AGATHA CHRISTIE: A WORLD OF MYSTERY
30 October 2026 – 20 June 2027
British Library, Euston Road, London
@britishlibrary
REVIEW by KATHLEEN BONDAR
This deep dive into the life and works of author Agatha Christie (1890- 1976) “Queen of Crime”, presented by the British Library, is a meeting of (forensic) minds in many ways and a sure way to entice the wider public into the BL’s cavernous halls. There are copies of first editions and manuscripts, immersive trips into Christie’s travels and an underground map of her crime novels (e.g. King’s Cross – The Adventure of the Clapham Cook; Hyde Park Corner – The Man in the Brown Suit). There are classic artefacts such as her portable Remington typewriter, screen costumes for Miss Marple & Poirot and portraits of the writer from childhood to old age.
Photos of the author (left & right) in Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery at the British Library. A first edition of Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie (centre).
Divided into five sections, “The Country House” gallery opens with paintings of Agatha resplendent in lacy dresses befitting an upper-class young lady. From birth, Agatha had direct experience of servants and grand houses which fed her work. A typescript for her first short story as a child, House of Beauty, indicates an early fascination with crime. She received Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s notebook illustrating Sherlock’s method for solving mysteries and feedback from the crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers. Following her adolescence, during the First World War, Christie volunteered as a nurse and pharmacy dispenser. It is in “The Dispensary”, we find how Christie became quite a knowledge on poisons.
Christie’s skill in writing the ‘closed circle mystery’ in which characters are contained in tight settings, is wittily illustrated in the most immersive part of the exhibition: “The Train”. Set designers have excelled in evoking an Orient Express-inspired train carriage, with animated, snowy scenes through compartment windows, luxury velvet lounges, a well-stocked drinks trolley and Inspector Poirot’s portly form lurking in a display cabinet.
Christie’s second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan opened the way for her to become involved in archaeological digs in Iraq and Syria from the 1930s. These experiences informed novels like Murder in Mesopotamia and They Came to Baghdad. Christie’s 1937 Remington typewriter is a feature, something she carried with her alongside her Leica camera used for photographing artefacts. And Then There Were None was typed using this Remington and can be seen in the section: “The Dig”.
The final part of the exhibition weaves through tube stations related to her novels into London’s West End. In “The Theatre” we watch rare footage of Christie at The Mousetrap Celebrations. Still running after 70 years and at St Martin’s Lane Theatre since 1974, The Mousetrap is one of many novels transcribed for stage (other notables include Witness for the Prosecution & Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case). These were swiftly followed by screen adaptations which brought Christie’s iconic detectives (Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot) to audiences worldwide.
Be prepared, in the vein of crime genre, there is a lot to examine and uncover. So alongside multiple-choice games like “What are your chances of being murdered in a Christie novel?”, old-school concentration and long-form reading is a must. It is the British Library, after all.
