This One’s For You | The Best Agatha Christie Book Dedications
“My Dear James,
You have always been one of the most faithful and kindly of my readers, and I was therefore seriously perturbed when I received from you a word of criticism.
You complained that my murders were getting too refined — anaemic, in fact. You yearned for a ‘good violent murder with lots of blood.’ A murder where there was no doubt about its being murder!
So this is your special story — written for you. I hope it may please.
Your affectionate sister-in-law
Agatha”
The above is the dedication in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, and true to form, Christie manages to intrigue the reader before he even arrives at the table of contents. Like most people, I don’t normally take notice of the dedications in the books I pick up to read, but after taking note of a few interesting dedications like the one above, I can say I always read the dedication in an Agatha Christie book now!
Like the true fan that I am, this dedication and others like it drove me straight to the Internet to find out what they were all about. What follows are a handful of the best Agatha Christie book dedications, with a bit more information to satisfy the equally curious.
Enjoy!
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
This dedication (quoted at the top of this article) is the one that sent me down the rabbit hole of Christie dedications to see if I can find any more information about who these dedicatees were. Of course, in this case, Christie has told us that James was her brother-in-law, and while being one of her biggest fans, had offered some lament wishing her to write a mystery that was bloody and more obviously murderous than the more gentle and gore-free murders she’d been writing before. James Watts was married to Agatha’s sister Madge.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas did indeed include a gruesome manner of killing, and while the gory scene was limited to one paragraph, it was very obviously murder, and not one of her more common instances of a poisoning masquerading as a natural cause of death.
In this case, after reading the dedication, I was expecting a darker tale and a more bloody death, but I actually don’t find this novel nearly as violent as some others. The most disturbing Christie books to me are the ones that deal with the psychology of a murderer, like in Endless Night, or the murder of a child such as in Halloween Party, or of serial killers like in The ABC Murders. Christie understood that the voilence in the murder itself is less thrilling and intriguing than the mind of the actual murderer.
The Watts family appears in a few other Christie dedications. In the collection of short stories, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, the family’s estate Abney Hall, where Christie stayed often and wrote a few of her novels, receives a special dedication. She even modeled her descriptions of Chimneys, Styles Court, and likely a few others after the estate. James Watts, Christie’s adored nephew and the son of Madge and James, received a dedication in After the Funeral. The dedication reads, “For James, in memory of happy days at Abney”. Of course, Agatha’s sister Madge gets her own dedication in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but is written to as Punkie, her family nickname.
The dedication in Mrs. McGinty’s Dead reads, “To Peter Saunders, in Gratitude for his kindness to authors.” Peter Saunders was the theater producer responsible for putting Agatha Christie’s plays onto the stage, including the longest running play in London’s West End in history, “The Mousetrap”.
I love this dedication because I think it’s safe to assume that many people who adapt the works of others are not so kind. For Christie to thank Saunders for his kindness to authors specifically? I find that heartwarming.
Destination Unknown
“To Anthony — who loves foreign travel as much as I do,” is the dedication of Destination Unknown, which is one of Christie’s many novels set in an exotic foreign location. Anthony Hicks was Agatha’s son-in-law, married to her daughter Rosalind. A lawyer by profession, Anthony studied languages and seems to have been as fascinated by anthropology and archeology as Agatha. She described him as “one of the kindest people I know.”
This book’s dedication reads, “To Margaret Rutherford, in admiration”. Margaret Rutherford was the actress who played Miss Marple in four movie adaptations of Christie’s works in the 1960’s. The two were reportedly instant friends and the admiration was mutual, but this dedication is interesting because Christie famously and publicly opposed Rutherford’s portrayal of Miss Marple, whom she’d fashioned in her books after own her bird-like aunt. Nevertheless, the movies were quite successful and the women seemed to have held a mutual esteem for one another, and we can all appreciate the grace and professionalism displayed in that scenario.
Hallowe’en Party
Being also a fan of P.G. Wodehouse, I was delighted to see this dedication in one one of my top favorite Christie novels: "To P. G. Wodehouse--whose books and stories have brightened my life for many years. Also, to show my pleasure in his having been kind enough to tell me he enjoyed my books."
It’s so fun to think of these two as having mutual admiration for each others’ works! While their respective genres were very different, their understanding of human nature and their ability to draw out the humor in everyday life and relationships was quite evenly matched in their writing.
Christie and Wodehouse became friends and began corresponding in their much later years and wrote letters back and forth until his death in 1975. Her final letter to him ended, “Goodbye for now and thanks for all the laughs.”
The Hollow
This book is hilariously dedicated: "For Larry and Danae, with apologies for using their swimming pool as the scene of a murder." The Mallowans became friends with Larry and Danae when Larry played Hercule Poirot in the stage adaptation of Black Coffee. They had on their property a swimming pool (pond?) with several paths leading to and around it. Christie fashioned the Hollow after this pool and Larry was unaware until he received an advance copy of the book.
Postern of Fate
Finally we have what is probably the one that makes me smile most, Postern of Fate’s dedication reads, “For Hannibal and his master”. Hannibal was the dog in this Tommy and Tuppence story, a Manchester Terrier that is believed to have been modeled after Agatha and Max’s own dog. So this book is dedicated to Agatha’s dog and to her husband Max (its master). A known dog person, Christie’s dogs were an important part of her life, played a role in several of her stories, and were loved enough to receive a special dedication in Postern of Fate. Dumb Witness is another book dedicated to a terrier, Christie’s dog Peter. This story also largely features a dog as a character and is instrumental in solving the murder.
Honorable Mentions …
There are a few dedications I felt were worth noting, but that are either self explanatory or have no accompanying information that I could find. Here they are:
Nemesis was dedicated to Daphne Honeybone and is worth noting because the name “Daphne Honeybone” is the most fantastic name I’ve ever heard and deserves a book series with Daphne Honeybone as the protagonist. Daphne was Agatha’s secretary and after her death, Daphne continued as secretary for Christie’s husband Max Mallowan.
By the Pricking of My Thumbs was dedicated, "to the many readers in this and other countries who write to me asking: 'What has happened to Tommy and Tuppence? What are they doing now?' My best wishes to you all, and I hope that you will enjoy meeting Tommy and Tuppence again, years older, but with spirit unquenched!" I think it’s lovely that Christie thought so much of her fans as to satisfy them with another Tommy and Tuppence novel.
The Pale Horse is cryptically dedicated, "To John and Helen Mildmay White--with many thanks for the opportunity given me to see justice done." No one knowns exactly which justice she saw done.
A Murder is Announced is dedicated, "To Ralph and Anne Newman, at whose house I first tasted . . . 'Delicious Death!'" This delectable chocolate cake makes an appearance in the book.
Cheers to You,
Ariadne
