Christie: The Writer's Writer

with Jan Carson, Bobby Seagull, Shrabani Basu and Jeremy Vine.

What can writers learn from Agatha Christie? She pioneered the crime novel genre and generated a prodigious body of work, but Christie's influence on writers of all kinds has expanded well beyond the confines of her genre.

Drawing from classic Golden Age narratives, through subversive portraits of British life, via clues, comedy, trickery and problem-solving, our speakers pry, spy and investigate the serious business of being a writer, alongside the serious business of murder...

This lively discussion tangles with the myriad ways in which writers and thinkers from across the creative spectrum have responded to the writing of Agatha Christie.

Supported by Great Western Railway.

Our exhibition, Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery, is in collaboration with Agatha Christie Limited and The Christie Archive Trust.

Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland, 2019. The Raptures was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Jan was the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast in 2025, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has achieved the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. Her latest novel, Few and Far Between was published by Doubleday UK and Scribner in the US.

He writes for the Financial Times and has published two books: Monkman and Seagull Quiz Book and The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers. In 2025, Bobby received an MBE in recognition for his services to public libraries. In 2016 Bobby captained his team on University Challenge, where he met his future broadcasting partner Eric Monkman, they co-host Monkman and Seagull’s Genius Guides and Monkman and Seagull’s Genius Adventures.

She writes about the hidden stories from history. Her books include the critically acclaimed The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer, For King and Another Country, Victoria & Abdul (now a major Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench), Spy Princess and Curry: The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish. Shrabani is the chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust which campaigned for a memorial for the World War II heroine, and she is a frequent commentator on BBC, ITV and Channel 4 on Indian history and Empire.

He hosts a daily breakfast show on Channel 5 and a peak lunchtime slot on BBC Radio 2, presenting news, views, interviews and popular guests on Britain’s most listened-to radio news programme. He has previously hosted Eggheads and presents the general election infographics. In his spare time, he rides a penny farthing. He is an ardent Agatha Christie fan, and recently published Murder on Line One, and Turn the Dial for Death (HarperCollins).