New Poirot writer slams fiction snobs
A NOVELIST chosen to write new Hercule Poirot novels has hit out at the snobbery of the literary establishment towards commercial crime fiction.
Sophie Hannah was selected by Agatha Christie’s estate to continue the legacy of her sleuth and has written two novels featuring the Belgian detective with another two in the pipeline.
Miss Hannah, 46, said: ‘There will always be some idiots who are determined to think that the more pleasure a book gives, the more worthless it must be. It just makes no sense when books that are a nightmare to read, where you have to wade through them going, “please let something happen soon,” are considered to be deserving.
‘There is snobbery toward plot. There is a strand of literary snobbery that is willing to welcome with open arms a literary crime novel where the plot is either non-existent or very surreal and shadowy but if you have a brilliant plot that drives the narrative, it is very likely people will dismiss your book as just a commercial novel.’
Miss Hannah – whose Poirot novels are called The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket – revived the character 39 years after his last appearance with the blessing of the author’s family. She was speaking in Dubai as part of a series of crime-writing workshops and talks hosted by the Emirates Literature Foundation.
She drew a distinction between literary crime novels and commercial ones, adding scathingly that the only difference between the two was caring ‘whether the reader has any fun or not’.
Christie, who died in 1976 age of 85, was the bestselling novelist of all time. She has sold more than two billion books, coming third only to the works of Shakespeare and the Bible.