Colourful Christie Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brown

In 1921, Agatha and her then husband Archie Christie were employed to join a world tour promoting the British Empire Exhibition to be held in 1924. They spent the year of 1922 travelling to South Africa, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Fiji and Hawaii. The tour was led by Major Ernest Belcher, who pressured Agatha to write a mystery novel set in his Berkshire house and featuring himself. The result was "The Man in the Brown Suit", featuring the Major as the character Sir Eustace Pedlar. While on the voyage Agatha wrote a number of short stories which formed the basis of the anthologies "Poirot Investigates" and "Poirot's Early Cases".

"The Man in the Brown Suit" was Agatha Christie's fifth published novel. It began its life as a serialised story entitled "Anna the Adventurous". It introduced a new detective, Colonel Johnnie Race, who would ultimately appear in four of her novels.

Answer: Blue

The French 'Le Train Bleu', which operated between Calais and the French Riviera, was the inspiration for the Blue Train in this story. The plot involves the murder of Ruth Kettering, an American heiress, and the theft of her famous ruby, 'Heart of Fire'. Poirot is hired by Ruth's father to investigate.

In her autobiography, Agatha Christie disparaged this novel, stating "I have always hated "The Mystery of the Blue Train", but I got it written, and sent off to the publishers. It sold just as well as my last book had done. So I had to content myself with that - though I cannot say I have ever been proud of it...Each time I read it again, I think it commonplace, full of cliches, with an uninteresting plot. Many people, I am sorry to say, like it. Authors are always said to be no judge of their own books".

Answer: Green

In 1954, Agatha Christie decided to write a short story and donate the rights to her church to help fund a new stained glass window. The resultant story was called "The Greenshore Folly". Unfortunately, it was difficult to sell due to its length - too short for a novel and too long for a short story or magazine serial. So she rewrote it as a short story and renamed it "Greenshaw's Folly".

The story features Miss Marple, her nephew Raymond West and his wife Joan.

Answer: Yellow

"Yellow Iris" is a short story featuring Hercule Poirot. Agatha Christie used it as the basis of her 1945 novel "Sparkling Cyanide" (also known as "Remembered Death"). The novel dispensed with Poirot and featured Colonel Johnnie Race instead. However, Colonel Race was not the person who eventually solved the crime! "Yellow Iris" is included in the anthologies "The Regatta Mystery" and "Problem at Pollensa Bay".

Answer: Golden

"The Golden Ball" is both the name of a short story published in 1929 and the name of a collection of short stories, "The Golden Ball and Other Stories", published in 1971. It was also included in "The Listerdale Mystery" (1934). In "The Golden Ball", the protagonist, George Dundas, is fired from his job for taking a day off without permission.

His uncle accuses him of failing to grasp the "golden ball of opportunity". Walking through the city he encounters Mary Montressor who presents him with another golden opportunity, which leads to adventure and, ultimately, love.

Answer: Pink

The short story, "The Affair of the Pink Pearl", features Tommy and Tuppence Beresford and was published in "The Sketch" magazine in 1924. This short story, together with 13 others, were cobbled together to form a continuous narrative entitled "Partners in Crime" (1929). "The Affair of the Pink Pearl" formed chapters 3 and 4. Each case in the book parodies other fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown and even Hercule Poirot.

The detective parodied in "The Pink Pearl" is Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke (created by British author R. Austin Freeman) whose technique focuses on scientific method.

Answer: Red

"The Red Signal" is one of Agatha Christie's earliest works. It is believed to have been written some time between 1916 and 1920, likely even before her debut novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". The original title was "The Man Who Knew". Agatha Christie later revised, expanded and retitled it as "The Red Signal" and it was first published in 1924. Like so many of her short stories, it has appeared in a number of anthologies.

The story was adapted as an episode of the television series, "The Agatha Christie Hour" (1982).

Answer: Black

Unusually, this short story was first published in the U.S., not the U.K. It was published in the American magazine "Colliers", in November 1940 as "Four and Twenty Blackbirds", and subsequently in the U.K. in March 1941 as "Poirot and the Regular Customer".

It was included in a number of short story collections. Agatha Christie must have liked the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" as she utilised it in the novel "A Pocket Full of Rye" (1953), as well as two short stories - "Sing a Song of Sixpence" (1929) and "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" (1940).

Answer: Ruby

In 1923, Agatha Christie wrote a short story called "Christmas Adventure" which appeared in "The Sketch Magazine" in their December/Christmas edition. It was later expanded, retitled, and appeared in a number of short story collections under the titles "The Theft of the Royal Ruby" and "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding".

In this story, Poirot is invited to spend Christmas at an old country manor to experience an "old-fashioned Christmas in the English countryside" and, more importantly, to investigate the theft of a royal ruby.

The ruby was disovered hidden within the Christmas plum pudding.

Answer: Emerald

Agatha Christie wrote the short story, "The Rajah's Emerald" in 1926. It was first published in the UK in a magazine later that year and subsequently included in an anthology, "The Listerdale Mystery", in 1934. American fans had to wait 37 years before it was published in the U.S. in 1971, in the collection "The Golden Ball and Other Stories".

Interestingly, her protagonist was named James Bond, 26 years before Ian Fleming created his iconic hero.