Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Agatha and the Ecstasy

Today marks the 120th anniversary of renowned author Agatha Christie’s birth in Torquay, England. Even if you’re not presently in Torquay attending the 2010 Agatha Christie Festival, there are still plenty of ways to feel a part of this occasion.

• The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival page offers a rundown of the many blogs participating in a month-long celebration of Christie’s literary legacy.

• At the Barnes & Noble Mystery Bookclub site, crime writers, critics, and other enthusiastic Christie readers recall her famous prose as well as the numerous movie and television adaptations of her works.

• Would you like to enter a contest to win one free copy of every Christie novel published in your native language? Just click here.

• Contributors to the blog Poe’s Deadly Daughters weigh in with their own thoughts on the so-called Queen of Crime.

• Editor and blogger Janet Rudolph offers a chocolate dessert that she believes is appropriate for this commemoration. She also lists the alternative titles for many Christie novels.

• The BBC has put together an archive of its Christie coverage, including a 1955 interview with the author, in which she tells how to write a best-selling novel.

• Les Blatt of Classic Mysteries provides a link to his podcast reviews of 13 Christie novels, put together over the last three years.

• YouTube features a collection of notable Christie quotes.

• Nicolas Pillai of Squeezegut Alley honors this occasion by featuring the opening title sequences from both Granada TV’s Poirot series, starring David Suchet, and the BBC’s Miss Marple series, with Joan Hickson in the title role.

• Even Google gets into the act with a special home page “doodle.”

And if you happen to spot any more Agatha Christie postings in your travels around the Web today, please let us all know about them in the Comments section of this post.

READ MORE:The Queen of Crime Writing--Agatha Christie,” by Julie Oreskovich (AbeBooks); “Agatha Christie and Nursery Rhymes,” by Janet Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).

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