Comments on: thrillers by (grown-up) kids: some more agatha christie

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:17:11 +0000

pete that is an awesome good point — in the uk women got equal voting rights (ie 21 rather than 30) in 1928

having hit on this guesswork “solution” to the agatha-ethic, i have to say that so far “why didn’t they ask evans?” is confirming it big-time — surely i am just retreading ancient AC knowledge here?

By: Pete

Pete — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 20:19:19 +0000

Women in the(ir) twenties were proto-teenagers in a key way: when - ahem - universal suffrage was granted post Great War, women could not vote until they were 30. So coupled with a genuine man shortage (the real reason the vote for women was delayed until 30 - else there would be more women than men voting) there was a suggestion that they still were not quite grown up.

I can’t imagine a Christie Spanish civil war novel!

By: jeff w

jeff w — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:17:35 +0000

Not always. ITV has done some Tommy & Tuppence I think.

AND and quite a long time ago - before even the Beeb’s Marple series let alone the introduction of David Suchet as Poirot - ITV did some excellent non-Poirot/Marple AC novel adaptations … such as “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” which captured what you’re saying in i. (and “re i.”) really well.

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:41:09 +0000

the TV ones are also always either poirot or marple — in the ones i read so far it’s more like “ooh there’s a murder! who gets to be detective? me me me!”

flippancy is also what wodehouse and waugh are about i guess — i struggle a bit with the former, and have only read “the ordeal of gilbert pinfold” by the latter (for some eccentric reason)

By: alext

alext — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:33:36 +0000

I have read two vaguely contemporaneous histories of the interwar years (Ronald Blythe, The Age of Illusion and Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Long-Weekend, ok the latter is 1940 and the former is 1964 so ripping off the latter) of which the titles alone suggest the approach: moralising anti-flippancy (look what happened while we were gadding about!). Interesting if AC is reversing this perspective before it crystallizes, or perhaps it was the tone what the papers took at the time and she is battling against it. I suspect what attracts the TV adaptations (look flappers! period design! kerrazy cars!) are the trappings rather than the attitudes.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:29:54 +0000

BTW ‘graphic novel’ versions of classic AC translated from the french coming out soon (this year)

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:24:58 +0000

“The Moving Finger” (which I just read, from 1951) has a very well-drawn proto-indie kid (who the narrator falls gradually in love with - in fact the whole thing is straight outta Belle And Sebastian).

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:14:55 +0000

it is like SKINS!

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:14:27 +0000

re i. strictly speaking i think all the “teenagers” mentioned are actually in their 20s, but they function as teenagers will in a later age, by virtue of their total lack of invetstment in the “grown-up” (ie daft) world — also they are all totally hormonal for one another (she does this dimension in a very dry and funny way)