News | September 17, 2025

British Library to Stage Major Agatha Christie Exhibition

Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, 2017

The British Library has announced a celebration of Agatha Christie and her legacy in 2026 marking 50 years since her death.

Developed with support from Agatha Christie Limited and The Christie Archive Trust, the exhibition will examine not only the origins of fictional creations such as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, but will also go behind the characters and stories to explore Christie's life, her travels, and her wide-ranging interests including archaeology and pharmacology. Next year also marks 100 years since the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Christie’s third Poirot novel, and 50 years since the publication of Sleeping Murder, Miss Marple’s ‘last’ case.

Highlights will include:

Christie’s Remington typewriter from 1937
her notes for the Witness for the Prosecution theatre adaptation
the typescript of The House of Beauty, Agatha Christie’s first short story written when she was a teenager
Christie’s study notes for her pharmaceutical exam taken in 1917
family photographs of Christie throughout her life, including her travels in Egypt, Hawaii and Southern Africa
personal letters from Christie to family members, including one to her second husband about her journey on the Orient Express

Agatha Christie relaxing during a sightseeing tour, Tajoura, Libya, 1955. Agatha and her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan had invited Agatha's daughter Rosalind and grandson Mathew to join them on a tour of the ancient sites of Leptis Magna and Sabratah during December 1955.

Letter from Agatha Christie to her second husband Max Mallowan, in December 1930. Agatha writes to Max describing her return home from their honeymoon, on the Orient Express. Documenting how the train had been halted by floods and her fellow travellers' reactions, this event would inspire her to write Murder on the Orient Express a few years later.

Agatha Christie’s study notes for her pharmaceutical exam taken in 1917.

Cover of typescript of House of Beauty, Agatha Christie’s first short story written when she was a teenager.

Agatha Christie under a tree on Honolulu beach after surfing, 1922. Agatha and her husband Archie were permitted to take a short holiday away from the 1922 trade mission and chose Honolulu where they learnt how to surf on longboards. Here Agatha purchased a surf suit in the local style, better suited to the demands of surfing than her swim attire for bathing in Torquay.

Agatha Christie’s Remington typewriter from 1937.

Throughout the display of her notebooks, personal letters and early manuscript drafts, visitors will also have the chance to listen to Christie’s own voice through her dictaphone recordings and to view personal objects belonging to Christie, many of which provided direct inspiration for her stories and have never been on public display before.

The exhibition will also explore how Christie influenced crime writing, her experiences adapting her work for the stage and the impact her stories continue to have. Born in Torquay, England in 1890, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. With more than one billion books sold in English and another billion in over 100 languages, she is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Agatha Christie was made a Dame (DBE) in 1971 and died in 1976 at the age of 85.

The exhibition will run October 30, 2026 through June 20, 2027.