My Agatha Christie Project

Writing My Way Out of Burnout: Essay Three

At the end of last year I asked you, my supportive readers, what sort of things I could write about. As I’m recovering from burnout one of the hardest things for me, at the moment, is generating ideas. I predominantly write about my writing journey but as this had stalled, albeit temporarily, I was a bit stumped.

From all of your ideas so far I’ve written about my chicken adventures and balancing burnout over Christmas. (To read them you might need to upgrade your subscription).

Rebecca, from

Dear Reader, I'm lost

, suggested writing about: Your Agatha Christie reading marathon - are some of them waaaay better than others, and which are leaving you cold. So, I thought I’d do just that. This is the first of perhaps a number of essays as I travel deeper into the project.

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Once upon a time there was a young girl who adored The Famous Five by Enid Blyton. And by that I mean, I was completely obsessed, like many others at that age, and have read them all many many times. As an adult, I would often turn to them for comfort, possibly when I needed to calm and heal my mind. The Famous Five were not murder mysteries, but they were adventure stories with mystery thrown in. This quest to find ‘whodunnit’ has stayed with me.

As an adult, I discovered a love and hunger for murder mysteries. I cannot remember exactly when this happened, although I recall sitting on the green velvet settee in my nana’s living room during the months after I finished university, a coal fire burning, watching various mysteries on the TV. I think she liked Inspector Morse in particular, so when the Lewis version of Morse came out I insisted that my husband and I watched.

Sadly, I cannot remember watching my first Marple or Poirot but it would’ve been the Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie’s versions. I know some people love Joan Hickson but I adored the cosiness of the first two (maybe they reminded me of my grandmothers?). There was also something so captivating about the grand houses, Marple’s cosy cottage and beautiful garden, the cut glass accents and the bright red lipsticks on the young women.

Obviously, for me David Suchet is the only Poirot. None of Kenneth Branagh’s moustache thank you very much (even though I used to adore him as an actor). But I love Marple’s adventures so much more than Poirot’s. With Marple you just get a sense that everything is going to be okay (though not always for the victims).

So, for some time my only experience of Agatha Christie was through the ITV programmes. Until finally I began to read the books. At Bertram’s Hotel was my first read and Hallowe’en Party followed. And then I read a few randomly.

When I first met my (former) literary agent a decade ago I went into Hatchards bookshop afterwards and bought myself a copy of Dead Man’s Folly to remember the day. I was writing for Novelicious at the time (now no longer online). It was a blog about books and writing and I had a weekly column about food in fiction. But the opportunity to visit ‘the English Riviera’ where Agatha Christie spent time as a child, had a house on the river (now National Trust) and based some of her stories came up and I was down there like a shot. There’s a picture of my husband somewhere on my laptop lying ‘dead’ in the boat house where the ITV adaptation of Dead Man’s Folly was filmed. Shame I can’t find it! (One of the articles I wrote about my Agatha Christie visit is here on my old website).

Then one day it occurred to me, by concentrating on the TV series and a few isolated books, I was missing the bigger picture. I was in the fortunate position of having ALL the Agatha Christie books ahead of me to read. And she has so many of them. Plus, as a writer who wants to write her own mystery one day (well, it’s already partially written) wouldn’t it be fantastic to read them in chronological order so I could observe Agatha’s progress as a writer.

And so my Agatha Christie Project was born. Plus my obsession with collecting her books.

(I have collected so many more since taking the above photograph! The hardback Harper Collins editions are just stunning with beautiful endpapers.)

I am near the very beginning of this project. So far I’ve read her first six books, which were the first ones published by The Bodley Head publishers. This consists of five novels and one collection of short stories. My favourite so far, by an absolute mile, is The Man in a Brown Suit. And my least favourite is the collection of short stories and The Secret of Chimneys. Although funnily enough I love the ITV adaptation of Chimneys - probably because it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original novel.

The next one on my list is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I know who the murderer is, but I believe this was a shocking reveal back in the day.

The reading list I’m working off is from the Agatha Christie website and you can download the pdf here. The list includes plays, books inspired by Christie (including Sophie Hannah of which I’ve read a couple) as well as autobiographies and biographies. And yes, it is my intention to read them all and maybe watch a few plays too.

An introduction to the Agatha Christie reading list:

My Agatha Christie books (so far, a few might have been added since this was filmed!):

My reading journal entry and review for The Secret of Chimneys: