Happy Sunday! February is upon us which begs the questions - will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow and we'll have six more weeks of Winter? Most likely. But did you know, before the ground hog, there was a hedgehog. Poor guy was usurped by the ground hog in 1887 in America.
Ireland folklorist Kevin Danaher says that "To see a hedgehog was a good weather sign, for the hedgehog comes out of the hole in which he has spent the winter, looks about to judge the weather, and returns to his burrow if bad weather is going to continue. If he stays out, it means that he knows that mild weather is coming.” The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs.
February is also Black History Month, Creative Romance Month, and An Affair to Remember Month.
AND our Bookish Bookology Author of the month is Agatha Christie.
Dame Agatha Christie was born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon. She began writing poems when she was a child and short stories by the age of 18. During the first world war, she started writing detective stories. In 1919, her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published and she went on to publish 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections as well as plays, plus 6 romances under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. She created numerous characters including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence as well as Ariadne Oliver, Harley Quin and Parkey Pyne.
She loved archaeology and traveling. She traveled on the Orient Express in 1928, then in 1930 went on to an archaeological site in UR, Nineveh in the Middle East where she met Max who become her second husband. She accompanied him on many digs and her stories were inspired by all her true life experiences. In 1955, She was the first to receive the Grand Master Award, the highest honor by the Mystery Writers of America's. In 1971, she was granted female knighthood as Dame Commander of the British Empire for her literary work. She passed away at the age of 85 on January 12, 1976.
Agatha Christie is also one of our 52 Books bingo categories as well as the subject of one of our Perpetual Reading challenges. I've been bouncing around the list, instead of reading chronologically, and currently have Why didn't they ask Evans?, Mystery of the Blue Train, and Sad Cypress in my reading stacks.
If you've been following the Read Agatha Christie 2023 Motive and Methods readalong challenge, February's read is Partners in Crime, from one of her Tommy and Tuppence short story collections.
And the Royal Reading Room recently covered Agatha Christie during their Christmas Interlude which including a video discussion between Vaseem Khan, Dreda Say Mitchell, Robert Thorogood, and James Prichard on the Legacy and Life of Agatha Christie.
Enjoy exploring through the creative mind of Agatha Christie.
Our post is sponsored by the letter E. Big E, little e, what begins with E. Earl and Edward, everyman and everywhere, earnestly earning enlightenment and erudition.
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