Cat Among the Pigeons
Encyclopedia
Cat Among the Pigeons is a work of detective fiction
by Agatha Christie
and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club
on November 2, 1959
, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
in March 1960
with a copyright date of 1959. The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence
(12/6), and the US edition at $2.95.
It features Christie's Belgian
detective
, Hercule Poirot
, who makes a very late appearance in the final third of the novel. The emphasis on espionage in the early part of the novel relates it to Christie’s international adventures (most notably They Came to Baghdad
) and to the Tommy and Tuppence
stories.
three months to Ramat, one of the richest countries of the Middle East
, where a revolution
is about to take place. Prince Ali Yusuf gives a fortune in jewels, which he needs sent out of the country, into the safekeeping of Bob Rawlinson, his personal pilot and the only person he can trust. Rawlinson complies with the prince's request, apparently by concealing the jewels in the luggage of his sister, Joan Sutcliffe, who is travelling with her daughter, Jennifer. He is seen doing this by a mysterious and unnamed woman in the next room. Soon after, both Rawlinson and the Prince are killed in an airplane crash after a man named Abdul sabotages their plane while attempting to leave the country. A number of people, including British Intelligence, get onto the trail of the jewels, and their attention focuses on Meadowbank School, where not only Jennifer, but also the prince's cousin and expected fiancée, Shaista, are studying.
This term at Meadowbank there are both old and new staff. Miss Chadwick helped Miss Bulstrode found the school. Miss Vansittart has been teaching there for several years, and Miss Rich for 1 1/2 years. Miss Johnson is the girls' matron. The new staff include Angèle Blanche (a French teacher), Grace Springer (a gym teacher), Ann Shapland (Miss Bulstrode's new secretary), and Adam Goodman (a gardener, or actually an undercover British agent posing as a gardener).
Miss Bulstrode is nearing retirement, and is deciding whom to appoint as her successor. The others assume Miss Vanisttart will be the successor; she would perserve Miss Bulstrode's legacy but is unimaginative and has no new ideas. But Miss Bulstrode is also considering Miss Rich, who is young and has lots of ideas but less experience. She is not considering Miss Chadwick, whom she thinks is too old (although others may assume Miss Chadwick is the second most likely candidate). But all these deliberations are cut short when Miss Springer is shot dead in the Sports Pavilion late at night, and Miss Johnson and Miss Chadwick discover her body.
Following the murder, Inspector Kelsey interviews everyone and Adam Goodman reveals his true identity to Miss Bulstrode. Meanwhile, Jennifer Sutcliffe, an expert tennis player, complains that her racquet feels unbalanced (it must have been warped in the Ramat heat), and she writes to her mother asking for a new one. She swaps tennis racquets with Julia Upjohn, who prefers Jennifer's racquet because it has been refurbished recently. Later a strange woman arrives and gives Jennifer a new racquet, saying it's a gift from her aunt Gina. The woman takes the old racquet (actually Julia's), ostensibly to return it to Aunt Gina for restringing. Later, Julia points out that this is impossible because Aunt Gina knows that Jennifer's racquet had been refurbished and restrung recently, so she would not assume the problem is in the strings. Sure enough, Aunt Gina writes to say that she has not sent a new racquet.
During a weekend when many of the girls are at home with their parents, Shaista is apparently kidnapped by a chauffeur posing as the one sent by her uncle to take her home. That night there is a repetition of murder when Miss Chadwick is disturbed by torch light in the Sports Pavilion and Miss Vansittart is found dead there, having been apparently coshed
. Many of the girls go home, but the resourceful Julia, who has been pondering the exchange of the racquets, takes her (really Jennifer's) racquet back to her room and discovers the gems in the hollowed-out handle. She hears someone at the door who quietly turns the knob and attempts to enter. But Julia has pushed furniture against the door to prevent a murderer from entering. The next day Julia flees the school to tell her story to Hercule Poirot, whom she has heard of through a friend of her mother. The police start to focus on the newcomer, Miss Blanche, but in fact she is not the murderer. Instead, she knows who the murderer is, and makes an attempt at blackmail that backfires when she is also killed. With the school struggling to survive the scandal of two murders, the denouement
has arrived.
