Festival 2025

The Agatha Christie Festival 2025 ran from Saturday 13th to Sunday 21st September, with a five-day Fringe Festival followed by a four-day Literary Festival. 55 unique events took place in 30 different venues, including walks, talks, theatre, cinema, steam train adventures, days out and murder mysteries right across the Bay.

Around 300 people took part in the Agatha Christie Sea Swim, which supports our local hospice and celebrates the author's love of sea swimming. The Literary Festival was held in the Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey, with an impressive line up of speakers who chatted about various aspects of Agatha’s life and works, as well as the genre of crime fiction in general.

Opening proceedings were very special headline guests Lucy Foley and Sophie Hannah, who talked with David Brawn from HarperCollins UK about continuing the characters of Marple and Poirot. We were also joined by Chris Chibnall to chat about his debut mystery novel and his work adapting The Seven Dials Mystery for Netflix. Also on the programme were biographer, Laura Thompson and Christie experts Dr Mark Aldridge, Dr John Curran, Kemper Donovan, Jamie Bernthal-Hooker, Tony Medawar and Michelle Kazmer.

We also welcomed a number of mystery authors who have been inspired by Christie's work, including Tom Hindle, Alex Michaelides, C.B. Everett, Janice Hallett, Vaseem Khan, Andreina Cordani, Troy Hunter, Jónasson and Kelly Mullen. Other highlights included Leyla Daybelge and Magnus Englund and talking about the fascinating modernist Isokon Building where Agatha lived in London during the Second World War, while David Morris (from Collecting Christie.com) introduced the Tom Adams and Agatha Christie: Partners in Crime Exhibition at Torre Abbey with a wonderful deep dive into the artist's iconic book covers.

The Agatha Christie Festival is a charity and raises money to work with local young people to improve literacy rates and foster a love of reading.