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Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making - Includes Two Unpublished Poirot Stories
 
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Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making - Includes Two Unpublished Poirot Stories (Hardcover)

by John Curran (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 480 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (3 Sep 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007310560
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007310562
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,587 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Product Description

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the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories.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 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 Christie's 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 Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's 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.


About the Author

John Curran is the long-time literary advisor to her Agatha Christie's estate, often giving talks and appearing on documentaries about her life. He has spent the last few years unpicking the notebooks and deciphering Agatha Christie's handwriting for this, his first book.

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Addictive analysis, 2 Sep 2009
Provides fascinating insights into Christie's mind -- unputdownable! Mr Curran has done a superb job -- he clearly knows Christie's oeuvre inside out. Highly recommended to all Christie aficionados. A must for detective story writers, established as well as aspiring.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional piece of literary criticism., 26 Sep 2009
By David H. Headley "David H Headley" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks is a work of supreme interest to Christie fans everywhere containing a unique insight into the creative process of one of the world's favourite storytellers.

Regarding the review by R. Mitra. Has R. Mitra read the same book as I have?

The first point (s)he makes - that Mrs Christie considered Miss Marple for Dead Man's Folly - proves that (s)he completely misses the point. A more careful re-reading of this passage will show that this is a piece of evocative creative writing and an attempt (obviously very successful) on the part of John Curran to imagine Agatha Christie at work on one of her Notebooks.

Mitra complains about a lack of `additional facts'. This book is crammed with hitherto unknown and fascinating facts about most Christie titles. For instance, Miss Marple was the first choice to solve `Death on the Nile'? Or the alternative solutions for `Death Comes as the End'? And the genesis of `Five Little Pigs'? And the changes to `Endless Night'? or the revelations about `Sleeping Murder'. Could any of these facts be gleaned from a reading of the novels themselves, however careful? No, they could not and I could give many more examples....

And again, the point about the short story that inspired Dumb Witness is missed. The solutions to both novel and ss are different, a point that John Curran is at pains to point out. This is what makes the short story interesting to Christie fans (dyed-in-the-wool or not).

John Curran, or Agatha Christie can hardly be held responsible if Mitra assumes that `unpublished' means `new' - how could they be new when Christie is dead for over 30 years. Not sure where lawyers and 'fat fees' come in?

No pictures or photos? (`nice photos' in a book of literary criticism?)- the final proof that R. Mitra did not actually read this book. There are at least 20 full-page illustrations most of them never seen before. And the crossing out is clearly explained - for someone taking the trouble to read the book.

It is a great piece of literary criticism and adds to the fact that Christie was indeed genius.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Agatha Christies Secret Notebooks, 27 Sep 2009
By J. M. Kent "Fantazar" (Scotland UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is a fascinating insight into the methods employed by the late great crime novelist Agatha Christie. I love the book and I am sure that any Agatha Christie fan will want to have this in their collection.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique contribution to our knowledge of Agatha Christie's writing
Mr Curran has written a wonderful book to add a unique contribution to the vast collection of books about Agatha Christie. Read more
Published 23 days ago by A Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks
John Curran's research into Agatha Christie's work adds a new dimension to the author's craft.
Here is a fascinating insight into the books written by one of the best loved... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. John Corney

3.0 out of 5 stars Some insight mostly commercial
I am a Christie fan, a real dyed in the wool fan for over 50 years. I loved her books, at least most of them, others I read with a touch of regret, such as 'how could you write... Read more
Published 1 month ago by R. Mitra

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