Agatha Christie historian and speaker
It has only been just over a month since we launched The Swinging Christies, but we have already been invited to give our first live talk! In September, Gray and I will be in Torquay ready to share some material that we couldn’t fit into the podcast.
Tickets are on sale now – hope to see you there! The main Festival events haven’t yet been announced but I have had a sneak preview of some of the highlights and know it’ll be great year. You might even see me popping up elsewhere…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
All in all, it’s an exciting time to be researching Agatha Christie!
As part of Wallingford’s Agatha Christie Weekend I’ll be giving my talk ‘Hercule Poirot: A Life in Crime’ at the Corn Exchange on 8 September. Hope to see you there: tickets on sale now.
Do check out the other events too, sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun!
Just a quick note to say that this week saw the fortunate coincidence of my completion of a full draft of Agatha Christie’s Marple and it going up for preorder on Amazon UK, with a provisional publication month of June 2024. If you’re very keen you can preorder here, or of course you can support your local book shop closer to the time.
There are still some tickets left for my talk at the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay this September, although they seem to be selling fast this year. If you’re in the area why not come along to the Agatha Christie Conference too. It may be a little more academic but it’s always loads of fun! I’m a keynote alongside Michelle Kazmer.
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.
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!
Dr Mark Aldridge 