In this lecture we play armchair detective and follow trail of clues to discover more about the London life of the “Queen of Crime”.  Although Dame Agatha Christie is closely associated with Torquay in Devon, the world’s best selling author left a trail of clues for us to follow all over London. Living in various London properties during her long (and eventful) life, she penned 16 out of 66 novels from one London address alone! It was at University College London that she further developed her knowledge of her preferred method of murder; poison! We examine the London links to her novels including a hotel that inspired a Miss Marple novel and Agatha’s perhaps lesser known links to The Mesopotamian galleries at the British Museum. We conclude with a look at Agatha’s personal and professional devotion to the theatre and the extraordinary longevity of The Mousetrap: the longest running theatrical production in the world.  

A light-hearted seasonal lecture for Christmas, describing what we actually know about the three kings – or rather what we don’t know. For a start we don’t know how many “kings” there were. Matthew's Gospel doesn’t tell us. We assume they were 3 because they brought 3 gifts. But why gold, frankincense and myrrh? Also, there’s no reason to suppose they were kings of anywhere. It took 500 years for them to be given names, even though we still don’t really know their gender – some of them might have been women. And since they gave away the timing of the birth of the baby Jesus to Herod the alleged baby slayer, we can reasonably assume they weren’t too clever – let alone wise!

*This lecture is part of our 50th Anniversary Celebration and attendance is ticket only. For more information about this event go to our News Page