Murder mystery author Dame Agatha Christie’s typewriter will feature in an exhibition celebrating her life later this year.
Marking 50 years since the writer’s death, the Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery exhibition at the British Library will feature some of her personal items, many of which have never been displayed before.
It aims to explore how the Death on the Nile author’s life, travels and interests inspired her work and the creation of her iconic characters, including detective Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
Exhibits will include her typewriter, personal and professional correspondence with other writers and family photographs as well as notebooks and scripts for novels.
Her great-grandson, James Prichard, who is chief executive and chairman of Agatha Christie Limited, said: “My father, Mathew, has carefully selected a wide range of items from the Christie Archive which offer remarkable insights into Agatha Christie from both a professional and personal perspective, and that are sure to fascinate visitors.
“It feels fitting to do this to help mark the 50th anniversary of her death; this combines an opportunity for quiet reflection, but also an opportunity to celebrate the immense achievements of her life.
“Hers was truly one of the most remarkable lives of the 20th century.”
Lucy Rowland, lead curator of the exhibition, said of the author: “Her impact on crime fiction as a genre has been immense and this exhibition will take visitors back to Christie’s childhood and explore her journey to becoming an iconic writer, while celebrating how adaptations of her novels for stage and screen continue to enthral audiences today, over 50 years after her death.”
Born in Torquay in 1890, Dame Agatha wrote 80 crime novels and more than 25 plays, including The Mousetrap.
She has sold some two billion books, including more than one billion in the English language alone, according to the author’s website.
The exhibition in London, supported by Great Western Railway, opens on October 30 and will run until June 20 next year.
It has been developed in collaboration with Agatha Christie Limited and the Christie Archive Trust.
