Murder, she wrote: Agatha Christie celebrations around the world
* The widest such effort comes, not surprisingly, from Agatha Christie Ltd, a company the author founded herself in 1955, to manage the rights to her books. She was 65 at the time, and already a legend.
The company, now run by her great-grandson, James Prichard, is organising a Read Christie 2026 challenge via agathachristie.com. The theme is Biggest, Best and Beloved, with awards set to be conferred on a different Christie book, for a different reason, each month. January’s prize will be for Best Opening; February’s for Beloved Character, and so on. Participants around the world are invited to print out a challenge postcard, enter their nominations for the category of each month, and send it in.
* The British Library in London will host a special exhibition on Christie, from October to June. Exhibits include the Remington typewriter on which she wrote her bestselling novel, And Then There Were None (1939); the notebooks in which she plotted her mysteries; correspondence, photographs, audio recordings and manuscripts.
* Torquay, Christie’s birthplace on the English Riviera, is pulling out all the stops in its celebration. The Agatha Christie Festival Spring Gathering on April 11 and 12 will feature prominent crime writers such as Val McDermid and Abir Mukherjee, podcast recordings, dinner events and exclusive souvenirs.
A new Agatha Christie Mile app is being launched, as a supplement to the popular Agatha Christie Mile walking trail, which wends its way past local landmarks reflected in her books, including a hotel, an abbey and a cove.
Celebrations for the year will conclude with the International Agatha Christie Festival held annually in her birth month, September. Here too there will be literary discussions, theatre, guided walks, live music and family activities.
* Across the Atlantic, the Smithsonian Institution will celebrate the centenary of one of the author’s best-loved novels, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), as well as the 50th anniversary of her death, with a special programme in which author Daniel Stashower will investigate her life and career and actors Scott Sedar and Bari Biern will give voice to her most beloved characters.
* Commercial travel companies are promoting themed experiences linked to Christie’s work. Several operators are advertising Nile cruises aboard SS Sudan, the steamship on which Christie travelled in the 1930s while researching Death on the Nile (1937). In her books, beautiful heiresses are shot in their beds, and passion and menace abound. In real life, these cruises follow scheduled routes between Luxor and Aswan.
135 years after her birth, Christie remains one of the bestselling writers of all time. The most translated (according to UNESCO, there are 7,236 translations derived from her written works). Author of the world’s bestselling crime novel, And Then There Were None. Author of the world’s longest running play, The Mousetrap (which opened on West End in 1952).
It’s a remarkable legacy for a lonely girl who had only the company of pets and imaginary companions growing up.
(K Narayanan writes on films, videogames, books and, occasionally, technology)
