Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Diskussionen zum Leben der Queen of Crime
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Japp
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Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

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http://uk.agathachristie.com/blog/2009/ ... notebooks/

As some of you may already know, my silence of late on the Website is due to my commitments to things Christiean elsewhere. In short, I am writing a book about Agatha Christie, specifically Agatha Christie and her plotting Notebooks. This is probably the last aspect of Agatha Christie that has not already been discussed in a book. We have had books on her life, her literary output, her husband, her disappearance; we have bought quiz books, travel books, film books, Mousetrap books; books about her poisons, her characters, her cover designs, her garden; biographies of Poirot and Miss Marple. My contribution to Christie scholarship has been undertaken with not just the blessing of her grandson, Mathew Prichard, but his active encouragement and practical help. I have been a guest in his home so often of late, that I now have my own room! I am very grateful to him and his wife, Lucy. And I am delighted that Harper Collins, Agatha Christie’s publishers for most of her working life, showed such instant interest in the book when I first suggested it. They plan to publish it in September 2009.

Over the next year I intend writing an occasional blog (when time allows!) to keep readers of this website informed of progress. As the months pass I will give you a few sneak previews into a work-in-progress and a peek into the incomparable literary legacy that is The Notebooks of Agatha Christie.

Die-hard fans have known of the existence of the Agatha Christie Notebooks for some years. Both Janet Morgan and Laura Thompson mentioned them in their biographies. And at the time of the publication of the Morgan volume, in 1984, I well remember a book programme on BBC2 where she discussed the Notebooks; and there were brief shots of them as she spoke outside Greenway House.

Agatha Christie herself mentions them in her Autobiography where she explains that she often had a few of Notebooks at any given time and would write randomly in them; this presented her with the problem of making sense of them at a later stage when she eventually returned to them looking for her bright idea. They were carefully stored by Rosalind Hicks since her mother’s death and now form part of the Christie Archive. Few people, apart from Janet Morgan and Laura Thompson, both official biographers, have been granted access to them. When I first saw them in November 2005, at the invitation of Mathew Prichard, they were in a cardboard box in a room resembling Aladdin’s Cave upstairs in Greenway House, a room packed with Dame Agatha’s papers, manuscripts, letters, contracts, fan-mail, first editions – and Notebooks. In the course of one weekend I spent 23 hours poring over them. And have spent 100s of further hours with them ever since. They still fascinate me, and I hope that, through my book, they will fascinate you, too!
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Japp
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/ap ... s-research

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An in-depth analysis of Agatha Christie's novels has suggested that the much-loved author of more than 80 mysteries was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Academics at the University of Toronto studied a selection of Christie's novels written between the ages of 28 and 82, counting the numbers of different words, indefinite nouns and phrases used in each.

They found that the vocabulary size of the creator of Poirot and Miss Marple decreased sharply as she neared the end of her life, by 15 to 30%, while repetition of phrases and indefinite word usage (something, thing, anything) in her novels increased significantly.

"We found statistically significant drops in vocabulary, and increases in repeated phrases and indefinite nouns in 15 detective novels from The Mysterious Affair at Styles to Postern of Fate," said the academics, Dr Ian Lancashire from the English department and computer scientist Dr Graeme Hirst. "These language effects are recognised as symptoms of memory difficulties associated with Alzheimer's disease."

The most abrupt decline was seen in a novel Christie wrote aged 81, Elephants Can Remember. The book showed, they said, 30% fewer word types than Destination Unknown, which she wrote aged 63, 18% more repeated phrases, and almost three times as many indefinite words.

Lancashire told Canadian current affairs magazine Macleans that the title of the novel, a tweaking of the proverb "elephants never forget", also gives a clue that Christie was defensive about her declining mental powers, while the protagonist is unable to solve the mystery herself, and is forced to call on the aid of Hercule Poirot.

"It reveals an author responding to something she feels is happening but cannot do anything about," he said. "It's almost as if the crime is not the double-murder-suicide, the crime is dementia."

Although Christie, whose books have sold over two billion copies worldwide, was never diagnosed with dementia, the authors of the study conclude that the changes in her writing are consistent not with normal ageing, but with Alzheimer's disease. "These signs, especially indefinite word usage, are present in her writing from her early 70s," they said.

The Canadian study supports a 2004 comparison of two early works by Iris Murdoch with her last novel, Jackson's Dilemma, which concluded that textual analysis could be used to detect the onset of dementia before anyone [has] the remotest suspicion of any untoward intellectual decline".

Jackson's Dilemma was published in 1995 to a poor critical reception, and Murdoch was found to have Alzheimer's the following year. Scientists from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London compared it to earlier works Under the Net and The Sea, The Sea, and found that her vocabulary had worsened in the final work, which contained fewer words and clauses per sentence on average.

