Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
Marion Gibbons was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery novels, whose career as a published author began in 1979. She wrote numerous successful historical romance novels under a form of her maiden name, Marion Chesney, including the "Travelling Matchmaker" and "Daughters of Mannerling" series.
Geoffrey Sax is a British film and television director, who has worked on a variety of drama productions in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Hamish Macbeth is the lackadaisical police constable of the fictional Scottish Highland town of Lochdubh, in a series of murder mystery novels created by M. C. Beaton.
Ashley Jensen is a Scottish actress and narrator. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role on the television series Extras, in which she appeared from 2005 to 2007. She was a cast member of the ABC series Ugly Betty and the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose. She also plays the main character in the comedy-drama detective television series Agatha Raisin.
Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an imprint of Little, Brown which publishes fiction and non-fiction books and ebooks.
Caroline Langrishe is an English actress.
Hermione Jane Norris is an English actress. She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1980s, before taking small roles in theatre and on television. In 1996, she was cast in her breakout role of Karen Marsden in the comedy drama television series Cold Feet. She appeared in every episode of the series from 1998 to 2003 and was nominated for a British Comedy Award.
Nichola McAuliffe is an English television and stage actress and writer, best known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the ITV hospital sitcom Surgical Spirit (1989–1995). She has also starred in several stage musicals and won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Kiss Me, Kate.
Margaret Maron was an American writer, the author of award-winning mystery novels.
Agatha Raisin is a fictional detective in a series of humorous mystery novels, originally written by Marion Chesney using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton. Chesney's friend Rod W. Green took over as writer with Hot to Trot. The books are published in the U.K. by Constable & Robinson and in the U.S.A. by St. Martin's Press.
Kerry Isabelle Greenwood is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novel The Three-Pronged Dagger.
Lucy Katherine Liemann is an English actress. After graduation she was spotted at a supermarket by a voice scout who urged her to become a voice artist. Liemann then went on to study acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. She has worked in theatre, television and film.
Carli Jo Norris is an English actress, known for her roles as Anoushka Flynn in Doctors, Martha Kane in Hollyoaks and taking over the role of Belinda Peacock in EastEnders.
Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance is the fifteenth Agatha Raisin mystery novel by Marion Chesney under her pseudonym M. C. Beaton. She sets up her own detective agency, Raisin Investigations, having previously investigated as a hobby. There are three attempts to assassinate her, with two attempts killing another would-be assassin.
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death is British comedy-drama television film based on the 1992 novel of the same name by M. C. Beaton. The film aired on Sky1 on 26 December 2014. It served as a pilot to a full series entitled Agatha Raisin.
The Potted Gardener is the third Agatha Raisin mystery novel by Marion Chesney under her pseudonym M. C. Beaton.
Agatha Raisin is a British comedy-drama television program, based on M. C. Beaton's book series of the same name about a former PR agent who solves crime mysteries in the Cotswolds village of Carsely.
Alison Larkin is an English American comedian, novelist, actress, and audiobook narrator. Her novel The English American sprang from her autobiographical one-woman comedy show about an adopted English woman who finds her birth parents in the United States. The show previewed at the Manchester Royal Exchange and the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms in 2000, and received its London premiere as part of the London Comedy Festival at the Soho Theatre in London in 2004. The Times reviewed it as "marvelously light footed, hugely entertaining reflections… a lesson in the human condition."
Sandra Isobel McDade, professionally known as Sandy McDade, is a Scottish actress, known for her part as Margaret Brown in the television series Lark Rise to Candleford, Miss Scatcherd in the 2011 film Jane Eyre, and Fay on stage at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs in Iron, which won her the 2003 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress.
