The correspondence of Agatha Christie with her readers is now available to everyone

In connection with the approaching 125th anniversary of the birth of Agatha Christie, her grandson Matthew Pritchard published the correspondence of the famous English writer with her readers. More than two hundred messages have survived to this day, including letters from the English playwright and writer Palem Granville Woodhouse, the creator of the cycle of novels "Jeeves and Worcester."

For several years, Wodehouse corresponded with Agatha Christie. In his letters, he wrote that the new works of Agatha are always an important event, he admired her work and read all her novels. In one of the letters dated 1969, Woodhouse wrote that he expresses sincere joy and is proud that Agatha Christie dedicated the novel "Halloween Party" to him. The writer also praised the title of the novel, emphasizing that most often choosing the right title is the most difficult task for a writer.

In addition, among the letters published by Matthew Prichard, there is a message from a resident of London of Polish descent, who during the Second World War was in a forced labor camp in Germany. As follows from the letter, it was Agatha Christie’s novel that helped her survive this difficult time. The woman said that in the camp she exchanged a piece of a candle with her cellmate for the work “A Man in a Brown Suit”. “I read and reread it so often that I almost knew it by heart. The first few pages disappeared somewhere, so I didn’t know the name or the author, but for seven months it was my only connection with the normal world, ”she wrote.

Also in letters from fans kept by Agatha Christie, there is a message from a 14-year-old young man from Bristol who, specially to raise money to buy Christie’s new novel, organized a literary club in his school. “I have 28 of your books. I rent them to the boys for three pennies if they want to read at school, and for six if they are at home, ”he said in his letter to the writer.

Recall that the work of Agatha Christie gained popularity almost immediately after their appearance on the shelves of bookstores in the 1920s. The writer has published 6 psychological novels (under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott or Westmacott), 60 detective novels and 19 storybooks. She also created 16 plays that were staged in London. The works of Agatha Christie have been translated into more than 70 languages of the world and, according to unconfirmed reports, are inferior in terms of sales to the works of Shakespeare and even the Bible.

Svetlana Korableva © Gallerix.ru