Agatha Christie Bus

Agatha Christie Bus

Monday 2 May 2011

Secret Notebooks

I just had to say a few words about Agatha Christie's Secret notebooks by John Curran.  If you are interested in Agatha Christie then this really is a "must have".  John Curran was granted permission to go through all Agatha's notebooks - she used children's exercise books to plot all her mysteries and write down notes and ideas as they occurred to her.

John has done a really brilliant job in putting this book together and it is interesting to read Agatha's notes and to see the things she put in the books and the things she omitted.  Probably best to read this once you have read Agatha's books as there are spoilers.

What I particularly like about this book is the fact that there are facsimile pages of Agatha's notes and next to these they are transcribed so very easy to read.  Its absolutely fascinating and gives an insight into how the Queen of Crime plotted her mysteries.

3 comments:

  1. Anne, I am afraid to start reading this book! I have it and was really looking forward to all the fun of reading Agatha's very own notes. I am afraid that I won't be able to follow Curran's reasoning or agree with his surmise on the notes. I assume they are scratch notes, and so not very coherent. Are you enjoying the read then?

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  2. Yes I am I find it fascinating and on some of them I have made my own mind up. Its not really a book for reading from cover to cover I don't think - more of dipping into for 10 minutes at a time or so.

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  3. Anne, that is what I thought, too, well put. It doesm seem he tried to cover so much in one book for her writings are at least 60 books. It would be nice if he had included a photo of all the notebooks in one pile, I can only imagine all the old scraps with scribbles. Amazing task for anyone to tackle.

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