BIRTHDAY PARTY WILL CELEBRATE A CENTURY OF CHRISTIE CREATIVITY

Diary date: Thursday 15 September 2016

Dame Agatha Christie’s home town marks her birthday and the 100^th anniversary of the completion of her first crime novel (featuring the debut of Hercule Poirot)

Torre Abbey, The King’s Drive, Torquay TQ2 5JE

Agatha Christie’s grandson, the writer giving new life to Hercule Poirot and the designer of a newly-issued set of Agatha Christie postage stamps will be among the guests when the Queen of Crime’s home town of Torquay in Devon, UK, this year marks her 15 September birth-date with a public party.

The theme of the party will be 100 Years of Creativity, reflecting that 2016 is the centenary of when Agatha Christie completed her first crime novel, invented Hercule Poirot and began a career which turned her into the world’s best-selling author and most successful woman playwright, and spurred a wide array of creativity in many others.

Highlights of the birthday celebrations will include:

• Author Sophie Hannah talking about her latest Hercule Poirot novel Closed Casket, due out on September 6 as a follow-up to her globally successful The Monogram Murders, the first new authorised adventure for the Belgian detective in almost 40 years.
• An exclusive event with the Royal Mail, including a presentation by stamp designer Jim Sutherland about the Agatha Christie collection he has created for Royal Mail (only being revealed, and going on sale, earlier the same day).
• Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard reading the ever-popular short story The Witness for the Prosecution – soon to be turned into a major new BBC television show, scripted by Sarah Phelps (the screenwriter behind one of the best-watched programmes of last Christmas, the all star And Then There Were None).
• Signings by Mathew Prichard of First Day Covers of the newly-issued Agatha Christie stamps and book signings by Tom Adams, the artist responsible for the paperback covers of more than 100 Agatha Christie titles, and by John Curran, the decoder and author of Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks.

In addition, there will be sales of the commemorative stamp set, a Devonshire cream tea, birthday toast with bubbly and a mail-box where every item posted will be franked with a special post-mark.

Announcing the plans, Frances Hughes, an Assistant Director of Torbay Council and a trustee of the celebration’s organising body, the International Agatha Christie Festival, said:

“It is now 100 years since Torquay-born Agatha Christie, then aged 26, completed The Mysterious Affair at Styles – the novel which introduced one of the world’s best-loved fictional detectives; set her on the path to worldwide fame and enduring popularity, and led to her creating a body of work which has gone on to inspire creativity in so many others, including writers, artists, actors, film and television makers and, of course, the fans who wow us each year with their vintage costumes. So we are thrilled at being able to mark Dame Agatha’s birthday with a programme of events featuring several of the people her work has inspired and to know that Royal Mail is giving the area where she was born, grew up and loved lifelong such a unique role in the nationwide launch of its Agatha Christie stamps .”

The main venue for the official birthday events will be Torre Abbey, The King’s Drive, Torquay, where the year-round attractions include a potent plants garden named after the author. First Day Issue sets of the new stamps will be on sale at the venue from lunchtime.

A choice of event ticket packages is on sale now from www.agathachristiefestival.com or by phoning .

It is expected that the birthday celebrations will also feature an update from the International Agatha Christie Festival about its plans for September 2017 – the first in a planned biennial series of much expanded Agatha Christie celebrations, taking place across Torbay.