Agatha Christie historian and speaker
On 8 February I’ll be giving my Miss Marple talk at Bromley Little Theatre, in between performances of their production of The Mirror Crack’d. Tickets are £5 and I’ll be signing books afterwards – you can book your ticket here!
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!
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…
I’m excited to say that I now have copies of my new Marple book, and am thrilled by how it looks in the flesh! And yes, it matches the Poirot book perfectly..!
The book is out in the UK on 12 September (Amazon UK link) and in North America on 8 October (Amazon US link). Please consider ordering from a local bookseller if you can.
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 (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.
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!
Dr Mark Aldridge 