Agatha Christie

Page Updated: 23/09/98

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Agatha Christie - Page 1

HarperCollins Publish 'Lost' Christie Stories

About the Author (Photo by Angus McBean/Havard Theatre Collection)

Bibliography

While the Light Lasts

pbk 06 Jul 98

Nemesis (Audio)

17 Aug 98

The Moving Finger (Audio)

20 Jul 98

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

The Moving Finger

Paperback - HarperCollins (1998)

First British Edition - HarperCollins (1998)

While the Light Lasts

A Brand New Collection Of Previously Unpublished Short Stories By The Queen Of Crime
The House of Dreams is the first story Agatha Christie ever wrote and recounts the effects of a macabre recurring dream on a man's life.
The Actress tells of a woman who turns the tables on her blackmailer.
The Edge is a gripping tale of jealousy and infidelity.
In Christmas Adventure Poirot is caught up in some unseasonal mayhem.
The Lonely God is an unlikely love story about two lost souls who meet in the British Museum.
In Manx Gold two young heroes race against time to discover buried treasure.
Within a Wall tells of a tragic love triangle between a portrait painter, his wife and his daughter's godmother.
The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, is another early Poirot story which Agatha Christie would later rework.
The book concludes with While the Light Lasts, where a Rhodesian tobacco plantation is the setting for an unexpected visitor from beyond the grave…
Like many of her contemporaries, Agatha Christie wrote stories for a variety of magazines in the 1920s and '30s, and most of these eventually found their way into her books of short stories.
Now, 21 years after her death, detective work worthy of Agatha Christie herself has unearthed seven 'new' stories, most of which have never been published anywhere in the world since their original appearances.
In this new collection the author observes the tragic flaws in human nature, providing a glimpse of the Queen of Crime in the making. Anyone who has ever read Agatha Christie will enjoy every story for her skill at characterisation and her ability to deliver an unexpected twist in the tail…
Audiobook also available.

HarperCollins Audio (1998)

Nemesis (Audio)

Read by Joan Hickson

Miss Marple was more than a little surprised when she received a letter from a friend who had died only a week earlier. His letter urged her to investigate a crime - but he gave no details as to who was involved…
'let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream' he quoted.
They were fine words, but Miss Marple could hardly see how they applied to herself. And yet her late friend had christened her Nemesis…
Recorded in 1995 on location at Joan Hickson's home in Essex
4 Tapes: Unabridged - Approx. 7 and a half hours listening

HarperCollins Audio (1998)

The Moving Finger (Audio)

A Miss Marple murder mystery.
Read by Joan Hickson
Lymstock was a town with more than its share of shameful secrets - a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate-mail caused only a minor stir.
But all of that changed when one of the recipients, Mrs Symmington, committed suicide. Her final note said 'I can't go on'. Only Miss Marple Questioned the coroner's verdict of suicide. Was this the work of a poison-pen? Or of a poisoner?
Running time approx. 5 and a half hours. 4 tapes. Unabridged.

'Beyond all doubt the puzzle in The Moving Finger is fit for experts' The Times

Paperback - Fontana (1969)

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

What was it that Marina Gregg, the famous film actress, saw just before a murder was committed in her house? What or who caused her expression to change so violently that one observer was reminded of Alfred Tennyson:
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side:
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.
A few minutes later a body lay dead in Marina's large house - the second time a victim of wilful murder had been discovered there. Miss Marple, whose house in St. Mary Mead is close to the scene of the murder, finds a perfect opportunity to indulge in the particular kind of "unravefling" at which she is adept. Agatha Christie's millions of fans will enjoy trying to anticipate Miss Marple, as they will enjoy the humour and characterisation of this ingenious and exciting story.

Paperback - Null

The Moving Finger

As a place to convalesce after a bad flying crash Lymstock sounded ideal. So thought Jerry Burton when he took a house there for himself and his sister Joanna. But they soon discovered that the under-currents of this placid backwater were both swift and dangerous. A poison pen was hard at work sending letters which were usually as ridiculous as they were unpleasant, until one day somebody died. Who could it be in this peaceful, old-world village who was bent on creating chaos? The police found many suspects and their investigations revealed some surprising facts, but they didn't find the criminal, and the letters went on circulating. It needed an expert in human wickedness to solve the mystery of the moving finger, and the inevitable expert is Agatha Christie's seemingly innocuous spinster, old Miss Marple.

