So we move into month two, with whatever a hastily cobbled together google search can find me. And can we spell the word Austerity (ans. yes, after a quick spellcheck). There is something awesomely dull about this Christie cover for Postern Of Fate, in the same way there is something awesomely dull about the phrase “Postern of Fate”.
![agatha-postern.jpg](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Dull in colours perhaps, but not dull in composition. One of the scariest things I ever came across as a cosseted suburban child was the wild flaring nostrils of a horse in a local farm. Horses on TV seem so tame, even the wild stallions* who starred in Black Beauty and Champion the Wonder Horse. Ambulatory devices at best, even when they were stars they seemed like just modes of transport, cowboy cars. So when I ended up in the farm field with some fearless bigger boys, I was shocked to see the true madness in a horses eyes, and these flaming, flaring nostrils.
Shetland Ponies eh?
I believe this might be a Marple, correspondents will I am sure correct me. But the key question is, does this cover make you want to buy this book. Initially no, would be my gut reaction, it looks old, it looks a bit scary but it also is muted and grey. But the details reveal themselves (the repeated magnified little girl / doll in the background). I’m guessing seventies by the minor hyperbole on the strap line, but again willing to be enlightened.
*WYLD STALLYNS!