Agatha's Nursery Rhyme Mysteries Quiz

Answer: Sing a Song of Sixpence

Agatha Christie's short story "Sing a Song of Sixpence" was published in the U.K. in the anthology "The Listerdale Mystery" (1934) and later in the U.S. in the anthology "The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories" (1948).

Sir Edward Palliser, a retired barrister, is approached by Magdalen Vaughan who asks him to investigate the murder of her aunt, Miss Lily Crabtree. Sir Edward visits the scene of the crime and interviews everyone in the household, which consists of four relatives and a housekeeper. The four relatives were equal beneficiaries in her will and the housekeeper had no apparent motive. But it seemed impossible that an outsider could have accessed the house to commit the crime.

In this short story, the nursery rhyme serves as the trigger for the solution rather than a blueprint for the murder. A restaurant called "The Four and Twenty Blackbirds" and a missing sixpence provide the catalyst that leads Sir Edward to realise the truth of the matter.

Answer: A Pocket Full of Rye

In "A Pocket Full of Rye" (1953), the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" provides the blueprint for a series of murders. Rex Fortescue is poisoned with taxine and the police find grains of rye in his pocket. His wife, Adele, is subsequently poisoned with cyanide, taken in her cup of tea. Gladys Martin, the parlour-maid, is found strangled under the clothesline.

When Miss Marple arrives to investigate, she realizes the killings follow the pattern of the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence". This connection is strengthened when she learns that dead blackbirds were found in Rex's desk at home, a pie in the larder had its filling removed and replace with dead blackbirds, and the family owned a seemingly worthless gold mine called the Blackbird Mine in Africa.

Answer: Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Agatha Christie's short story "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" appears in the U.K. collection "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (and a Selection of Entrees)"(1960) and in the U.S. collection "Three Blind Mice and Other Stories" (1950).

In this short story, the link between the plot and the nursery rhyme is quite tenuous. There is nothing in the story about blackbirds, nor is the number 24 significant. In fact, the only connection is the title itself and one sentence where Poirot says to his manservant George, "Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie! Or blackberries if you prefer to be literal". This is because one of the characters was noted to have eaten a blackberry tart and a blackberry and apple pie in a restaurant. I've always wondered why Agatha Christie did not strengthen the connection by naming the resturant "The Four and Twenty Blackbirds" as she did in her short story "Sing a Song of Sixpence". (In this story, the restaurant was called "The Gallant Endeavour").

Agatha Christie got good mileage out of this nursery rhyme as three of her titles were based on the first three lines of the rhyme - "Sing a Song of Sixpence" (short story), "A Pocket Full of Rye" (novel), and "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" (short story).

Answer: Three Blind Mice

In 1947, Agatha Christie wrote a 30-minute radio play called "Three Blind Mice" which was broadcast for Queen Mary's birthday. Christie recycled the radio play to create a short story, also called "Three Blind Mice", which was published in the U.S. in 1950 in a collection entitled "Three Blind Mice and Other Stories".

The radio play was also adapted for the stage. When it was performed in London, the title had to be changed because there had already been a stage play with the same name a few years earlier, so Christie changed it to "The Mousetrap". She also entered into a legal agreement whereby the short story could not be published in the U.K. as long as "The Mousetrap" was being performed in London. However, she did not foresee how long the play would run for. In her autobiography she stated that she thought it would probably only run for about eight months. When Covid shut down the 68-year run of the play in 2020, U.K. publishers were still not able to publish because the production was not officially closed - the shutdown was considered just a temporary pause.

The play and short story are virtually the same plot but with minor name and character changes. In relation to the nursery rhyme, the plot involves a killer who intends to commit three revenge murders to avenge past wrongs, with the victims being likened to the three blind mice.

