Just before Christmas I read 'Poirot and Me' by David Suchet. I have to say straight away that Mr Suchet is a superb actor but perhaps not so good a writer. Not that it matters in the slightest, his portrayal of Dame Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is the definitive one as far as I am concerned. Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney are insignificant compared to his portrayal.
I found it fascinating to read about his method of donning the character and the way he did it and also the changes of direction in the filiming as personnel changed. The first few series were bang on the money as far as the stories and protagonists were concerned (though the portrayal of Miss Lemon was always wrong), but the slant began to vary somewhat as the series continued over the years with changes to the story line that were really not needed and extra suspects popping up. More money was also spent on them as it was clear that the audience for this series was guaranteed.
It is a superb achievement and the TV company involved is to be congratulated in filming the entire ouevre with one actor. I cannot imagine anybody but Suchet now as Porot just as Joan Hickson is THE Miss Marple for me. More about that another day.
After finishing this book I went to my bookshelves and picked up an Agatha as I had a compulsion to read one of hers again. After reading it and thoroughly enjoying it I decided that this year I would re-read all her books again. Well, perhaps not all. Some of her later ones are rather vague and long winded, hardly surprising as she got older, and will be avoided but I intend to work my way through the rest*. Apart from the Marple and Poirot stories Dame Agatha wrote many stand alone books, some of which may not be so universally as popular as her two main Tecs, and I intend to give these a little bit more sunshine than hitherto.
Checked online to see if there were any free downloads but the Christie estate is a canny one and though I can get them if I join some organisation and give them my soul, I think I will be ordering most of them from the library as the prices on Amazon are also fairly high for a Kindle book. Oddly enough I do not find many Agathas in charity shops, loads of Connelly, Patterson, Brown et al but very few Christie. Perhaps they are keepers and the others are not?
I have already read three titles since the New Year as you can see by my sidebar, these were ones I already had on my shelves and will write about those in due course.
So off I go - I very rarely get involved in reading challenges of any sort as I inevitably fall by the wayside but think I will be ok with this one.
If you have a favourite Christie do let me know.
*please see the comment left below by Renata about the possibility that Dame Agatha may have had the beginnings of Alzheimers when she was still writing so my comment is not really warranted, My apologies dear Agatha....
