The Bodley Head

The Bodley Head was the publisher that finally brought Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, into print in 1920, after six other houses had rejected it. The decision launched Christie’s publishing career and introduced Hercule Poirot, the detective who would become one of crime fiction’s most popular figures.

Publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Christie wrote The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1916, toward the end of the First World War, while she was serving in the Voluntary Aid Detachments. The novel was her first published work. Six houses turned it down before The Bodley Head agreed to publish it; the publisher had puzzled over the manuscript for eighteen months before deciding to proceed.

The book appeared in 1920. Its route to publication makes The Bodley Head’s role a decisive point in Christie’s early career: the manuscript did not reach readers immediately, but the publisher’s eventual commitment converted a repeatedly rejected first novel into her published debut.

A debut detective and a lasting legacy

The novel introduced Hercule Poirot, described as a little Belgian investigator. The character was destined to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes, giving the publisher’s decision significance beyond the appearance of a single novel: it placed Poirot before readers for the first time.

Christie became known worldwide as the Queen of Crime, and her books eventually sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in 100 foreign languages. Against that later scale, The Bodley Head’s acceptance of her first novel stands at the beginning of a far-reaching literary career. The available account identifies its role in publishing the debut, rather than detailing the publisher’s wider organization or subsequent relationship with Christie.