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LITTLE GREY CELLS
‘In the little grey cells of the brain lies the solution of every mystery.’
‘The King of Clubs’
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published 2015
Agatha Christie® Poirot® Little Grey CellsTM
Copyright © Agatha Christie Limited 2015
All rights reserved.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780008116606
Ebook Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008116613
Version: 2019-11-21
CONTENTS
Copyright
Introduction
‘Je Suis …’
Food & Drink
Human Nature
‘Les Femmes’
The English
Symmetry & Order
Romance
Life & Death
Detective Work
The Criminal Mind
Truth & Lies
‘My Dear Hastings’
Postscript
References
Hercule Poirot Books and Stories
About the Publisher
‘Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved triumphs by unravelling some of the most baffling cases of the day.’
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
How did the character of Hercule Poirot come into being?
Difficult to say – and I realise that he made his appearance not at all in the manner he himself would have wished! ‘Hercule Poirot first,’ he would have said, ‘and then a plot to display his remarkable talents to the best advantage.’ But it was not so. The plot of the story, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was roughed out, and then came the dilemma: a detective story – now what kind of detective?
It was in the early autumn of 1914 – Belgian refugees were in most country places. Why not have a Belgian refugee, a former shining light of the Belgian Police force?
What kind of a man should he be? A little man, perhaps, with a somewhat grandiloquent name. Hercule something? Hercule Poirot? Yes, that would do. He should be very neat – very orderly. (Is that because I am a wildly untidy person myself?)
Such was the first rough outline – mostly, you will note, externals – but certain traits followed almost automatically. Like many small dandified men, he would be conceited and he would of course (why, of course!) have a handsome moustache.
That was the beginning. Hercule Poirot emerged from the mists and took concrete shape and form. There was more in the little man than I had ever suspected. There was, for instance, his intense interest in the psychology of every case. As early as The Murder on the Links he was showing his appreciation of the mental processes of a murderer and insisting that every crime had a definite signature. Method and order still meant much to him.
And now, what of the relations between us – between the creator and the created? Well – let me confess it – there has been at times a coolness between us! There are moments when I have felt: ‘Why–why–why did I ever invent this detestable, bombastic, tiresome little creature?’
Eternally straightening things, eternally boasting, eternally twirling his moustache and tilting his egg-shaped head. Anyway, what is an egg-shaped head? When people say to me, ‘Which way up is the egg?’ – do I really know? I don’t, because I never do see pictorial things clearly, but nevertheless I know that he has an egg-shaped head covered with suspiciously black hair, and I know his eyes occasionally shine with a green light. Twice in my life I have actually seen him – once on a boat going to the Canary Islands, and once having lunch at the Savoy. I have said to myself: ‘Now, if you had only had the nerve, you could have “snap-shotted” that man in the boat, and then when people have said, “Yes, but what is he like?” you could perhaps have produced that snap shot and explained matters.’ But life is full of lost opportunities.
If you are doubly burdened, first by acute shyness, and secondly by only seeing the right thing to do or say