What's really going on in the world of books

Hercule Poirot is to test his famous grey cells once again in a “new” Agatha Christie novel – the first featuring the Belgian detective since Christie’s death in 1976.

Pikmin 3

Poirot star David Suchet has revealed that Agatha Christie's family warned him not to play the Belgian detective as a joke when he was first approached about the role.

Here's a sweet story. Arnold Ridley was a one-time elementary school teacher from Bath, born in 1896, who fought in the First World War and longed to be on the stage, but suffered injuries at the Somme – his left arm was badly damaged, he was bayoneted in the groin, and was prone to blackouts from a fractured skull.

Walk Of The Month

In his 50 years in the world of crime fiction, the multi-award winning author Harry Keating rubbed shoulders with the greats of every generation, from Agatha Christie on. During his long career he published over 50 crime novels and numerous short stories and edited and wrote various non-fiction works. He was also an astute critic of the genre, especially during his 15 years as crime fiction critic for The Times.

After breathing new life into ITV's Sunday night schedule with the hit period drama Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes is planning to reinvigorate the image of Agatha Christie with a film adaptation of the whodunnit Crooked House.

It is almost 85 years since the relationship between Agatha Christie and Collins publishers began with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of the author's earliest and most famous works.

Red, red, red: shades of Maybelline, herrings in Devon and painting the town in Old Street

Notebook

Agatha Christie's fans and family join the protest against the revelation of theatre's best-kept secret

Californian writer and film director Rian Johnson achieved critical acclaim in 2005 for a low budget neo-noir murder mystery movie inspired by Dashiell Hammett detective novels called ‘Brick.’ His second film, ‘Brothers Bloom,’ which hits cinemas in the UK tomorrow, is an intense departure from the edginess and careful stylisation of Johnson’s debut. It is instead a light-hearted conman movie, filled with slapstick capers and cons within cons, which might miss the mark for early converts to Johnson’s initial Wes Anderson-alike style, but which possesses a kooky, if self-aware, charm.

Ice queen still chilling the blood

This Morning host Holly Willoughby revealed today she had landed her dream role in a Miss Marple drama - as a birthday present.

The queen of detective fiction turned her uneasy relationship with her daughter into a ' brutal' drama - and now it's on the West End