The Agatha Cure

The Queen of Crime and the power of reading.

One winter, Cathy Rentzenbrink – one of the UK’s most beloved bookworms – finds herself too exhausted to open another novel. Drained by the upheavals of life, and in need of comfort and escape, she turns to the books of her first literary love: Agatha Christie. She soon becomes obsessed by the central mystery of Agatha’s life – how she disappeared following the death of her mother and the breakdown of her marriage. The more Cathy delves into Agatha’s struggles, the more she realises how much the two have in common, and how much her heroine has to tell her about surviving the hard times and living on her own terms. Compelling, compassionate and insightful, The Agatha Cure is the perfect read for lovers of Christie’s books and any reader in search of life-affirming resilience.

Cathy will share highlights from this tender new work in an evening introduced by the novelist and Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse.

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.

She first fell in love with the books of Agatha Christie at the age of nine, when her grandmother paid her 10p for every Agatha mystery she finished. An avid reader ever since, Cathy went on to work as a bookseller for Waterstones, and as the books editor at The Bookseller, before coming a Sunday Times top ten bestselling author. She remains a staunch fan of any mug with an Agatha Christie quote on it.

With sales of more than 8 million copies worldwide, her books have been translated into 37 languages and published in 40 countries. Kate is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. She is also a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing and Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Authors and a Trustee of the British Library.