Answer: Ten Little Indians

When this novel was published in the U.K. in 1939, Agatha Christie had titled it "Ten Little Niggers", based on an old English nursery rhyme of the same name. While that was acceptable terminology in the U.K. at that time, it was not acceptable in the U.S., so when it was published there the following year, it was renamed "And Then There Were None" (which was the last line of the rhyme). The original title was used in the U.K. until 1985. From 1964 to 1986, the alternative title "Ten Little Indians" was used in the U.S. until this also became unacceptable. Since 1986, the motif is "Ten Little Soldiers".

The ten characters left stranded on the island are killed by methods which parallel those itemised in the rhyme. With each title change, the lyrics of the nursery rhyme were modified to suit. This novel has the reputation of being the best-selling crime novel of all time with over 100 million copies sold.

Answer: Hickory Dickory Dock

The link between this novel (published in 1955) and the nursery rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock" is tenuous at best. There are no mice or clocks in this story. Basically there are only two obvious connections to the rhyme - the facts that the crimes take place at a student hostel in Hickory Road and that at one stage, one of the students parodies the rhyme by saying:

Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock,
The police said "Boo!",
I wonder who,
Will eventually stand in the dock?"

Of course, when the American publishers changed the title to "Hickory Dickory Death", thinking that this would give the title more impact, they spoiled the association with the nursery rhyme.

Answer: Five Little Pigs

Agatha Christie's novel "Five Little Pigs" (1942) uses the classic nursery rhyme "This Little Piggy (Went to Market)" as a framework for Poirot's investigation into Amyas Crale's murder. He ascertains there are five suspects and they correspond to the five little piggies.

Once again, the American title change to "Murder in Retrospect" obscures the connection to the nursery rhyme but the decision was quite deliberate as the U.S. publishers felt that the association with a childish nursery rhyme might confuse or deter adult readers. They felt "Murder in Retrospect" was a more appropriate title that highlighted what the story was about.

Answer: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

This novel was published in 1940 in the U.K. and in the following year it was published in the U.S. as "The Patriotic Murders". The American publishers preferred a title that more obviously reflected the storyline. They felt the nursery rhyme association wasn't appropriate for a plot that involved the war, politics, terrorism, and murder. In 1953 it was re-released in the U.S. as "An Overdose of Death". It was the last novel to feature Poirot's friend, Chief Inspector Japp (although it should be noted that Japp made his absolute last appearance in the short story collection, "The Labours of Hercules", in 1947).

The title "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is derived from the nursery rhyme of the same name. Each chapter title corresponds to a line of the rhyme.

One, two, buckle my shoe;
Three, four, knock at the door;
Five, six, pick up sticks;
Seven, eight, lay them straight;
Nine, ten, a big fat hen;
Eleven, twelve, dig and delve;
Thirteen, fourteen, maids a-courting;
Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen;
Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting;
Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty.

Answer: Crooked House

Agatha Christie acknowledged that the novel "Crooked House", published in 1949, was one of her two favourites (along with "Ordeal by Innocence"). She took the title from the nursery rhyme "There Was a Crooked Man".

The concept of crookedness is embodied in this novel in several ways. The Leonides' family house is literally crooked: "it had lots of crooked gables and wood timbers - a little crooked house that had grown up suddenly, like a mushroom in the night". Aristide Leonides, the patriarch of the family, is also described as being crooked, both in physique and in character. He is described as an ugly little man with crooked shoulders who "was always a bit dishonest - a bit crooked. He never actually broke the law, but he came close to doing so".

Answer: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Agatha Christie's short story "How Does Your Garden Grow?" was first published in 1935 in "The Strand Magazine" (U.K.) and "Ladies' Home Journal" (U.S.). It was later published in the anthologies "The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories" (1939, U.S.) and "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974, U.K.). This story is significant because it marks the first appearance of Miss Felicity Lemon, Poirot's very efficient secretary.

The title comes from the nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary". True to the rhyme, this story features a character called Mary who is passionate about her garden. When Poirot visits the house, he notices a garden bed containing daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths, and partly edged with shells, which brings to his mind the nursery rhyme:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With cockle-shells, and silver bells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

It is the shells which put Poirot on the right track to solving Miss Barrowby's murder.