There’s only one Queen of Crime, Christie’s estate tells Mcdermid
VAL MCDERMID has been threatened with legal action by Agatha Christie’s estate in a row over which of the authors has the right to be called the “Queen of Crime”.
The Scottish writer revealed at an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival that she had received a cease and desist letter demanding that she drop use of the sobriquet, as copyright of it is owned by the company that manages Christie’s literary rights.
She also claimed to have been sent personal correspondence from James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and the chief executive of Agatha Christie Limited, who said he was “shocked” to see Mcdermid referred to as the “Queen of Crime” on a poster.
Mcdermid described the warnings as “just astonishingly pitiful”, and said they had been made despite her working closely with the estate on a new story for a book about Miss Marple, one of Christie’s best-known characters.
“A few weeks ago the Agatha Christie estate wrote to my publisher,” she told Allan Little, the broadcaster who interviewed her at the book festival.
“They said ‘you must cease and desist referring to Val Mcdermid as the Queen of Crime. We have trademarked this expression. If you call Val Mcdermid the Queen of Crime, you will be in breach of copyright and this trademark’.” She added: “I actually got a letter from Agatha Christie’s great-grandson, who helps run the Agatha Christie estate.
“He said ‘you will imagine my shock when my train pulled into Waverley Station and a poster said ‘new from the Queen of Crime’. You must understand there is nothing personal in this, but we must protect my great-grandmother’s legacy’.
“Obviously, if you see that on a poster you’re going to go ‘oh, Queen of Crime. We’re not going to read that Agatha Christie anymore, are we?’ It’s just astonishingly pitiful.”
Mcdermid, who has sold more than 17million books, is referred to as the Queen of Crime on her website.
The term was registered as a trade mark by Agatha Christie Limited in May 2013, more than 37 years after the English writer died. Other names trademarked
‘You must understand there is nothing personal in this, but we must protect my great-grandmother’s legacy’
by the estate include “Poirot”, “Miss Marple” and “Agatha”.
Mcdermid said the estate had acknowledged that it could not stop other people referring to her as a “Queen of Crime” and she could quote other people who had used the term to describe her. However, she said she had been warned that if it was used “in other ways” then she would be in breach of copyright and “our lawyers will be in touch”.
Mcdermid, 67, said that her love affair with crime fiction started when she read about Miss Marple in The Murder at the Vicarage as a child. The book, published in 1930, was the first to feature Miss Marple. She had been working on a short story, The Second Murder at the Vicarage, for a collection celebrating the character, to be published next month. Agatha Christie Limited was approached for comment.