Lancashire and Hirst are now continuing and extending their study, looking into changes in Christie's use of passive verbs and the decline in her syntactic complexity. They also want to compare her writing with the work of a contemporary for whom dementia is not suspected. HG Wells, who wrote prolifically with no signs of mental degeneration up until his death, was one suggestion.
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Agarallo
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von Agarallo »

Japp hat geschrieben:
Lancashire told Canadian current affairs magazine Macleans that the title of the novel, a tweaking of the proverb "elephants never forget", also gives a clue that Christie was defensive about her declining mental powers, while the protagonist is unable to solve the mystery herself, and is forced to call on the aid of Hercule Poirot.
Was für ein Blödsinn :evil:

"Elefanten Can Remember" zeigt Agatha vielmehr immer noch in hervorragendem geistigen Zustand. Was will man ihr da anlasten? Die Beschreibung der körperlichen Gebrechen alter Leute? Der Krimi ist teilweise sehr humorvoll und die ständigen Wiederholungen einzelner Ausdrücke sind hier bewußt eingebaut worden. Auch das Zurückgreifen auf alter Figuren ("Mr. Goby") kann man ihr wohl nicht verübeln.

Vielleicht hätte man "Postern Of Fate" für die Analyse nehmen sollen?
Obwohl mit meinen Lieblingsprotagonisten, muss ich zugeben, dass hier altersbedingte Schwächen von Agatha nicht zu verleugnen sind...

Gewisse Abschweifungen in den Büchern von A.C. gehören (mit einigen Ausnahmen) einfach zu ihrem Stil dazu :wink:

P.S.:
Ich möchte ja niemandem etwas unterstellen, aber es gibt durchaus auch schönere Foto's von Agatha.
"Keiner entgeht seinem Waterloo!"
marple9

Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von marple9 »

JAPP macht es sich ja sehr einfach
kopiert nur immer aus irgendwelchen internetseiten
ist das nicht sogar strafbar? :mrgreen:

warum denn alles auf englisch?
wir sind doch in deutschland und sprechen deutsch

oder ist JAPP ein engländer?
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Sephiroth90
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von Sephiroth90 »

Wieso macht japp es sich einfach? Er macht es eher uns einfach :D ;)
Sonst müssten wir ja die ganzen Seiten abklappern. So bekommen wir alle Nachrichten nur beim Besuch dieses Forum :wink:

Danke Japp :mrgreen:
Don´t forget that walls have ears!
CARELESS TALK COSTS LIVES
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von marple9 »

der klaut ja immer nur von anderen englischen seiten
ne eigene meinung hat der auch nicht
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Japp
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von Japp »

ihr könnt auch gerne selbst sämtliche UK publikationen durchblättern...

das soll ja hier eine presseschau sein und keine meinungsäusserung - letztendlich geb ich hier nur
zur kenntniss an euch weiter was die presse schreibt.

daher lasst ma das lästern hier sonst gibts ein mit der rute (oder dem zyankali) :twisted:
marple9

Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von marple9 »

Japp hat geschrieben: daher lasst ma das lästern hier sonst gibts ein mit der rute (oder dem zyankali) :twisted:
GEWALTANDROHUNG GEGEN MINDERJÄHRIGE
das macht sich in deiner polizeiakte sicherlich sehr gut :mrgreen: :twisted:
wie kommst du eigentlich an das zyankali ran? :wink:
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Japp
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

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irgendwie dacht ich mir das du noch keine 18 bist ;)
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

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Lieber Japp, auch von mir ein Kompliment, daß du uns ständig auf dem Laufenden hälst und uns die Arbeit abnimmst! Ich weiß aus Erfahrung, wie mühselig es ist, alles zu durchforsten. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Und wer des Englischen nicht mächtig ist... hier im Forum tummeln sich genug, die bestimmt gerne beim Übersetzen behilflich sind, wenn es nötig ist. :wink:
"I do not approve of murder."
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Japp
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von Japp »

alle die kein englisch können, jagt euch zumindest den text durch http://de.babelfish.yahoo.com/
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Japp
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

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http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Articl ... 4?UserKey=

Joining the Nile high club
Alex Finer follows in the footsteps of Agatha Christie to take in the sights and sounds of Egypt’s world-famous waterway

Published: 04/04/2009



THE EgyptAir cabin crew, dressed in salmon-pink uniforms, are finishing their trolley service. Outside, below a cloudless sky, the desert floor, harbouring lions and antelope and 150 species of snake, stretches all the way to the silhouette of sandstone hills on the horizon.

Then I spot a streak of colour: it is the long blue vein of the Nile inside a narrow green strip of irrigated land.

