Mark Aldridge is Associate Professor of Screen Histories at Solent University.  His publications include the books Agatha Christie’s Poirot: the Greatest Detective in the World (2020), Agatha Christie on Screen (2016) and The Birth of British Television (2011).

An opportunity to view primary sources from the University of Exeter's Special Collections' archive of correspondence and papers from the office of Agatha Christie's literary agent, Hughes Massie & Co Ltd. and hear internationally recognised expert on Christie's work, Dr John Curran, speak about how Agatha Christie came to write her very first crime novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and how it influenced her writing career.

Carla Valentine is a qualified mortician, curator of Barts Pathology Museum and author of Past Mortems and Murder Isn’t Easy.

Dan Clanton is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Doane University, Nebraska, USA.

Travel writer and editor, Andrew Eames is the author of The 8.55 to Baghdad, the story of the secret life of Agatha Christie telling of her journey from London to Iraq by train in the months just before the Iraq war. Andrew will talk about this journey among others that Agatha, the inveterate traveller, took in her lifetime.

Kathryn is a chemist and author. She completed a doctorate on her favourite chemicals, phosphines. Her first book was the international best-seller A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie which was shortlisted for a Mystery Readers International Macavity Award and a BMA Book Award. Join her for fascinating insights into Christie’s ‘weapon of choice’ through a chemist’s eyeview.

David has studied the ghost stories of Torbay for nearly 30 years now and is certain that Agatha Christie would have been aware of most of them during her lifetime.

A unique opportunity to hear from four Christie experts whose combined knowledge of the Christie oeuvre is unparalleled. In this panel debate they will challenge each other with their own pitches for Agatha’s greatest novel.

Bestselling crime fiction author Vaseem Khan takes us on an exhilarating journey from the last days of the Raj to the heart of modern India.

Jeremy Musson is an architectural historian, author and journalist. His books include How to Read a Country House and English Country House Interiors. Here he casts an architectural historian’s eye on the Country House as it features in so many of Christie’s novels and shares new insights into her work.

Michael Stanley is the writing team of native Africans Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Their new novel A Deadly Trade is published in paperback by Headline. In this entertaining broadcast they focus on Agatha Christie’s less well-known knowledge of Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. They will be joined by author Bryony Rheam who won the ‘Write Your Own Christie’ competition in 2014. She lives in Zimbabwe and has made a study of Agatha Christie’s visit to Rhodesia.

Historian Professor Jeremy Black explains how Agatha Christie’s detective character Hercule Poirot is inseparable from the turbulent age in which the author lived. Black finds significant social commentary in Christie’s novels.

Christie expert Jamie Bernthal-Hooker’s talk takes places inside the atmospheric prehistoric caves that form Kents Cavern in Torquay. Partly inspired by her Grand Tour, The Man in the Brown Suit was written in Agatha Christie’s flat in London in 1924 with Agatha Christie evoking exotic African landscapes from memory. Kents Cavern plays a role in the novel as Hampsley Cavern.

This year we are hosting our literary take on a bar crawl, visiting some quirky and unusual venues around Paignton Harbour, with readings, poetry, music and unexpected happenings along the way.

We’re delighted to team up with the National Trust at Agatha Christie’s former holiday home at Greenway House to host an exclusive and intimate dinner for just 20 guests.

Brixham-based sculptor Elizabeth Hadley is commissioned to create a new artwork in tribute to Agatha Christie in her birthplace, Torquay. Meet the sculptor and hear about her work in progress at this special event. The artwork itself is expected to be completed in 2023.

The ‘whodunnit’ is by definition concerned with innocence and guilt, right and wrong. The works of Agatha Christie subtly, but with increasing insistence, engage with the Christian philosophy behind the form.

Internationally recognised expert on Christie’s work, Dr John Curran, will speak about how Agatha Christie came to write her very first crime novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles and how it influenced her writing career.

Meet two brilliant local novelists who are advancing the nail-biting thriller writing tradition of the Bay: Sarah Pearse is the author of The Sanatorium, an instant New York Times & #1 Sunday Times bestseller. Her new book The Retreat is out now. Adam Nevill is the author of The Ritual, Last Days, No One Gets Out and The Reddening - all won The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. Both authors have film adaptations under way.

Join us for a boat trip around the Bay, passing beaches loved by Agatha or featured in her works. Local author Matt Newbury will be providing a commentary, while there will be period music and a full bar on board.