Club literati’s two-month long Agatha Christie festival kicked off here on Sunday with first session at Swami Vivekananda library. Curated by Arun Singh, Class 12 student of DPS, Neelbad, and the session was devoted to choice of poison as weapon of murder in stories of Agatha Christie.
‘Poison has a certain appeal,’ wrote Agatha Christie in They Do It with Mirrors, ‘it has not the crudeness of the revolver bullet or the blunt instrument.’ In the world of crime and detective fiction, there is no author that has extensively used poisons so effectively and accurately than Christie.
During WW1, Christie spent most of her time serving as a nurse in a hospital dispensary. This was later attributed as the reason why she developed such a keen interest in poisons. In the 66 detective novels that Christie wrote, more than 36 victims died from poisoning.
Cyanide is the most common poison used by her murderers followed by Arsenic, Strychnine, Digitalis and Morphine. Several other poisons like Trinitrine, Veronal, Ricin, Atropine, Chloral hydrate, Strophanthin, Amyl nitrite, Eserine, Aconitine and even Formic acid also make their appearance as poison of choice in her novels.
Speaking about the session, Seema Raizda said that this is a unique festival that has been planned to suit the taste and interest of everyone right from the children to adults. Every session will unravel some interesting aspects of her work.
The session was followed by a quiz where Agatha Christie fans tested their knowledge of her works with winners walking away with her books. The readers were later served iced hot cocoa drink inspired from her first novel- The Mysterious affair at Styles.
The next session of the festival takes place in Dylog near Chetak Bridge. It will be devoted to the philatelic world of Agatha Christie.