Some great news for Agatha Christie scholars and fans – the conference is back for 2023, taking place in Exeter in September.

I’m also honoured to say that I will be one of the keynotes this year, alongside the brilliant Michelle Kazmer. You can expect some previews of my Marple research, a full year before the book comes out…

The conference Call for Papers is here. Hope to see you there!

It’s also great that the conference takes place 11-13 September, just before the International Agatha Christie Festival (14-17 Sept) so perfect for those who want to do both. Festival details should be announced on their website soon.

A few weeks ago Radio 4’s Open Book asked me to take part in their Boxing Day episode , as they wanted to cover Agatha Christie at Christmas. Of course a ‘Christie for Christmas’ is more about publishing routine than story content, but I think it was a fun episode anyway. You can hear it here – and now is a good time to wish everyone the best for 2023!

This three-part documentary is now on iPlayer for those of us in the UK. You can see it here. I pop up in the second episode, which I haven’t seen properly yet, but judging by the first one it’s a really fresh and in-depth look at Christie’s life and works.

I was very pleased to take delivery of this new book about you-know-who. It was lovely to be asked by the editors to contribute a chapter about adaptations. It’s a very expensive book, apparently designed for libraries, so ask yours if you fancy reading it!

I had such a good time at the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay this year – so many great talks and friendly audiences. I enjoyed giving my talk on the Tuesday, and am pleased to say that I’ll be giving it again – this time in Southampton, on 10 October. You can book your free ticket here.

A personal highlight was hosting the Greenway dinner on Christie’s birthday, 15 September, joined by my mum! Already looking forward to next year.

I recently wrote a new article for the Agatha Christie website about some of the many different depictions of Miss Marple. It was a useful warm up for writing Agatha Christie’s Marple, which is just starting to move out of the research stage, and into the writing up stage… There’s still a while to go until it’ll be finished and published, though!

It was lovely to join Alan Carr for his recent Adventures with Agatha Christie on More4. You can catch the series on All 4, and at the time of writing the episodes are also on Dailymotion. I pop up near the end of the third episode.

I’m also looking forward to taking part in this year’s International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay. I’ll be speaking about Christie from stage to screen (with a few rare treats to share), as well as taking part in a special “live” edition of the excellent All About Agatha podcast. I’m also honoured to have been asked to be the after dinner speaker for a special event at Greenway, Christie’s summer home now owned by the National Trust. Tickets for the Greenway event have sold out, but there are still spaces for other events available via the website. Hope to see you there!

Torquay’s International Agatha Christie Festival has announced its programme for September 2022 – and I pop up a few times! I’ll be speaking about film adaptations of Christie’s stage plays, then taking part in All About Agatha’s live podcast episode in which I’ll argue for my choice of Christie’s greatest novel, alongside Jamie Bernthal-Hooker, Carla Valentine, and John Curran. Then I’m speaking after dinner at Greenway. A busy week – I can’t wait, and I haven’t even mentioned all the other brilliant things going on! Full details here.

This week sees the publication of my Poirot book in paperback, neatly coinciding with Death on the Nile‘s release in cinemas – which the hardback was supposed to accompany!

The paperback also includes a bit of news – I’m thrilled to say that I have started work on Agatha Christie’s Marple, once more for HarperCollins. It’s early days but hopefully will be worth the wait…

This week I was delighted to learn that Agatha Christie’s Poirot has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Edgar Awards, in the critical/biographical category! The ceremony takes place in New York on 28 April. You can see the full list of nominated works here.

Also, it’s not long until the paperback of the book is published in the UK, on 3 February. I took delivery of my copies recently and they are reassuringly chunky!