Lady Lettice Lovage is the world's leading romantic novelist, known for having a colourful private life of her own – she has had many secret affairs with top political and business dignitaries. The international blackmailer known only as The King of Hearts has committed larceny and absconded with Lady Lettice's love letters.  However, he has left clues on the golf course as to the letters’ location.  A reward is offered for the first to recover the letters.

New for this year, we are introducing a free lunchtime social club for people to enjoy a fun activity whilst also having a bite to eat. You can either bring a packed lunch or grab something from the Torre Abbey Cafe. Events will run between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

To coincide with the launch of her memoir, Getting Away with Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen, we are delighted to be opening the Agatha Christie Literary Festival with the legend that is Lynda La Plante.

Teresa Peschel is the author of Agatha Christie, She Watched: one woman’s plot to watch 201 Agatha Christie movies without murdering the director, screenwriter, cast or her husband. For this talk she will be discussing the various international films from around the world and how other cultures adapt Agatha's work. Expect a fascinating whistlestop tour around the world (with film clips throughout) exploring both the cultural differences and the universal similarities in the way that Agatha's stories are told.

A panel discussion chaired by Kemper Donovan of the All About Agatha team, with Christie authorities, Dr John Curran and Dr Mark Aldridge, joined by Teresa Peschel (author of Agatha Christie, She Watched) and Christie fan and author of the Smart Women crime mysteries, Victoria Dowd. 

 In this panel debate, our Christie experts will challenge each other with their own pitches for Agatha’s Greatest Screen Adaptation.  

Andrew Eames is a travel writer, broadcaster and former newspaper journalist and the author of five travel books including the bestseller, The 8.55 to Baghdad. In this book he retraces a solo journey made by Agatha Christie from London to Baghdad in 1928, a journey that was to change her life completely.

Caroline Derry’s talk will explore how Agatha Christie represented lesbians in her post-war novels, and the insights they offer into the criminal justice system’s attitudes to lesbianism.

New for this year, we are introducing a free lunchtime social club for people to enjoy a fun activity whilst also having a bite to eat. You can either bring a packed lunch or grab something from the Torre Abbey Cafe. Events will run between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

Dust off the pages of Agatha Christie’s Golden Age novels to uncover quips and references that have faded over the last one hundred years. Kate Gingold called on an amazing range of experts to throw light on obscure phrases from the 1920s novels for her glossary, Agatha Annotated, and will be sharing this insider knowledge which has made reading Christie even more fun!

Carla Valentine is a qualified mortuary technician, curator of Barts Pathology Museum and author of Past Mortems and Murder Isn’t Easy. She’s also the host of a BBC Sounds podcast called Mortem, and has appeared in several documentaries about Agatha Christie.

In this entertaining illustrated talk, 'Agathologist' Dr Mark Aldridge discusses the search for a definitive portrayal of Miss Marple on screen. Drawing on new research undertaken for his book Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness, he will offer new insights into several Miss Marple productions, including the BBC series starring Joan Hickson. The talk is followed by a short break after which attendees can stay to watch The Murder at the Vicarage (BBC, 1986), starring Joan Hickson.

Suitable for stage and screen, as well as novelists, Greg Mosse will share ten dynamic techniques for murder mystery writers, generating compelling scenes of conflict that reveal and develop character - plus clever ways to integrate these scenes into powerful broader storylines, full of red herrings and robust clues.

Agatha Christie is often considered a nostalgic, comforting writer. While we can all enjoy her books and their adaptations for comfort and escapism, they spanned several decades from the 1910s to the 1970s, and rarely present the past as a better time. Looking at some Christie classics, Jamie Bernthal-Hooker, author of Agatha Christie: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, looks at how the Queen of Crime changed with the world around her – and uncovers her complex relationship to the past.

What did jewels mean to Hercule Poirot? Did Miss Marple have a favourite brooch? Agatha Christie mentions jewels throughout her novels, but do they have any special historical significance?

New for this year, we are introducing a free lunchtime social club for people to enjoy a fun activity whilst also having a bite to eat. You can either bring a packed lunch or grab something from the Torre Abbey Cafe. Events will run between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

Ever since Miss Jane Marple first appeared in a novel in 1930, British female private eyes have been dubbed ‘Miss Marple’ – from Annette Kerner, owner of the Mayfair Detective Agency, to Zena Scott-Archer, president of the World Association of Detectives.

Join Raye Green, the author of Agatha Christie’s Doctors, as she investigates the many doctors, nurses and medics in Agatha Christie’s stories. There are around 184 doctors in her novels and they are variously depicted as healers, sleuths, victims, suspects or even murderers. After all, when there is murder, there is death, and when there is death, there has to be a doctor…

For our main Saturday evening event, we are hosting an evening drinks party in the stunning walled gardens at Torre Abbey. There will be a welcome glass of Pol Roger Champagne (or a sparking non-alcoholic alternative), live jazz music from Just Misbehavin'. We are also thrilled to be welcoming Annette Badland, whose acting CV is simply spectacular (see below). She will be reading Miss Marple Tells a Story, with a special introduction by Mark Aldridge.

In September 2023, Christie’s auction house sold the extraordinary library of modern first editions assembled by Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021), including a near-complete collection of Agatha Christie first editions. Mark Wiltshire, specialist in rare books and head of the Charlie Watts sale, talks about the market for Agatha Christie collectables, with special attention paid to the power of inscriptions, provenance, and condition.

Dr John Curran investigates the Great Detective characters in whose style Tommy and Tuppence solve their cases in Partners in Crime. Were they all Great Detectives? How well did Agatha Christie capture their styles? And why have some survived and some vanished?

New for this year, we are introducing a free lunchtime social club for people to enjoy a fun activity whilst also having a bite to eat. You can either bring a packed lunch or grab something from the Torre Abbey Cafe. Events will run between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

Join David Morris, author and editor of Collecting Christie, as he shares fascinating insights into the iconic dust jacket artwork that adorned Agatha Christie’s British and American first editions. The talk will provide surprising information about the artists, how they helped to bring her books to life and shape the public's perception of her work, as well as how Agatha herself was involved in their design.

This year’s closing event will see two huge and entertaining writers in the murder mystery genre chat about their love of Agatha Christie and her influences on their work.

Join Brad Friedman, a theatre director and educator from the United States, and the author of the classic crime blog Ah Sweet Mystery, as he discusses Cards on the Table, one of Christie’s most ingenious novels set at an after-dinner bridge tournament.