Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

Mary Mead and introductions by Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard and the award-winning bestselling author Kate Mosse, the one foot-thick book comes housed in its own wooden case adorned with brass fittings and with a leather handle, and is sure to be a major talking point amongst Agatha Christie fans and book collectors everywhere.

Find out more at www.agathachristie.com

Acknowledgements

This book has benefited greatly from the encouragement and assistance of many people whose names do not appear on the title page.

First and foremost, my thanks go to Mathew Prichard and his wife Lucy. The very existence of this book is due to Mathew’s generosity. He unhesitatingly agreed to my writing about the Notebooks when I first approached him. And he not only granted me complete and unfettered access to all of his grandmother’s papers but he and Lucy also extended me limitless hospitality on the many occasions when I studied them.

David Brawn, HarperCollins, for his faith in the project and Steve Gove for his eagle-eyed editing.

My brother Brendan read an early draft and his positive words gave much encouragement; and with his wife, Virginia, he provided me with a home-from-home (but with superior technical backup!).

My friend and fellow Christie devotee, Tony Medawar, made many helpful suggestions as well as sharing his research with me.

Felicity Windmill, HarperCollins Archivist; Dr Christine Faunch and her staff in Exeter University Library; Tamsen Harward and Jemma Jones at Agatha Christie Ltd.

David Headley of Goldsboro Books for his invaluable help and advice.

My many colleagues and friends in Dublin City Council for their support, especially Michael Sands, Press Officer and Jane Alger, Divisional Librarian, Readers’ Services.

And, for various reasons, my thanks also to Eurion Brown, Pete Coleman, Julius Green, John Perry, John Ryan, John Timon, Andy Trott and Nigel Wollen.

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Примечания

1

1. The Hollow

2. Five Little Pigs

3. Five Little Pigs

4. Sparkling Cyanide

5. Cat among the Pigeons

6. Ordeal by Innocence

7. ‘Sanctuary’

8. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

9. Sleeping Murder

10. A Murder is Announced

11. Fiddlers Three

12. The Hollow

13. Dead Man’s Folly

14. Hallowe ‘en Party

15. Ordeal by Innocence

16. N or M?

17. The Moving Finger

18. Spider’s Web

19. Taken at the Flood

20. Ordeal by Innocence

21. Ordeal by Innocence

22. The Rose and the Yew Tree

23. The Moving Finger

24. ‘The House at Shiraz’

25. Three Act Tragedy

26. A Caribbean Mystery 

2

Unlike the collected version, which is set unequivocally in London, the previously unpublished version has, like many other Labours, an international flavour. From the first sentence we are ‘abroad’ and, for the third time in the Labours, in Switzerland (perhaps significantly a neutral country). Poirot has already visited the country during ‘The Arcadian Deer’ and ‘The Erymanthian Boar’.

3

 A most unlikely and almost unique thought for Poirot!

4

 This is a reference to the first meeting of Vera Rossakoff and Poirot in ‘The Double Clue’, published in December 1923, when he unmasked her as a jewel thief. They subsequently met four years later in The Big Four.

5

 This is a reference to The Big Four when Poirot arranges the return to the Countess of the small son she had thought long dead.

6