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the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories.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deleted scenes, even her plans for the books she didn't get to write - John Curran's investigation reveals a wealth of unpublished material, including two complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published: The Incident of the Dog's Ball and the unseen thirteenth Labour of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from the never-before-published original ending to her first book to the unused ideas for her last, complete with two unpublished Agatha Christie stories - including a lost Miss Marple.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

The ultimate introductory guide to Agatha Christie and her detectives, including stories featuring Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy & Tuppence. Ever wondered how Agatha Christie became the worlds best-selling storyteller? Never read one even though you know someone who loves her? Too bewildered by the choice of books to know where to start? Then CLUES TO CHRISTIE could be the key that unlocks the door to a world of mystery, thrills and romance that has captivated readers from 9 to 90 for the last 90 years. With more than two billion book sales, Agatha Christie is the worlds best-selling novelist, translated into more languages than Shakespeare. And with more than 100 books and plays to her name, and over 150 short stories, it is no surprise that one-third of all fiction readers have read an Agatha Christie, and millions have seen the films and TV series. This exclusive eBook sampler includes a specially written introduction by the award-winning author and worlds foremost expert on Agatha Christie, John Curran. Together with other useful and enlightening material to help readers navigate the world of Agatha Christie, such as reading lists, suggestions on different ways to read the books, a Poison Primer, and an A to Z of characters, CLUES TO CHRISTIE also includes three specimen stories by the Queen of Crime, to introduce her world-famous detectives of Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple and Tommy & Tuppence Beresford, and to help you decide which Agatha Christie books you want to read next.

Agatha Christies Secret Notebooks is the fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christies long hidden notebooks, including illustrations, analyses, and two previously unpublished Hercule Poirot short stories. Not only will Christies legions of ardent fans find a treasure chest of new material from the author of such classics as And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile, but Agatha Christies Secret Notebooks is also a must-read tutorial for writers who want to learn the intricacies of constructing crime novels.This landmark work of literary history reveals:Two Unpublished Hercule Poirot Stories: Read "The Capture of Cerberus" and "The Incident of the Dogs Ball" for the first time ever, complete with author John Currans analysis of their creation. The Queen of Crimes Writing Process: Explore seventy-three of Christies private notebooks, filled with handwritten notes, plot variations, and character sketches that show her mind at work. Secrets of the Great Novels: Discover the original ideas and abandoned plotlines for classics like And Then There Were None, Death on the Nile, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. A Masterclass for Crime Writers: Learn how Christie built her intricate plots, developed unforgettable characters, and mastered the art of misdirection in a must-read tutorial for aspiring mystery authors.

Agatha Christie: Mysteries and Murders in the Making has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

John Curran reveals the secrets of the worlds greatestmystery writer in Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making, the fascinating follow up to Agatha Christies SecretNotebooks featuring moreinsight into Christies captivating life story and a new windfall ofChristies unpublished workincluding letters, archival papers, and a keenly incisive analysis of Christies last, unfinished novel.For readers new to Christies mysteries and for life-long fans of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence, eitherfrom classic Christie novels like Murder on the Orient Express or fromthe popular Masterpiece Theater adaptations, Currans discoveries will shapehow Christie is read. (Independent on Sunday).

From The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to Magpie Murders, and related diversions including cryptic crosswords and Cains 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 development of the crossword, the growth of bridge and Mahjong, the enduring popularity of jigsaws and the emergence of Cluedo all activities requiring the little grey cells. The Murder Game considers all of these, and many other sporting and competitive recreations, helping to explain the reading publics ongoing love affair with the Golden Age.

Agatha Christies Complete Secret Notebooks brings together for the first time Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making, two volumes that explore the fascinating contents of her 73 notebooks. This includes illustrations, deleted extracts, unused ideas, two unpublished Poirot stories and a lost Miss Marple. When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the worlds most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was Agatha Christies output 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes? Following the death of Agathas daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christies private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations and details that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story. Christie archivist and expert John Curran leads the reader through the six decades of Agatha Christies writing career, unearthing some remarkable clues to her success and a number of never-before-published excerpts and stories from her archives. This book features Agathas original ending of her very first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, painstakingly transcribed from her notebooks. It 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 Caretakers Wife.

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

Agatha Christies 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 Christies Secret Notebooks, Christie archivist and expert John Curran leads the reader through the six decades of Agatha Christies 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 Christies 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 Agathas original ending, painstakingly transcribed from her notebooks.Every decade saw Agatha Christies 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 Agathas writing through the decades, including the influence of the swinging sixties and seventies, concluding the book with a look at Agathas 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 Caretakers Wife.

A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christies 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 worlds most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller.So prolific was Agatha Christies output 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes?Following the death of Agathas daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christies private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story.What is the deleted scene in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles? How did the infamous twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, really come about? Which very famous Poirot novel started life as an adventure for Miss Marple? Which books were designed to have completely different endings, and what were they?Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own Autobiography, this remarkable new book includes a wealth of extracts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters, plus for the first time two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published.

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

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.

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?