’s Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, which you can watch below. We were keenly overlooked by quite the collection of Miss Marples!

It had been lovely to see the positive reception that my book has received. I was particularly thrilled to get such a good write-up from Nicola Upson in the Times Literary Supplement.

I have plenty of plans in place for next year, including two projects that I was the consultant for. I’m very excited about them, but can’t say much more yet! All will be revealed in the next couple of months…

‘The Mysteries of Miss Marple’ talk in Wallingford

As we move towards the publication of my book Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, so I start to give more talks, and I’m delighted to return to Wallingford’s Corn Exchange on 6 September.

I’ll be discussing all things Miss Marple, followed by questions and then a signing. You can book your ticket here!

The International Agatha Christie Festival 2024

The (almost) full details for the International Agatha Christie Festival 2024 have now been announced, and I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be speaking about the search for the “definitive” Miss Marple in the evening of 13 September at 7pm. I’ll be discussing Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple and other depictions (including Helen Hayes) sharing new information and some nice clips and illustrations. This is as well as the Swinging Christies event with Gray Robert Brown on the Wednesday. I’m also taking part in the All About Agatha panel on the Thursday evening (debating the best screen adaptation).

There is more to be announced, and I may pop up at another event… It’s sure to be a great week, so do join us in Torquay! Details here.

New year, new podcast, new talks!

I’m so excited to launch The Swinging Christies, a new podcast co-presented and co-produced with the writer Gray Robert Brown. It looks at Agatha Christie in the 1960s and, among other things, argues for a reappraisal of her later work. You can find episodes on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Audible and Apple Podcasts. More info over at Christietime.com.

Artwork by Bartlett Studio

I’m also honoured to say that I will be one of the speakers at this year’s Bodies from the Library event, taking place at the British Library on 1 June. Tickets available from their website now.

A busy time for Agatha Christie events!

This year has probably been the busiest yet for me, such is the continuing popularity of Agatha Christie.

In September I had a wonderful time speaking at the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay. I arrived straight from the Agatha Christie Conference at the University of Exeter, where I was one of the keynotes, and at the end of the week it was great to give the after dinner speech at Greenway House, Christie’s holiday home, on her birthday.

Speaking at Greenway

Most recently I was thrilled to be invited to India to speak at the Dehradun Literature Festival. My wonderful hosts ensured that this was a great event. I particularly enjoyed running a workshop for local children, where we used some of Christie’s techniques to create their own stories.

At the Dehradun Literature Festival

My next event is the Agatha Christie Festival Internacional in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. It’s always a brilliant event and I can’t wait to talk about Miss Marple. There is much more to come next year in support of my forthcoming book Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, which you can preorder at Amazon UK now, if you’re keen… There is also The Swinging Christies, a new podcast project that I’m doing with the writer Gray Robert Brown. More on that soon!

Recording The Swinging Christies with co-host and co-producer Gray Robert Brown

All in all, it’s an exciting time to be researching Agatha Christie!

International Agatha Christie Festival tickets on sale now!

Great to see that tickets for the International Agatha Christie Festival are on sale now! I’m taking parts in three of the events: the All About Agatha discussion (14 Sept), speaking after dinner at Greenway (15 Sept), and giving a talk about Margaret Rutherford’s Miss Marple before a screening of Murder at the Gallop (16 Sept). I have lots of new and fun info to share, so hope to see some of you there!

Tickets available to buy here (at the time of writing, the Greenway dinner is not yet on sale – keep an eye out if you’re keen as it goes quickly). Of course, there are loads of other great events going on as well.

Registration is also open for the Agatha Christie Conference, taking place 12-13 Sept. I’m one of the two keynotes and will be asking what we know about Miss Marple, as I share some of the research for my next book.

OUT NOW! Agatha Christie’s Poirot – The Greatest Detective in the World

It has been quite a busy couple of months for me because 12 November saw the publication of Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World in the UK! If you haven’t got your hands on a copy yet what are you waiting for?! It even features a foreword by Mark Gatiss! You can see links to various online retailers here – including The Book Depository, which ships internationally for free for those of you outside the UK. I hope that you enjoy it if you do buy it.

If you need more convincing here’s a lovely review. Also, a reminder that only the hardback will feature the 400+ illustrations – when it moves into paperback, most of those will disappear.

Over the last few weeks I have taken part in a lot of events (all online, of course), which Agatha Christie fans may find interesting. I took part in the Perfect Crime UK festival in an event with Barry Forshaw which was captured for YouTube and can be seen here, while I also spoke to Exeter Library about the new book, for a video chat available here. I wrote an article about the book for Shots magazine, and also took part in two podcasts (with more to come!) – Jim Noy’s In GAD We Trust, and All About Agatha. Also, The New European newspaper used the book as the basis for an article about Poirot, which you can read here.

I’ve also taken part in two forthcoming TV documentaries, and so there’s not avoiding me yet! I’ll share more details when I’m able to, but one is due at Christmas and the other at Easter 2021. I was also in a Channel 5 documentary recently, which has been put on YouTube – my interview was filmed as soon as we came out of the first lockdown, which explains my bizarre hair!

Anyway, that’s enough self-publicity for today – I just hope you enjoy the book! And if you do, feel free to tell others, including through reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. It is very difficult to get the word out when you launch a book while all the bookshops are closed…

2020 events move online!

I was very sad to see so many exciting events from this year postponed, so I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be taking part in some online events in their place. These talks will tie in with the publication of my new book, Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World, which will be out at the end of October. You can see the beautiful cover design by Bill Bragg below.

I’m honoured to be able to say that the book will feature a foreword by the marvellous Mark Gatiss!

Poirot cover

The brand new Virtual International Mystery Festival is running from 12-15 September, and you can see the full programme here. I’ll be giving an illustrated talk on 13 September about Agatha Christie and television, with a short Q&A afterwards.

Also on 13 September Sophie Hannah and I will be taking part in Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, which has moved online for this year. We will be speaking on The Writing Life podcast, discussing Poirot. The festival itself is a partnership between the University of East Anglia and the National Centre for Writing

Then, on 15 September, I’ll be giving another (different) illustrated talk online as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival, and while speaking to a camera may not be quite as good as attending the event in person, I hope that you’ll enjoy my talk about the many faces of Hercule Poirot. You can show your interest here, or go direct to the festival’s YouTube channel here.

On 17 September I’ll be interviewing Sophie Hannah for HarperCollins Australia, and I’ll be quizzing her about her new Poirot adventures – there will also be the opportunity for those watching to ask her questions.

The book is available to preorder just about anywhere you can think of, including at Hive, Waterstones, Amazon UK, Amazon US, and Book Depository. Please order at a local bookshop if you can.

[Post edited and updated 29 August]

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