Rare Agatha Christie Artifacts to Go on View at Landmark British Library Show

This year marks 50 years since the death of British author and playwright Agatha Christie, who remains the best-selling novelist of all time. To celebrate, the British Library is preparing to host “the biggest exhibition held in the U.K. in almost 25 years to celebrate Christie’s writing,” according to Lucy Rowland, lead curator for “Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery,” which opens on October 30. There, the Queen of Crime’s fans will find 100 artifacts spanning photographs, notes, and even poisons. Some will be making their public debut.

A selection of these relics will hail from the British Library’s collection, which also holds the Magna Carta and the famed Diamond Sutra. Others are on loan, including an array from the Christie Archive Trust, which essentially manages Christie’s estate.

“My father, Mathew, has carefully selected a wide range of items from the Christie Archive which offer remarkable insights into Agatha Christie from both a professional, and personal perspective,” said James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson who serves as CEO and chairman for Agatha Christie Limited.

Unlike the 200-piece Agatha Christie show that toured Europe at the turn of the century, “A World of Mystery” will aim to cover the late writer’s entire oeuvre. In order to tell the full story, however, the show will simultaneously share Christie’s saga over five thematic, chronological sections.

“The Country House” will open with Christie’s charmed upbringing, as told through childhood photos, a typed copy of her first short story, and feedback on her work offered by acclaimed British writer Dorothy L. Sayers. Next, “The Dispensary” will immerse guests in Christie’s pharmacist era, several years after marrying her first husband, around age 24. Letters from him will appear, as will Christie’s notes for her pharmaceutical exams, her World War I service record, and “a dispensary filled with the poisons that crop up in Christie’s work,” per the British Library.

“The Train” section will follow up with its own spectacle—an -inspired train car animating the writer’s use of the “closed circle mystery.” Relics from Christie’s travels during the interwar years will also be on view here, like a 1922 photo of her surfing in Hawaii and a 1931 letter recounting her ride on the Orient Express.

Then, “The Dig” will do its part discussing Christie’s archaeological adventures, through the lens of video footage, Christie’s Leica camera, and even the 1937 Remington typewriter that she used to write (1939). Finally, “The Theater” will close with Christie’s stage-bound endeavors after World War II, featuring notes, the Dictaphone she used at the end of her career, and rare footage of her at a party for The Mousetrap, now the longest-running play of all time.

The British Library promises clues will abound along the way. What the mystery is, they don’t yet say. But, if guests still crave capers afterward, they can take home the show’s publication, which the institution has billed “the first comprehensive volume on the life, works, and influence of Agatha Christie to be published in the last 50 years.”