A revealing and witty new examination of how Agatha Christie became the world's most successful and popular female playwright, including details of never-before-published scripts and stories.

Published in celebration of Agatha Christie's 125th birthday, Curtain Up! is an essential purchase for Agatha Christie fans worldwide. Everyone knows that The Mousetrap is the world's longest-running play, but this first ever book dedicated to Agatha Christie as a playwright tells how Christie prevailed against the male-dominated establishment to be the only woman to have three plays in the West End at the same time and became the most popular and successful female playwright in the world.

Author and theatre producer Julius Green has been given unprecedented access to archives in the UK and USA and has uncovered more than ten unpublished and unperformed plays, as well as previously unknown facts and correspondence. Agatha Christie was a skilful and accomplished stage writer, and this long-awaited book is a fascinating, funny and revealing tale that theatregoers and Agatha Christie fans won't want to miss.

As a special feature, this book includes extensive endnotes available at www.harpercollins.co.uk/notes/curtainup

About the Author

JULIUS GREEN has numerous West End plays and musicals to his credit as a theatre producer and is a Fellow of the Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, University of London. He studied history at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and in 2014 was Fellow Commoner of the College. In 2011 he produced the twelve-week Agatha Christie Theatre Festival, uniquely presenting a repertoire of Christie's complete plays as then known, and in 2006 he created the Agatha Christie Theatre Company. He has served on the Board of Management of the Society of London Theatre and the Board of Directors of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, and is a director of the Academy of Circus Arts. Green is a regular columnist for The Stage newspaper and the author of How to Produce a West End Show. He lives in Cambridge.

Reviews

'A thrilling look at the Queen of Crime ... Having sifted through the evidence in her personal archives both here and in the US, Christie expert Julius Green spends almost 600 pages proving the case for Dame Agatha's pole position in the pantheon of female playwrights ... Extensive quotations from unpublished and/or unperformed plays reveal a wit and nuanced understanding of human nature far beyond the novels.'-Daily Express

'Her theatrical masterpieces have made her the most successful female playwright of all time ... Now, on the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth, ten new plays by her have been unearthed by British theatre producer Julius Green ... Exploring her plays from 'page to stage' he shows that Christie regarded writing books as her day job but found true "creative fulfilment" in the theatre.'-Daily Mail

'Green turned detective himself and scoured archives around the world to uncover a number of unpublished, unknown works ... This book is a treat.'-Independent

Awards
Short-listed for Crimefest H. R. F. Keating Award 2016.



Book Information
ISBN 9780007546947
Author Julius Green
Format Hardback
Page Count 640
Imprint HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 960g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 159mm * 54mm