Agatha Christie

[John Wright]

John - a strange coincidence, this! ........ So did these books go out to the charity shop? No! I love them too (or at least I loved them when I read them)......So agreed: quality, if of the 'light' variety

I've always wanted to read 'At Bertram's Hotel' (one of the best of the Joan Hickson dramatisations)... and a cracking cover.

Got that one, John? I need to find it !!

Yes I have the same editions as those you photographed Caliban, and yes my memories of those Tom Adams covers as a teenager is the reason I seek out the Fontanas rather than Pan.

PS1: An article found at random about the Fontana cover art:

https://savidgereads.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/murder-mystery-on-the-english-riviera

PS2: Among the quotes, I loved "One never quite allows for the moron in our midst."

I'm enjoying reading those quotes but trying to avoid those from books I haven't yet read.

Although I have most of them I'm avoiding reading her later books, I'm keeping to 1920s and 30s and the middle east stories for a while. In one of her well-known books I felt a bit uneasy at the mention of Aleppo.

[Nick Armstrong]

... all very well, but hardly Simenon

Ah well.... Quai des Orfèvres or St Mary Mead? As ever, tu paies ton argent et tu fais ton choix, mon ami...

Room for both, in different moods, I'd say.

[mangerton]

I read Simenon's Le Témoignage de l'enfant de chœur in sixth form non-specialist French. Great stuff, and quite apposite for this forum! I had read some of Christie by that time, but then I discovered D L Sayer's output, and to my my mind, there is no comparison. The Nine Tailors would without doubt be my choice for that desert island.

[Nick Armstrong]

The Nine Tailors would without doubt be my choice for that desert island.

Well skiing for a moment off-piste to join you, I agree. Anna will testify to the fact that some time ago I recommended that very book.

It's wonderful.

[Nick Armstrong]

More Proustie than Christie?

Loads of them here, Cal.

Cheers, Chief

[John Wright]

Caliban, I have bought a few Fontana Christie's from ebay. I soon learned to beware of a certain seller (apparently part of Magpie mob) who might show an image of the Fontana cover but the book they are selling is not the one pictured and the quality/condition can't be guaranteed, indeed the image may be Fontana but the details printed on their page are Pan. One seller name they use is awesomebooksuk and another is worldofbooks08

At ebay, best to buy from an obvious joe public getting rid of a few books.

Re: FF's link at Abebooks, I'm suspicious about seller Sunrise Books though they do use more than one image for several copies on sale of Bertram's Hotel so maybe OK.

[Ferretfancy]

A propos of nothing in particular, I used to live in Agatha Christie's old house. Not, I hasten to add, the whole of it, 'Styles' in Charters Road, Sunningdale, is a very grand Victorian house which had been broken up into flats and there was a broom cupboard left over which was the only accommodation in Sunningdale that I could afford, so I bought it. The owners of the big flats had accumulated a mass of AC paperbacks which they shelved in the communal entrance hall.

She did write 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' or some such similar title, but I promise, I never had a mysterious affair while I lived there. Well, I sort of did, but that's another story ...

Did anyone see the movie 'Agatha' (1978)? It starred Vanessa Redgrave as AC, which is a thought to conjure with.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which dates from 1920, was one of the first ten Penguin Books, a few years ago they were reprinted in a special box set which I have on the shelf. It was a good selection, including Dorothy L Sayers The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Eric Linklater's Poets's Pub, and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Agatha Christie must be right up there with PG Wodehouse in the number of reprints and new editions over nearly a century.

I have quite a few happy recollections of finding a Christie title on a wet day in the Lake District and devouring it while the rain ran down the windows!

[John Wright]

Favourite wisdoms of Agatha Christie, so far I do like

“A man when he is making up to anybody can be cordial and gallant and full of little attentions and altogether charming. But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep.”

haven't read the book that this is from:

..remember that an elderly unmarried woman who knits and gardens is streets ahead of any detective sergeant. She can tell you what might have happened and what ought to have happened and even what actually did happen! And she can tell you why it happened!

[Flosshilde]

I have quite a few happy recollections of finding a Christie title on a wet day in the Lake District and devouring it while the rain ran down the windows!

A recent holiday in a house in Angus was enlivened (if that's the right word!) by a large selection of Agatha Christie. Rather more entertaining than the bookcase (floor to ceiling) of bibles in a house on Lewis.

[John Wright]

In a collection of paperbacks that I acquired, as well as a dozen Christies (Fontana), there's a handful by Ngaio Marsh and one by Dorothy L Sayers (Whose Body?). Despite being semi-retired I haven't found as much reading time as I had hoped but I'm determined to read most of Christie's early works first before venturing to the others.

[Nick Armstrong]

Caliban, I have bought a few Fontana Christie's from ebay...

Re: FF's link at Abebooks, I'm suspicious about seller Sunrise Books though they do use more than one image for several copies on sale of Bertram's Hotel so maybe OK.

Thanks John

[french frank]

Re: FF's link at Abebooks, I'm suspicious about seller Sunrise Books though they do use more than one image for several copies on sale of Bertram's Hotel so maybe OK.

If it specifies that it's Fontana, a paperback and 1967 or later it should be all right. As the forum oracle told me à propos another source, Abebooks is owned by Amazon so I assume any book description is guaranteed.