12 Aug 2012 02:52:48
Westminster council this week granted planning permission for a statue, designed by sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies, to be erected. It will be placed in the heart of Covent Garden, between Great Newport Street and Cranbourn Street. The location, in the middle of London's theatreland, was chosen to represent Christie's contribution to the stage: the novelist was the first female playwright to have three plays performing in the West End simultaneously, and her murder-mystery The Mousetrap is the world's longest-running show.
The 2.5m bronze memorial, commissioned by The Mousetrap's producer Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen and Christie's grandson Mathew Prichard, will take the shape of a giant book. An opening in the book's centre will feature a bust of the author, with details reflecting her life and work included on the cover, from motifs of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to the Orient Express and a country house.
"It's inspired by the fact that she's the world's bestselling writer, she's sold 4bn books, combined with the constraints of the site where we couldn't have a sculpture with bits sticking out as they'd get in people's way. That suggested it should be a huge book," said Twiston-Davies.
The sculpture will also feature a row of smaller book spines. "One of the reasons she was such a huge-selling novelist was because she was reprinted in something like 50 different languages, so we will put the books' titles in lots of different languages, as well as in Braille," said Twiston-Davies. "The idea is that from a distance the sculpture is quite simple, but when you get near there is more detail."
Although there is already a bust of Christie in Torquay, Devon, this is the first statue of the novelist to be erected in London, said Twiston-Davies. The memorial is intended to be unveiled on 25 November this year, to mark the 60th anniversary of The Mousetrap.