'There is no one like Agatha Christie for baffling the most experienced detective story readers; her vein of comedy is as fresh as ever.' Daily Telegraph
'I have offen thought that Mrs Christie was not so much the best as the only living writer of the true or classic detective story ... Her simple aim is to write a puzzle story to keep us curious and leave us pleased, and she pulls it off every blessed time.' Margery Allingham in the Daily Graphic
'She has held the throne of detection for the last ten years and brooks no rival near her.' New Statesman

About The Author
Agatha Christie at work

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. She wrote 80 crime mysteries and collections, and saw her work translated into more languages than Shakespeare. Her enduring success, enhanced by many film and TV adaptations, is a tribute to the timeless appeal of her characters and the unequalled ingenuity of her plots.
Agatha Christie says: 'I was born in Devonshire, and had a very happy childhood with practically no lessons and lots of time to roam about the garden and imagine things. 'It was my mother who told me to write. She was a woman of great charm and great character, and was always convinced that her children could do anything! I was in bed with a bad cold and she said, "You'd better write a short story. Nonsense, don't say you can't! Of course you can!"
'For some years I enjoyed myself very much writing stories of unrelieved gloom where most of the characters died. Also a good deal of poetry and a novel with an impossible number of characters in it. Then I thought it would be fun to try and write a detective story. It was an exciting day when The Mysterious Affair at Styles was accepted and published. I was working as a dispenser at a Red Cross Hospital during the First World War when I wrote it.
'As for my tastes, I enjoy my food, hate the taste of any kind of alcohol, have tried and tried to like smoking, but can't manage it. I adore flowers, am crazy about the sea, love the theatre, but am bored to death by the talkies (and am very stupid at following them), loathe wireless and all loud noises, dislike living in cities. I do a lot of travelling, mostly in the Near East, and have a great love of the desert.'

CHRISTIE, (Dame) Agatha (Mary Clarissa, nee Miller). Also wrote as Mary Westmacott. British. Born in Torquay, Devon, IS September 1890. Educated privately at home; studied singing and piano in Paris. Married 1) Colonel Archibald Christi.e in 1914 (divorced, 1928, died 1962), one daughter; 2) the archaelogist Max Mallowan in 1930 (died 1978). Served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in a Red Cross hospital in Torquay during World War I, and worked in the dispensary of University College Hospital, London, during World War II; also assisted her husband on excavations in Iraq and Syria and on the Assyrian cities. President, Detection Club. Recipient: Mystery Writers of America Grand Master award, 1954; New York Drama Critics Circle award, 1955. D.Litt.: University of Exeter, 1961. Fellow, Royal Society of Literature, 1950. C.B.E. (Commander, Order of the British Empire), 1956; D.B.E. (Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire), 1971. Died 12 January l976.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Black Coffee (HarperCollins, 1998) Nov 98

While the Light Lasts Short Stories (HarperCollins, 1998) HarperCollins Pbk Jul 98

Nemesis (Audio) (HarperCollins Audio, 1998) Aug 98 (Jane Marple)

The Moving Finger (Audio) (HarperCollins Audio, 1998) Jul 98

The Scoop and Behind the Screen (Gollancz, 1983)

The Agatha Christie Hour Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1982)

Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1979) (Jane Marple)

Sleeping Murder (Collins Crime Club, 1976) (Jane Marple)

Curtain: Hercule Poirot's Last Case (Collins Crime Club, 1975) ( Poirot)

Poirot's Early Cases Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1974)

Postern of Fate (Collins Crime Club, 1973) ( Beresfords)

Elephants Can Remember (Collins Crime Club, 1972) ( Poirot)

Nemesis (Collins Crime Club, 1971) (Jane Marple)

Passenger to Frankfurt (Collins Crime Club, 1970)

Hallowe'en Party (Collins Crime Club, 1969) ( Poirot)

By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Collins Crime Club, 1968) ( Beresfords)

Endless Night (Collins Crime Club, 1967)

Third Girl (Collins Crime Club, 1966) ( Poirot)

13 for Luck! A Selection of Mystery Stories for Young Readers Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1966)

At Bertram's Hotel (Collins Crime Club, 1965) (Jane Marple)

Star over Bethlehem and Other Stories Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1965) As Agatha Christie Mallowan

A Caribbean Mystery (Collins Crime Club, 1964) (Jane Marple)

The Clocks (Collins Crime Club, 1963) ( Poirot)

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (Collins Crime Club, 1962) Fontana Pbk Jan 69 (Jane Marple)

The Pale Horse (Collins Crime Club, 1961)

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and Selection of Entrees Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1960) (Jane Marple)

Cat among the Pigeons (Collins Crime Club, 1959) ( Poirot)

Ordeal by Innocence (Collins Crime Club, 1958)

4:50 from Paddington (Collins Crime Club, 1957) (Jane Marple)

Dead Man's Folly (Collins Crime Club, 1956) ( Poirot)

Hickory, Dickory, Dock (Collins Crime Club, 1955) ( Poirot)

Destination Unknown (Collins Crime Club, 1954)

A Pocket Full of Rye (Collins Crime Club, 1953) (Jane Marple)

After the Funeral (Collins Crime Club, 1953) ( Poirot)

Mrs McGinty's Dead (Collins Crime Club, 1952) ( Poirot)

They Do It with Mirrors (Collins Crime Club, 1952) (Jane Marple)

They Came to Baghdad (Collins Crime Club, 1951)

A Murder Is Announced (Collins Crime Club, 1950) (Jane Marple)

Crooked House (Collins Crime Club, 1949)

Taken at the Flood (Collins Crime Club, 1948) ( Poirot)

