John Curran

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the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories.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deleted scenes, even her plans for the books she didn't get to write - John Curran's investigation reveals a wealth of unpublished material, including two complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published: The Incident of the Dog's Ball and the unseen thirteenth Labour of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!

Agatha Christie's life and career told through the decades, from the never-before-published original ending to her first book to the unused ideas for her last, complete with two unpublished Agatha Christie stories - including a lost Miss Marple. In this follow-up volume to the acclaimed Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks, Christie archivist and expert John Curran leads the reader through the six decades of Agatha Christie's writing career, unearthing some remarkable clues to her success and a number of never-before-published excerpts and stories from her archives. Starting his investigation in the 1920s, John Curran examines the conventions of detective novels as they existed then and how Agatha Christie's publisher talked her into changing the ending of her very first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, a move that almost certainly changed the fortunes of not only her career but the future of the whole crime writing genre. For the very first time, this book prints Agatha's original ending, painstakingly transcribed from her notebooks. Every decade saw Agatha Christie's success grow to new heights. The emergence of the world-famous Collins Crime Club in 1930 brought with it the very first Miss Marple mystery, the austerity of the 1940s had Agatha Christie preparing to kill off Hercule Poirot, and the 1950s saw her experiment increasingly with formats influenced by more modern thrillers. Focusing on the detail of more than 20 Christie novels to illustrate this, John Curran shows the evolution of Agatha's writing through the decades, including the influence of the swinging sixties and seventies, concluding the book with a look at Agatha's last notebook, using his Christie knowledge to speculate about what she had in mind based on her brief notes for an unwritten final book. Also includes a number of short stories from the archives reproduced in full, including the unpublished The Man Who Knew, How I Created Hercule Poirot, and an early draft for a Miss Marple story, The Case of the Caretaker's Wife.

From The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to Magpie Murders and related diversions including cryptic crosswords and Cain s Jawbone The Murder Game examines the games authors played with their readers and the importance of puzzles in Golden Age whodunits With books flourishing in the 1920s and 30s like never before no genre was more innovative or popular than detective fiction It was an era that saw the emergence of Agatha Christie Dorothy L Sayers John Dickson Carr Ellery Queen and dozens of other authors who became household names for a generation of readers The Golden Age of Detection has enjoyed a great resurgence of interest in recent years with publishers mining back catalogues to bring the best of yesteryear to very receptive new audiences What is it about a literary movement that took off in the 1920s that still appeals to book lovers in the 2020s In this authoritative new study John Curran reveals that it is the ludic qualities of classic crime fiction that continue to intrigue At its heart is the whodunit game between writer and reader but there is also the game between detective and murderer between publisher and book buyer even between the writers themselves Coinciding with an increase in leisure time and literacy the Golden Age also saw the develo

La vida y la obra de Agatha Christie a lo largo de las décadas, desde el final inédito de su primer libro hasta las ideas que no llegó a emplear en el último, junto a nuevas obras y documentos nunca publicados hasta ahora, entre ellos un relato perdido de la señorita Marple.En esta continuacion del aclamado Agatha Christie. Los cuadernos secretos, John Curran, archivista y experto en Christie, conduce al lector a traves de las seis decadas de la carrera de Agatha Christie, desvelando las claves mas notables de su exito, ademas de una serie de extractos y relatos de sus archivos, ineditos hasta el momento.La obra cuenta con un prologo de David Suchet quien, para la mayoria de aficionados a Agatha Christie, es Hercules Poirot, tras veinte años interpretando de manera impecable al famoso detective belga en la television.La critica ha dicho... Esta edicion es un lujo inexcusable para todos los amantes de la literatura de detectives en general y de la de Agatha Christie en particular.El Cultural de El MundoEl reciente rescate de esta coleccion de cuadernos [...] nos abre una ventana al proceso creativo, caotico y fascinante, de la novelista mas publicada de todos los tiempos.El PaisNos brinda la oportunidad de ver entre bambalinas a una escritora que poseyo dos dones excepcionales: la legibilidad y la confeccion de tramas endiabladamente encajadas.Que leerChristie siempre tendra un lugar de honor entre los iconos de la escritura contemporanea.ABC de las Artes y las Letras

La vida y la obra de Agatha Christie a lo largo de las décadas, desde el final inédito de su primer libro hasta las ideas que no llegó a emplear en el último, junto a nuevas obras y documentos nunca publicados hasta ahora, entre ellos un relato perdido de la señorita Marple.En esta continuacion del aclamadoAgatha Christie. Los cuadernos secretos, John Curran, archivista y experto en Christie, conduce al lector a traves de las seis decadas de la carrera de Agatha Christie, desvelando las claves mas notables de su exito, ademas de una serie de extractos y relatos de sus archivos, ineditos hasta el momento.La obra cuenta con un prologo de David Suchet quien, para la mayoria de aficionados a Agatha Christie, es Hercules Poirot, tras veinte años interpretando de manera impecable al famoso detective belga en la television.La critica ha dicho...Esta edicion es un lujo inexcusable para todos los amantes de la literatura de detectives en general y de la de Agatha Christie en particular.El Cultural deEl MundoEl reciente rescate de esta coleccion de cuadernos [...] nos abre una ventana al proceso creativo, caotico y fascinante, de la novelista mas publicada de todos los tiempos.El PaisNos brinda la oportunidad de ver entre bambalinas a una escritora que poseyo dos dones excepcionales: la legibilidad y la confeccion de tramas endiabladamente encajadas.Que leerChristie siempre tendra un lugar de honor entre los iconos de la escritura contemporanea.ABC de las Artes y las Letras

Un apasionante y vertiginoso thriller que reabre uno de los más grandes enigmas literarios de la historia. ¿Qué ocurrió con la novela inconclusa de Charles Dickens? ¿Hubo alguna relación entre la repentina muerte del escritor mas admirado en vida, y esta misteriosa obra cuya sola mencion deja un rastro de cadaveres en tres continentes?

La vida y la obra de Agatha Christie a lo largo de las décadas, desde el final inédito de su primer libro hasta las ideas que no llegó a emplear en el último, junto a nuevas obras y documentos nunca publicados hasta ahora, entre ellos un relato perdido de la señorita Marple. John Curran, archivista y experto en Christie, conduce al lector a traves de las seis decadas de la carrera de Agatha Christie, desvelando las claves mas notables de su exito.