The Exhibition in the Library: Agatha Christie display shines light on famed writer

London exhibition explores Agatha Christie’s life, travels and inspirations behind her iconic crime novels

A new London exhibition shines a spotlight on crime novelist Agatha Christie, looking at how her life, interests and travels inspired her hugely successful whodunnits.

Opening at the British Library in London on Friday, "Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery" marks 50 years since the author's death and offers an insight into how the so-called "Queen of Crime" created her stories and brought to life beloved characters such as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and amateur sleuth Miss Marple.

On show are her early drafts, letters, photographs and personal belongings including a typewriter.

"Most people who know about Agatha Christie — and to be fair, most people do know about Agatha Christie — think of the work. But I think what this gives you is an insight into the woman behind the work," James Prichard, Christie's great-grandson and CEO of Agatha Christie Limited, said.

"There's pictures of her surfing, there's pictures of her on roller skates... and then there's the genesis of stuff. There's the story behind the poisons that she used and all those kind of things. And I think it just gives you a wider scope of who the woman was that wrote these extraordinary stories."

The exhibition is set up in five immersive sections: a mock country house, looking at Christie's childhood and the setting of many of her novels, followed by a dispensary set-up filled with bottles of poison — used in some of her novels — and looking at her voluntary work as a nurse and pharmacy dispenser during World War One.

A 1920s-like train carriage layout explores Christie's travels and how those journeys inspired her writing, including Murder on the Orient Express.

The two other sections feature a makeshift 1930s archaeological dig site looking at Christie's time supporting archaeologists on digs and a theatre setting focusing on stage productions of her works.

Born in the English seaside town of Torquay in 1890, Christie is considered the best-selling novelist of all time, with her books having sold more than 2 billion copies around the world.