The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
and a Selection of Entrées
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by Collins 1960
Agatha Christie® Poirot® Marple® The Adventure of the Christmas Puddingâ¢
Copyright © 1960 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
www.agathachristie.com
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016
Title lettering by Ghost Design
Cover photographs © Ray Spence/Arcangel Images (hat), Shutterstock.com (wallpaper)
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008164980
Ebook Edition © September 2016 ISBN: 9780007422111
Version: 2017-04-12
This book of Christmas fare may be described as âThe Chefâs Selectionâ. I am the Chef!
There are two main courses: âThe Adventure of the Christmas Puddingâ and âThe Mystery of the Spanish Chestâ; a selection of Entrées: âGreenshawâs Follyâ, âThe Dreamâ and âThe Under Dogâ, and a Sorbet: âFour-and-Twenty Blackbirdsâ.
âThe Mystery of the Spanish Chestâ may be described as a Hercule Poirot Special. It is a case in which he considers he was at his best! Miss Marple, in her turn, has always been pleased with her perspicuity in âGreenshawâs Follyâ.
âThe Adventure of the Christmas Puddingâ is an indulgence of my own, since it recalls to me, very pleasurably, the Christmases of my youth. After my fatherâs death, my mother and I always spent Christmas with my brother-in-lawâs family in the north of Englandâand what superb Christmases they were for a child to remember! Abney Hall had everything! The garden boasted a waterfall, a stream, and a tunnel under the drive! The Christmas fare was of gargantuan proportions. I was a skinny child, appearing delicate, but actually of robust health and perpetually hungry! The boys of the family and I used to vie with each other as to who could eat most on Christmas Day. Oyster Soup and Turbot went down without undue zest, but then came Roast Turkey, Boiled Turkey and an enormous Sirloin of Beef. The boys and I had two helpings of all three! We then had Plum Pudding, Mince-pies, Trifle and every kind of dessert. During the afternoon we ate chocolates solidly. We neither felt, nor were, sick! How lovely to be eleven years old and greedy!
What a day of delight from âStockingsâ in bed in the morning, Church and all the Christmas hymns, Christmas dinner, Presents, and the final Lighting of the Christmas Tree!
And how deep my gratitude to the kind and hospitable hostess who must have worked so hard to make Christmas Day a wonderful memory to me still in my old age.
So let me dedicate this book to the memory of Abney Hallâits kindness and its hospitality.
And a happy Christmas to all who read this book.
âI regret exceedinglyââ said M. Hercule Poirot.
He was interrupted. Not rudely interrupted. The interruption was suave, dexterous, persuasive rather than contradictory.
âPlease donât refuse offhand, M. Poirot. There are grave issues of State. Your co-operation will be appreciated in the highest quarters.â
âYou are too kind,â Hercule Poirot waved a hand, âbut I really cannot undertake to do as you ask. At this season of the yearââ
Again Mr Jesmond interrupted. âChristmas time,â he said, persuasively. âAn old-fashioned Christmas in the English countryside.â
Hercule Poirot shivered. The thought of the English countryside at this season of the year did not attract him.
âA good old-fashioned Christmas!â Mr Jesmond stressed it.
âMeâI am not an Englishman,â said Hercule Poirot. âIn my country, Christmas, it is for the children. The New Year, that is what we celebrate.â
âAh,â said Mr Jesmond, âbut Christmas in England is a great institution and I assure you at Kings Lacey you would see it at its best. Itâs a wonderful old house, you know. Why, one wing of it dates from the fourteenth century.â