The Swinging Christies

Widely perceived as a writer of cosy, old-fashioned mysteries rooted in the interwar years, Agatha Christie was in fact one of the most culturally engaged authors of the 1960s. Far from being a relic of a bygone era, Christie lived at the heart of Swinging London, travelled the world into her seventies, and produced novels that responded directly to the decade's most seismic events: the Cold War, decolonisation, the sexual revolution, youth culture, nuclear anxiety, and the decline of the British Empire. Structured year-by-year from 1960 to 1969, the book weaves together Christie's life, her novels and plays, personal correspondence, and the wider cultural and political landscape. Drawing on previously unpublished archival material – including letters, notebooks, passport records, and unproduced scripts – the authors bring Christie into vivid focus as a real woman navigating a tumultuous and thrilling decade. The book grew out of the authors' popular podcast of the same name, and represents the first full-length study of Christie's 1960s work in its historical and cultural context.