The British Library will open a major exhibition on Agatha Christie next year.
Poirot, Miss Marple, Murder on the Orient Express... even if you've never read a word of Agatha Christie, you're undoubtedly aware of her creations. Soon, a major exhibition will explore the background to her greatest novels, and delve into her own remarkable life.
The exhibition, which opens in October 2026, will include notebooks, personal letters, early manuscript drafts, dictaphone recordings and personal objects belonging to Christie. It will also "explore how Christie influenced crime writing, her experiences adapting her work for the stage, and the impact her books continue to have as they are revisited and reworked for a global audience".
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) remains the best-selling novelist ever, with some two billion sales to her name. She also penned the longest-running stage play of all time (by far), in the shape of The Mousetrap. It's amazing, really, that the British Library is only now getting round to this exhibition, which coincides with the centenary of key Poirot story The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and 50 years since Christie's death.
In the meantime, we highly recommend you check out Lucy Worsley's fascinating Christie documentary, on BBC iPlayer.
The BL has also announced a new exhibition called Fairy Tales. Opening in March, this family-friendly show will feature "original manuscripts... colourful illustrations, graphics and theatre costumes, showcasing retellings of classic fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault as well as stories from India, China, Africa and North America".
Agatha Christie, 30 October 2026 to 20 June 2027
Fairy Tales, 27 March 2026 to 23 August 2026
