Memorial to the writer Agatha Christie erected in 2012 at the eastern end of Cranbourn Street at the corner of St Martin's Lane.

The memorial has <a href="http://www.agathachristiememorial.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">a website</a>. In my view, the most thoughtful section is by the <a href="http://www.agathachristiememorial.co.uk/sculptors-notes/4574030153" rel="nofollow">sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies</a>. He doesn't depart far from the 'official' view of a memorial: "to celebrate the best-selling novelist - about 3 billion copies sold - of all time". But he makes some interesting points about Agatha Christie being two people. One "a global literary, film and TV, and theatrical phenomenon". The other a "normal and conventional English lady" who was "modest" ... and "camera-shy".

The memorial shows a bust of Agatha Christie as if embossed on the cover of a large old fashioned book. As the website puts it :

"an embossed leather-bound volume such as might be found in the library in one of her stories."

I was intrigued by Ben Twiston Davies' description of how he approached making a bust of someone who died when he was five years old. He explains that he worked from photos and some film clips. Plus a recording of her voice and reading her autobiography. He writes that: "It took me many months and six attempts to make a head that felt right." ____________________________________ § <a href="http://bentwistondavies.com/now/" rel="nofollow">Ben Twiston Davies website</a>.