Amongst the more unusual London visitors intent on celebrating the autumn publication of John Curran's book Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (Harper Collins) was Ragnar Jónasson, a young Icelandic lawyer. I came across Ragnar, along with his partner Maria, at several events in Reykjavik earlier this year, events surrounding the eventual award of the 2009 Glass Key to Johan Theorin. It was not long before I learned that Ragnar was Agatha Christie's current translator in Iceland, with 14 of the canon to his credit. Later he presented me with a copy of the latest – Spilin á bordid (1936's Cards on the Table to you and me). Regular visitors to London, we arranged to meet when Ragnar and Maria were next in town.
A month or two later, when The Bookseller announced the autumn publication of the Secret Notebooks, I dropped a note of congratulation to its author, who I meet from time to time through our mutual connection with CADS (Crime and Detective Stories), Geoff Bradley's eclectic magazine. I mentioned Ragnar in passing. To my surprise (though nothing in connection with Agatha Christie and John Curran should really surprise me), John recognised the name as that of the editor responsible for the Icelandic website devoted to her work. And yes, John would be delighted if an agreed date could be arranged, so that he could meet Iceland's keenest Christie fan.
Ragnar also was eager to meet John, a man whose lifelong devotion to Christie's work had resulted, for instance, in a friendship with Mathew Prichard, Christie's grandson. It was that friendship which lead to an invitation to study the Notebooks, in person at Greenway, Christie's summer home for close on forty years – and which would later result in the best-selling book. (Matthew Prichard turned out be someone else the two Christie fans had in common. In 2008 the BBC World Service, noting Ragnar's website, featured Ragnar in discussion with Prichard on that year's discovery of the 13 hours of Christie recordings made in preparation for her post-humously published autobiography.)
Greenway became a National Trust property in 2000, and after a major restoration, the gardens were opened to the public some years ago. Now the house was about to undergo the same process. John's obvious expertise soon became known and he was invited to join the restoration team, first cataloguing Christie's extensive personal papers, later identifying items for inclusion in the displays of her life and work now featured in the house since its opening to the public earlier this year.
And so, in August this year in a restaurant housed in a 19th century sugar warehouse on London Dockland's historic West India Quay, Ragnar met John. The resulting interview will appear shortly in Thjodmal, an Icelandic quarterly covering matters cultural and political. Readers without Icelandic can find it in the next issue of CADS (Crime & Detective Stories), no. 57 available in December.
Meanwhile another Jónasson project was about to come to fruition. Back in Reykjavik Ragnar had told me that the Icelandic publisher Veröld had accepted his first novel and it would be published later in the year. The book was, in fact, published on October 8th – and on the morning of October 14th the 14-store Eymundsson book chain, Iceland's largest, announced that Ragnar's book Fölsk nóta (Past Tense) was the No.1 hardcover across the organisation, overtaking the latest from Stieg Larsson. Nationally combined best-seller lists are not regularly published in Iceland, so the lists published by the leading bookstores are the best early indicators of the success of any new title. That early success has since been confirmed elsewhere.
Christie's influence has lived on, often in the most surprising places. (My favourite is Turkey, where Christie collectors not only look to acquire the official 80-strong canon – the figure includes short story collections – but an additional 50 titles, these by Turkish writers published under the Christie name!) So how evident is the Christie influence in the new book?
"I really hope I have picked up quite a few tricks from her" says Ragnar. "I place quite an emphasis on a (hopefully) surprising twist at the very end, and a lot of red herrings and mysterious characters. On the other hand the story is also the history of the development of the main character [a young man] during his search for his missing father..."
There have been many favourable reviews of the book, often commenting on the skilful plotting. Several of those reviews also remark on a tone or flavour, gentler perhaps, new to Icelandic crime fiction, suggesting a successful marriage of skills old and new. But influence is always difficult to guage (you might remember all those often misleading Hammett and Chandler comparisons of yesteryear). There may well be more than a trace of the immortal AC in Ragnar's new book. But shouldn't it be enough that a talented writer has made it beyond the starting-gate?
LINKS
• John Curran's website
http://www.johncurran.info/
• Fölsk nóta website (also for Ragnar Jónasson) http://www.ragnarjonasson.com/
NB Partly in English
• Agatha Christie: The Icelandic Homepage (in English)
http://www.agathachristie.net
• Greenway
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-greenway
• Christie Tapes Discovered
http://www.crimetime.co.uk/mag/index.php/
showarticle/1006
• CADS 57 will be available shortly from Geoff Bradley, 9 Vicarage Hill, SOUTH BENFLEET, SS7 1PA, price £5.75 (inc. post and packing in the UK)
