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Post by Carl LaFong on Aug 30, 2022 18:24:05 GMT
Author Val McDermid has said Agatha Christie's estate has threatened legal action against her publisher for promoting her as the "queen of crime". That phrase is trademarked by the descendants of Christie, who created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. McDermid, the author of almost 50 crime books, said her publisher had been told not to use the title otherwise "our lawyers will be in touch". The author said the Christie estate's reaction was "astonishingly pitiful". McDermid is known for her best-selling novels about Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, which were adapted for the Wire in the Blood TV series. She is also among the modern writers who have been asked to write new Miss Marple stories by Agatha Christie Ltd, which is run by the original crime queen's great-grandson, James Prichard. "It's all been going great guns and we've all been doing lots of publicity and interviews and writing articles for the papers and stuff, all at the behest of the Agatha Christie estate," McDermid told the Edinburgh International Book Festival. www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62727105 |
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Aug 31, 2022 2:30:30 GMT
If it is trademarked it is trademarked and there's not much she can do about it. I don't know that I agree with trademarking such an ordinary phrase though.
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Post by Zos on Aug 31, 2022 14:44:52 GMT
Should change dear old Val to "The Queen of women dying in particularly nasty ways"
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Post by politicidal on Sept 6, 2022 15:20:48 GMT
Should change dear old Val to "The Queen of women dying in particularly nasty ways" Bit cumbersome.
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Post by Nalkarj on Sept 6, 2022 15:53:34 GMT
Interesting that Agatha Christie Ltd. trademarked the phrase in 2013, because the press had been referring to Ruth Rendell and P.D. James as “the Queens of Crime” for a long time (or is the plural OK?).
Anyway, too bad the estate trademarked the phrase. It has long referred to many authors, not just Christie.
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luffy
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Post by luffy on Sept 24, 2022 19:31:02 GMT
Christie was the queen of crime. But her heirs haven't got the type of instinct that might have served their monetary interests better. They hired Sophie Hannah, of all writers, to pen Hercule Poirot's new books. The latter are horrible as heck. In at least one of them, Poirot simply knows, and the replacement for Hastings, inspector Catchpool, keeps challenging Poirot like a meathead.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Sept 26, 2022 22:12:35 GMT
She could change it to the Empress of Crime
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Post by marianne48 on Sept 30, 2022 23:15:07 GMT
Christie was the queen of crime. But her heirs haven't got the type of instinct that might have served their monetary interests better. They hired Sophie Hannah, of all writers, to pen Hercule Poirot's new books. The latter are horrible as heck. In at least one of them, Poirot simply knows, and the replacement for Hastings, inspector Catchpool, keeps challenging Poirot like a meathead. Christie specifically stated that she did not want her creations, Poirot and Miss Marple, appropriated by other writers; she even killed off Poirot to prevent that from happening. Her heirs just want to make a quick buck off her estate. The Hannah books are not worth reading and, except for using Poirot's name, are not at all like the Christie books. If they were sincere in their wishes to protect Christie's legacy, they would not be commissioning new works with Christie's characters making token appearances in mediocre novels. |
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luffy
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Post by luffy on Oct 1, 2022 6:39:37 GMT
Wonderful. In that case I am very glad that Pratchett's heirs have not been thinking in the same terms as these people. By the way, there exists a group of authors, spearheaded by Colleen Hoover, who are making a killing with mediocre books.
There are other writers such as Ruth Ware, Chris Pavone, David Ellis, Kate Quinn etc who have found a formula to churn out 'bestsellers' that are absolutely terrible to read. I suspect this is not a new thing but the fact remains that now more and more people are aware of this market and are being duped into thinking they are getting quality novels. Of course, books are highly subjective, but these authors are making books that I cannot digest. Is this a coincidence? I am almost sure it is not so.
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