We are flying to Aswan to visit the temples of Egypt from the comfort of the most luxurious and select of cruise boats, the Oberoi Zahra.

Met on the ground by a driver and guide, we cross the older of the two dams, protected by armed soldiers, leave behind the pylons that stalk the suburbs and enter the city – so much larger than it appears from the air – with a population of 250,000.

We pass schoolchildren in yellow head scarves, domed graves in the Moslem cemetery, an incongruous “I’m Loving It” advertisement for the local McDonalds and the Coptic Orthodox church before swinging by the famous Old Cataract Hotel, currently under renovation.

Agatha Christie is one of many famous former guests. She took up residence while writing her cruise-ship murder mystery, Death On The Nile, in 1936, and the hotel features as a location in the movie of the book.

Greeted on board Zahra with a cool jasmine-scented flannel and a glass of pink champagne, we adjourn to lunch outdoors on the photogenic top deck. Parasols protect us from the strong November sun as we inspect fellow passengers at other tables and on smart sun loungers by the pool towards the stern. Many seem to be auditioning for an Agatha Christie sequel.

Hercule Poirot is not among them. But our characters appear to include a haughty duchess, a garrulous English brain surgeon, an ailing American financier with his gold-digging wife, young Swiss newlyweds, a classics professor with a bushy moustache and a French chatelaine with a fixed, taut smile from too much surgery.

It is the boat, however, that deserves top billing. One floor below is a small modern gym, conference room and lavish spa staffed by eight Thai masseuses. The cabins, a level lower, prove to be well appointed boutique-hotel suites with floor-to-ceiling picture windows in both the bedroom and beside the open walk-in shower in the bathroom.

One day, as I soap myself, I clearly startle a fisherman in his rowing boat who has been beating the water with an oar to attract Nile perch into his nets – until he catches sight of me.

The “ground” floor houses the marble reception, a bar, lounge, cinema and games area with chess sets and Wi-Fi-connected computers. Beneath that, with an eye-level view of the riverbanks, is the elegant restaurant in which we dine each night on up to four courses of delicate Asian-Mediterranean cuisine prepared by the Indian chef and his brigade.

In the days ahead, we cruise to Luxor past some of the best preserved and most inspiring temples of the ancient world. But first we sample the Aswan street scene.

On the narrow wooden terrace at Cleopatra’s Coffee House, drinking tea made with boiled mineral water, we watch Aswan’s young men stroll arm in arm.

Attracted by the sound of singing and clapping and the beat of a drum, we find exuberant well-wishers bidding farewell outside the train station to a family member bound for Mecca. And we shrug off aggressive vendors in the souk, even those wittily offering to lend us money to buy from their shop or describing their caleche (horse and carriage) as an Egyptian Ferrari.

Then it’s time to drive out of town, past oleander and imported lemon-scented gum trees to a technological wonder of the modern world.

The huge expanse of concrete that is the High Dam at Aswan has a chequered history. A brutal monument attests that Russia finally supplied the finance to build what is now the world’s fourth biggest dam, pumping out hydroelectric power. By the time it was finished in 1971, the dam had claimed the lives of 500 of the 4,000 construction workers and forced the resettlement of Nubian communities from villages lost to the massive reservoir.

Philae Island and the temple of Isis also disappeared under the swollen lake created between the new and old dams. But Unesco funded an extraordinary eight-year project to cut the buildings into 50,000 pieces and reassemble them, block by block, 300m away on a higher island.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a master of Egyptian history and mythology to enjoy this and the other ancient temples. Ahmed, one of Zahra’s knowledgeable Egyptologists, accompanies our party of four to Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu and Karnak, illuminating facets of complex civilisations stretching back 5,000 years.

He translates the hieroglyphics etched in the sandstone and explains the religious, medical and educational role of the temples.

He tells tales of Isis, Osiris, the crocodile god Sobek, the falcon god Horus and other deities to whom the temples are dedicated. Sadly, little evidence of the bright colours painted on the statues and carved reliefs has survived, and disapproving Romans also defaced many of the figures when Christianity replaced pagan worship in the first centuries AD.

As we cruise between sites, weaving a passage along the deepest channel in the river, we gaze upon banana orchards, sugar cane, donkey carts framed by date palms, grazing cattle at the water’s edge and feluccas (traditional wooden sailing boats) with their distinctive sails.

The crackle of muezzin calls to prayer sometimes reaches us from minarets in nearby towns; our pilot and deckhands regularly unfurl their mats outside the boat’s bridge and kneel to pray.

At Kom Ombo, I find myself stroking the back of a cobra’s head, relying on the word of its owner in a white turban that it has been de-fanged.

Visiting Edfu after sunset, we have the temple to ourselves and later enjoy, without the hassle experienced at Aswan, a walk through the local souk with its dyes and spices and goats for sale.