The Labours of Hercules Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1947)

The Hollow (Collins Crime Club, 1946) ( Poirot)

Poirot Knows the Murderer Short Stories (Todd, 1946)

Poirot Lends a Hand Short Stories (Todd, 1946)

Death Comes as the End (Collins Crime Club, 1945)

Sparkling Cyanide (Collins Crime Club, 1945)

Towards Zero (Collins Crime Club, 1944) ( Battle)

The Veiled Lady and The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest Short Stories (Todd, 1944)

The Moving Finger (Collins Crime Club, 1943) (Jane Marple)

Poirot on Holiday Short Stories (Todd, 1943)

Problem at Pollensa Bay and Christmas Adventure Short Stories (Todd, 1943)

Five Little Pigs (Collins Crime Club, 1942) ( Poirot)

The Body in the Library (Collins Crime Club, 1942) (Jane Marple)

Evil under the Sun (Collins Crime Club, 1941) ( Poirot)

N or M? (Collins Crime Club, 1941) ( Beresfords)

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (Collins Crime Club, 1940) ( Poirot)

Sad Cypress (Collins Crime Club, 1940) ( Poirot)

Murder to Hounds ( 1939) (Sam Spade)

Murder Is Easy (Collins Crime Club, 1939) Pan Pbk Jan 52 ( Battle)

Ten Little Niggers (Collins Crime Club, 1939)

Appointment with Death (Collins Crime Club, 1938) ( Poirot)

Hercule Poirot's Christmas (Collins Crime Club, 1938) ( Poirot)

Death on the Nile (Collins Crime Club, 1937) ( Poirot)

Dumb Witness (Collins Crime Club, 1937) ( Poirot & Hastings)

Murder in the Mews and Three Other Poirot Cases Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1937)

Cards on the Table (Collins Crime Club, 1936) ( Poirot, Battle & Race)

Murder in Mesopotamia (Collins Crime Club, 1936) ( Poirot)

The A.B.C. Murders (Collins Crime Club, 1936) Collins Crime Club Aug 98 ( Poirot)

Death in the Clouds (Collins Crime Club, 1935) Collins Crime Club Apr 98 Fontana Pbk Jan 72 ( Poirot)

Three Act Tragedy (Collins Crime Club, 1935) Collins Crime Club Apr 98

Murder on the Orient Express (Collins Crime Club, 1934) Collins Crime Club Feb 98 ( Poirot)

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Collins Crime Club, 1934) Collins Crime Club Apr 98

Parker Pyne Investigates Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1934) Collins Crime Club Apr 98

The Listerdale Mystery and Other Stories Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1934) Collins Crime Club Feb 98

Lord Edgware Dies (Collins Crime Club, 1933) Collins Crime Club Feb 98 Fontana Pbk Jan 80 ( Poirot)

The Hound of Death and Other Stories Short Stories (Odhams, 1933) Odhams Feb 98

Peril at End House (Collins Crime Club, 1932) ( Poirot)

The Thirteen Problems Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1932) (Jane Marple)

The Floating Admiral (Hodder & Stoughton, 1931)

The Sittaford Mystery (Collins Crime Club, 1931)

The Murder at the Vicarage (Collins Crime Club, 1930) (Jane Marple)

The Mysterious Mr. Quin Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1930) Collins Crime Club Jul 97

The Seven Dials Mystery (Collins Crime Club, 1929) Collins Crime Club Jul 97 ( Battle)

Partners in Crime Short Stories (Collins Crime Club, 1929) Collins Crime Club Jul 97 ( Beresfords)

The Under Dog Short Stories (Reader's Library, 1929)

The Mystery of the Blue Train (Collins Crime Club, 1928) Collins Crime Club Jul 97 Penguin Pbk Jan 49 ( Poirot)

The Big Four (Collins Crime Club, 1927) Collins Crime Club Jul 97 ( Poirot)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Collins Crime Club, 1926) Collins Crime Club Jul 97 ( Poirot)

The Secret of Chimneys (Lane, 1925) Lane Apr 98 Pan Pbk Jan 59 ( Battle)

The Man in the Brown Suit (Lane, 1924) Lane Apr 98 Pan Pbk Jan 58 ( Race)

Poirot Investigates Short Stories (Lane, 1924) Lane Apr 97 ( Poirot)

The Murder on the Links (Lane, 1923) Lane Apr 98 ( Poirot)

The Secret Adversary (Lane, 1922) Lane Apr 98 ( Beresfords)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Lane, 1920) Lane Apr 98 Pan Pbk Jan 54 ( Poirot)

Agatha Christie Omnibus The Twenties, v1: " Mysterious Affair at Styles" ,

Agatha Christie Omnibus:The Twenties, v2: " Man in the Brown Suit" , " Poir

Agatha Christie Omnibus:The Twenties, v3: " Murder of Roger Ackroyd" , " Bi

Agatha Christie Omnibus:The Twenties, v4: " Seven Dials Mystery" , " Partne

And Then There Were None

Hercule Poirot's Casebook

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