Major Agatha Christie Exhibition Coming to the British Library

The British Library will open a new exhibition exploring the life and work of the bestselling novelist of all time Agatha Christie later this year.

Running October 30 through June 20, 2027, and marking 50 years since her death, Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery will examine the origins of her iconic fictional creations such as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple as well as going behind the characters and stories to explore Christie's world and legacy.

The exhibition will look at Christie’s upbringing, her interests and travels, and how she adapted her novels for the stage, through five immersive sections filled with items from her life including her typewriter, professional and personal correspondence with other writers, family photographs, notebooks, and typescripts for novels.

Highlights include:

• photographs of Christie as a child, and the typescript for her first short story, House of Beauty, and feedback on her work from fellow crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers
• Christie's study notes for her pharmaceutical exams taken in 1917,letters from her first husband Archie, and her notebooks containing ideas for stories and handwritten research notes on poisons including those for her novel The Pale Horse
• an Orient Express-inspired train carriage exploring Christie’s use of the ‘closed circle mystery’, photographs capturing Christie surfing in Hawaii in 1922 alongside a replica of the surfboard she used, Christie’s handwritten notes for her Isle of Man treasure hunt and a letter written by Christie relaying her journey on the Orient Express in 1931
• Christie’s 1937 Remington typewriter she used to write And Then There Were None, and her Leica camera used for photographing artefacts on her second husband Max's archaelogical digs
• a look at how Christie adapted her novels for stage productions including her notes for Witness for the Prosecution, the typescript for Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, and the Dictaphone she used in later life to transcribe her first drafts for stories such as Endless Night (1967)

"This is the biggest exhibition held in the UK in almost 25 years to celebrate Christie’s writing," said Lucy Rowland, Lead Curator of the exhibition, "and visitors will see over 100 items from different periods in her life, drawn from the British Library's own collection, the Christie Archive Trust and other lenders, including material never displayed before."