On the main street, a wedding cavalcade of cars and caleches carves a passage through the traffic. Old men smoking shishas (hookahs) sit in doorways near street vendors selling hibiscus drinks from vats and ladling portions of a bean stew from huge metal urns.

Reaching Luxor, beyond the Esna lock, we tour Karnak, a conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels and pylons that predate the other temples by more than 2,000 years. Despite the crowds, the main 60-acre precinct of Amun has awe-inspiring sphinxes, obelisks and shrines and still yields major new archaeological discoveries each year.

The finest finds from the region, including a funerary bed and gold-inlaid cow’s head from Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, are beautifully presented in Luxor museum.

Agatha Christie, it seems, has been following us down river. She, it turns out, also enjoyed Luxor – from the opulent surroundings of the Old Winter Palace hotel.

But back on the boat, we have gradually eliminated each of our fellow passengers from our inquiries, especially as no shots have been heard and no bodies found on our journey. This probably also explains the absence of Hercule Poirot.
Travel Facts

Alex Finer was a guest of Cox & Kings, which offers an 11-night luxury Nile cruise itinerary that combines a seven-night cruise onboard the Oberoi Zahra (full board) with three nights’ B&B in a Pyramid-view room at the Oberoi Mena House in Cairo.

Package, from £2,895 per person, includes flights, accommodation, all transfers and excursions in groups of not more than six to a guide. Lowest prices apply to April-September departures in 2009. Regional supplements for Glasgow are £125.

Cox & Kings reservations: phone 020 7873 5000, or see online at www. coxandkings.co.uk
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von BigBen »

An dieser Stelle möchte ich auch einmal ein großes Lob an Japp :D loswerden für die Mühe des durchforstens der Seiten. Ich wüßte z.B. überhaupt nicht, wo ich suchen sollte!!!! :oops:
Auch Mason lieben Dank für die tollen Drehortphotos! :D
Einen schönen Sonntag allerseits,
Schöne Grüße sendet
BigBen
"Denken Sie immer an die kleinen grauen Zellen, mon ami!" (Hercule Poirot)
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Japp
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

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Rail whodunnit is on right track

The Paignton to Dartmouth Steam Railway is the ideal location for a special murder mystery dinnerVisitors to south Devon can uncover more ways than ever to follow in the footsteps of the world’s greatest crime fiction writer, Dame Agatha Christie, in 2009 - the 75th anniversary of one of her most famous novels: Murder on the Orient Express.

Fans of the famous author - as well as her two best-known sleuths, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot - can turn detective themselves to discover a whole host of Christie commemorations on the English Riviera.

This year is a particularly exciting one for fans of the “Queen of Crime” with the reopening of her Devon holiday home, Greenway, after a multi-million pound refurbishment by the National Trust.

Fittingly, each September, Torbay and the English Riviera becomes the murder capital of Europe when the seaside towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham host the Agatha Christie Festival, celebrating the life of the author who was born in Torquay.

Taking place this year from September 13 to 20, the festival also marks the 75th anniversary of the first publication of Murder on the Orient Express with a special open-air screening of the 1974 film adaptation starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, with Torre Abbey as a stunning backdrop.

With ITV planning to premiere eight new Agatha Christie films this year, including a new version of Murder on the Orient Express, fans will have plenty of inspiration to follow in the real-life footsteps of the author.

The first clue to discovering the author’s many connections with her hometown is contained within Torquay’s Tourist Information Centre, which incorporates a separate self-contained shop.

Here visitors can obtain a copy of the free Agatha Christie Mile leaflet, buy a copy of the Exploring Agatha Christie Country car trails booklet, or purchase a biography, one of the 80 crime novels, 19 plays, six non-crime novels, or two books of poems which she penned in her lifetime.

For a real life mystery, this year will also see the timely reintroduction of the Riviera Belle dining car on the Paignton to Dartmouth Steam Railway. To mark the occasion, a special murder mystery dinner is planned on the train, with a suitable miscarriage of justice for passengers to solve.

Completing the perfect Queen of Crime weekend, how about staying in the Agatha Christie Suite at the seafront Grand Hotel in Torquay where the writer spent her wedding night in 1914?

http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/04/1 ... ght-track/
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Re: Agatha Christie Presseschau April 2009

Beitrag von Agarallo »

Japp hat geschrieben:
Completing the perfect Queen of Crime weekend, how about staying in the Agatha Christie Suite at the seafront Grand Hotel in Torquay where the writer spent her wedding night in 1914?
Da wird sogar aus der Hochzeitsnacht Kapital geschlagen :wink:
"Keiner entgeht seinem Waterloo!"
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