Part of Belfast Book Festival. Book your ticket HERE

Drawing on a range of material, some of which is newly discovered and previously unpublished, join Mark Aldridge as he discusses Agatha Christie’s best-loved detectives with avid Marple fan Jan Carson. 

We invite you to piece together the evidence of the world's favourite female detective with us and uncover the truth behind the appearances on the page, stage, screen and beyond of the beloved Mother of Crime. 

Following this event join us for an Agatha Christie-related quiz. Click here for more details or to book your ticket! 

Dr Mark Aldridge is an Agatha Christie historian and speaker. His books include Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness(HarperCollins, 2024), Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World (HarperCollins, 2020) and Agatha Christie on Screen(Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Mark regularly speaks at Agatha Christie events, including at the International Agatha Christie Festival, which takes place in Torquay each year, and the Agatha Christie Festival International, held in Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) every other year. Mark recently launched the podcast The Swinging Christies: Agatha Christie in the 1960s with writer Gray Robert Brown.

Mark grew up in South Devon, not far from Agatha Christie's beloved Torquay. He is Associate Professor of Screen Histories at Solent University, Southampton. Beyond Agatha Christie, his main research interests concern British television history.

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel, The Fire Starters, won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While We Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday in April 2024.