New frontiers in Agatha Christie scholarship

When we laid out International Agatha Christie, I wanted it to be as complete as possible and to be a reference for scholars as well as general readers. Thus, we compiled as complete a bibliography listing books discussing Agatha and her works as we could. I know that it’s not complete. I didn’t even begin to tap the rich vein of academic journal essays or dissertations or magazine articles or newspaper stories.

But I got all the books as of 2025. To my surprise, we ended up with only four pages. Granted, our page size is 8 ½ by 11 and we used a small font. But even so, four pages isn’t much.

It really became obvious how little scholarly work has been done on Agatha Christie when we began the Jane Project. This is where we watch and review every Jane Austen film; the novels, the documentaries, the Jane-adjacent, the world surrounding Jane. The books discussing Jane, her life, her relatives, her feminism, her clothes, her writing style, her potential love affairs, her hidden radicalism, reinterpretations of her novels to tell you what she really meant, her place in history, her understanding of current events, and her complicated, larger surrounding culture are many. A single book discussing a single aspect of Jane will list dozens of books for further reading and those books are not necessarily duplicated in another tome.

If you listed every book discussing some aspect of Jane Austen’s life and works, it would consist of hundreds of pages of small print, not four. This does not include the fanfiction, ranging from traditionally published authoresses like P.D. James or Curtis Sittenfeld to indies who write extensive sequels about every last named character to fill out their own stories. It certainly doesn’t include the trillions of words at online fanfiction sites like Archive of Our Own (AO3).

Which is to say that Agatha Christie scholarship is in its infancy. Huge nuggets of gold are waiting for some scholar to pick up and start writing.

So what is waiting to be written? Why the mind boggles! To help you, future Agatha Christie scholar, here’s a roadmap to the gold fields. It’s not in any kind of order. Use it to inspire yourself.

Agatha Christie was born on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, England, and died on January 12, 1976. When she was born, Queen Victoria ruled and the sun never set on the British Empire. When she died, Queen Elizabeth II ruled and the British Empire was a shadow of its former self. What political changes did she see? How did they affect her writing? Remember, she wrote contemporaries.

What technological changes did she see in her lifetime? When she was born, trains and telegraphs ruled the worlds of transport and communication but most people still used horse and carriage. Only the wealthy traveled extensively; but unlike the poor, those trips weren’t relegated to visiting relatives or emigrating far away from everyone they knew, never to return. Telephones were invented in 1876 and were rare. No one had electricity. When Agatha died, cars were everywhere, computers had left their infancy, airplanes filled the skies, everyone had electricity, and men walked on the moon.

How about cultural changes? How a middle-class woman or even a gentry-class woman lived in 1900 was considerably different from a woman in 1970. It was a big deal when Agatha bought her own car and her own house. Now, that’s commonplace. Seventy years brought vast changes, including the idea that rich women should work. In 1900, plenty of women worked but they were servants or factory girls.

Agatha did not live in a vacuum. She was inspired by events around her, especially criminal activities. How many real-world events can you find lurking in her books? There’s a lot, far more than you’d ever guess. But you need to know your contemporary history to work it out. That book is waiting for that intrepid researcher. Here’s a tip: investigate Noreen Harbord (1913 – 1980 or so?) and then contemplate At Bertram’s Hotel and its central character, Bess Sedgwick. At Betram’s Hotel contains many other contemporary references, all largely forgotten today.

Agatha Christie served on the home front in two world wars. In World War I, she worked at the hospital in Torquay, followed by a stint in the dispensary. Where is the book devoted exclusively to those war years? How about her returning to the dispensary during WWII in London? During the Blitz? The rationing? Her fears over Max being far away in Egypt? Where is that book?

We all know she and Archie divorced. Where is Archie Christie’s biography? He spent the rest of his life being known as Mr. Christie, his actual name, while being a byword for an adulterer. His second wife, Nancy Neele, watched her name, face, and story discussed in lurid tabloid stories. Where’s her bio? If virtually every relative of Jane Austen, other than her handicapped brother George (oh my God! Regency treatment of disabled people with George as the Ur Example) rates at least a scholarly article, where are the bios of other people connected to Agatha? How about daughter Rosalind Christie Prichard Hicks? Or Agatha’s colorful brother Louis Montant “Monty” Miller (1880–1929)? He was Agatha’s older brother and he was a handful. Or her feckless father. Her sister Madge gives you entrée into the world of the aristocracy through Agatha’s eyes. Agatha’s family was gentry-class and her father was from the U.S., so when Madge married up in the world, Agatha got exposed to that world.

Agatha traveled extensively, far more than her around the world tour in 1922 and visiting the archeological digs in the Middle East and the riding on the Orient Express. She went everywhere. Where are those glossy coffee table travel books? How about a book devoted exclusively to her African trips? From her debut in Cairo, touring southern Africa, (including avoiding rebels and rioters), and trips down the Nile, she traveled plenty in Africa and her fondness for the continent shows up in her fiction.

When Agatha met Max Mallowan, he gave her entrée into the world of Middle Eastern archaeology. She was already interested; that’s how they met. But Agatha became proficient as a self-taught assistant all on her own. Where’s the book about her archaeology experiences? It’s obvious that she used digs as settings for books. Did she get the science right? How closely do her characters correspond to actual, real researchers she met at a dig?

And speaking of Max Mallowan, where’s the book devoted to Agatha in her persona as Mrs. Max Mallowan, wife of the noted Oxford professor and scholar living a calm life in Wallingford as another faculty wife.

How did fashions change? Jane Austen has numerous books devoted to regency attire, down to her shoes and undergarments. When Agatha was born a Victorian girl, clothes were heavy, ornate, and went to the floor. As an Edwardian debutante, her clothes got lighter as fashion adapted to motor cars. Then she dressed like a flapper! She changed her clothes with the times so where is that fashion history, based on what she wore?
How about the foods she ate? That changed too, including two lengthy stints of wartime rationing, her extensive travels, and the advent of globalization when diets changed again.

How about her collection of houses, estates, and flats? She bought property like other women buy doll houses. She decorated, used them, enjoyed them, rented them out to family and friends. Where’s that picture book, complete with maps?

Where’s the book about her family’s sojourn in France when her father lost his money and they had to retrench? Or her months in Paris in 1905 when she worked on training her voice and musicianship? How about her debut in Egypt? Why did she have to debut in Cairo instead of England? There’s a book right there, discussing money, mores, social connections, and why a debutante could reasonably debut in Egypt.

Agatha was a savvier businesswoman than she’s given credit for. Even so, she had major money troubles. Where’s the book discussing her tax situation? Inland Revenue was the bane of her existence and led directly to setting up Agatha Christie, Ltd. How did the new corporation change her writing and her life? How about a discussion of what Agatha Christie, Ltd., does to keep her name in the public eye when so many other writers vanish.

Agatha in Hollywood! She hated what Hollywood did to her stories. There’s one book discussing her playwrighting: Curtain Up: Agatha Christie: A Life in the Theatre by Julius Green. Mark Aldridge has published Agatha Christie On Screen but it’s an overview. There’s so much more that could be said. My two film books cover the adaptations from the viewpoint of a movie watcher on her couch. How about how her playwriting affected her novel writing and vice versa? I know of one book being researched and written as I write, but Agatha and the theater is a huge subject. She was the most famous, most successful female playwright in the world. Why did she succeed when so many playwrights, male and female, do not?

My little list shows you the biggest nuggets. I’m sure you can think of plenty more. They’re waiting for you, dear researcher and writer, to expand scholarship about Agatha Christie.