Kate's Blog

Latest Thoughts on all things Agatha

12 March 2024 👁 121
Now It Feels Real! That's Me on the International Agatha Christie Festival Website!

Now It Feels Real! That's Me on the International Agatha Christie Festival Website!

Tickets are now on sale for the International Agatha Christie Festival and the planners have posted the events available. I'm one of them, so I guess this is really happening!

05 March 2024 👁 477
The Blue Train: How the Upper-Class Traveled to the Riviera

The Blue Train: How the Upper-Class Traveled to the Riviera

In the early 1800s, it became fashionable for the privileged to leave cold and dreary England to spend winter on the sunny Mediterranean coast. At first, it was a long and difficult carriage journey, but by 1864, a railway across France made the trip simple and short. 

20 February 2024 👁 180
Even More Tips for Your Best-Ever Author Presentations

Even More Tips for Your Best-Ever Author Presentations

Public speaking is hard for many of us, but since it’s good for marketing books, read on for a few more tips to make it easier.

13 February 2024 👁 106
New E-Book Release!

New E-Book Release!

Gnu Ventures Publishing is excited to announce the release of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles, annotated with the words and phrases from Kate’s book, Agatha Annotated: Investigating the Books of the 1920s.

06 February 2024 👁 154
Looking Back at the Rise and Fall of the Uniquely English Music Hall

Looking Back at the Rise and Fall of the Uniquely English Music Hall

The popularity of music halls was already fading by the time Agatha Christie started publishing novels, but they were still an entertainment option and Christie mentions them twice in the 1920s books. Tommy suggests relaxing at a music hall to Tuppence in “The Unbreakable Alibi” and Arthur Hastings’ love interest in Murder on the Links seems to have been a music hall performer.

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What is Agatha Annotated?

This website is the home of the Agatha Christie database as annotated by Kate Gingold, hence the name Agatha Annotated.

It's a rich glossary of

  • nearly 1900 terms
  • over 200 illustrations
  • 347 French phrases

Kate found them while reading Agatha Christie novels, and wrote them, along with definitions curated from years of research, into this database.

Currently the first 11 Christie books, those she wrote in the 1920s, are annotated here. 

Anybody can be a member and gain access to this rich glossary. Visit the Community page to learn the details.

We took the 1920s terms and published a book, Agatha Annotated: Investigating the Books of the 1920s, now available on Amazon in Paperback or Kindle format.

Kate will be adding to the database and members get the new terms and definitions first before the second volume is printed, plus members can comment and ask questions about the terms and Kate and other members can reply.

We hope you enjoy. Click around the pages to learn more.

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Agatha Annotated: Glossary of Terms

Agatha Annotated glossary, books, data base, essays and all content on this website are property of Gnu Ventures Company; all rights reserved; no copying without express permission.

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Annotator Kate Gingold

Kate Gingold

... has been a huge fan of the works of Agatha Christie her entire adult life. Christie's vivid descriptions of picturesque English life in the early-to-mid twentieth century fascinated Kate, but many of the people and places were unfamiliar to her. A writer herself, as well as a researcher and historian with several local history books to her credit, Kate began a list of these strange words and set out to define them. Now, Christie fans like you and all those who come after will be able to fully enjoy the richness of Agatha Christie novels with their own copy of Agatha Annotated.

Learn more about Kate