Poirot reviews what the reader already knows, and then explains that Princess Shaista was an impostor: the real Shaista had been kidnapped earlier in Switzerland, and the apparent abduction was actually the imposter's escape from the school. She was the representative of one group of interests who, crucially, did not know where the gems had been concealed. The murderer, however, did know where the jewels were concealed and must have been in Ramat to see Bob Rawlinson hide them. Most of the teachers could not have been there … the exception was Eileen Rich, who was apparently sick at the time but was in fact in Ramat. Jennifer had even recognised her, although she remembered the woman she had seen as a fatter woman. (It later transpires that Miss Rich had been in Ramat for the delivery of an illegitimate child that was stillborn
.)
Just as it seems that Miss Rich is the murderer, Mrs. Upjohn enters the room having been recalled from her holiday in Anatolia
and identifies by face the woman she had seen through Mrs Bulstrode's window: Ann Shapland, who is well known in intelligence circles as a ruthless espionage agent and a mercenary. It was Shapland who had had the room next to Bob Rawlinson at the start of the book. Ann Shapland draws a pistol and Miss Bulstrode steps in front of Mrs. Sutcliffe; Miss Chadwick does the same to protect Miss Bulstrode, and is fatally wounded.
It is revealed that Ann Shapland murdered Miss Springer, who caught her while she was searching the Sports Pavilion for the jewels. She also murdered Miss Blanche, who knew her secret and tried to blackmail her. But she did not kill Miss Vansittart, and had a perfect alibi for that night. Miss Vansittart was actually killed by Miss Chadwick, in an unpremedited fit of passion. Miss Chadwick had found Miss Vansittart in the Sports Pavilion the second night, kneeling in front of Shaista's locker, apparently snooping. Miss Chadwick disliked Miss Vansittart and did not consider her a suitable successor for Meadowbank. Miss Chadwick was carrying a sandbag for protection, and here was Miss Vansittart in a perfect position to be coshed from behind. Barely conscious of her actions, she kills her. But she feels immediate remorse, and later throws herself in front of a bullet to save Miss Bulustrode. As Miss Chadwick lays dying, she confesses that she imagined the removal of the widely presumed successor would make Miss Bulstrode change her mind about retiring.
So the first and third murders are linked by the same murderer, while the second and third murders are linked by the same method (a sandbag). Shapland used the sandbag to make it seem that the second and third murders were linked, since she had an alabi for the second murder.
At the end of the book, Miss Bulstrode reconfirms her decision to make Miss Rich her eventual successor. Poirot turns over the gems to the enigmatic “Mr. Robinson” who, in turn, delivers them to the English woman who has been secretly married to Prince Ali Yusuf. One emerald is returned as a reward to Julia Upjohn.
of November 8, 1959 said, "Some nice school scenes with bogus sheikhs sweeping up in lilac Cadillac
s to deposit highly scented and busted houris for education, and backwoods peers shoving hockey-stick-toting daughters out of battered Austins
. It's far from vintage Christie, but you'll want to know who."
Robert Barnard
: "Girls' school background surprisingly well done, with humour and some liberality of outlook. Some elements are reminiscent of Tey's
Miss Pym Disposes. Marred by the international dimension and the spy element, which do not jell with the traditional detective side. Fairly typical example of her looser, more relaxed style."
was broadcast on September 28, 2008, in the UK and on June 21, 2009 in the US. David Suchet
once again reprised his role as Poirot and it also starred Harriet Walter
as Miss Bulstrode, Natasha Little
as Ann Shapland, Claire Skinner
as Miss Rich, Elizabeth Berrington as Miss Springer, Katie Leung
as Hsui Tai Wan, Raji James
as Prince Ali Yusuf, and Adam Croasdell
as Adam Goodman. The adaptation was written by Mark Gatiss
and has several significant plot changes from the original novel, including:
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull
in six abridged instalments from September 26 (Volume 106, Number 2771) to October 31, 1959 (Volume 106, Number 2776) with illustrations by “Fancett”.
In the US a condensed version of the novel appeared in the November 1959 (Volume LXXVI, Number 11) issue of the Ladies Home Journal with an illustration by Joe DeMers.
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club
Collins Crime Club
The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
on November 2, 1959
1959 in literature
The year 1959 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*April 30 - Theatrical première of Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, originally performed on radio in 1932....
, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
in March 1960
1960 in literature
The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....
with a copyright date of 1959. The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence
British sixpence coin
The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....
(12/6), and the US edition at $2.95.
It features Christie's Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
, Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
, who makes a very late appearance in the final third of the novel. The emphasis on espionage in the early part of the novel relates it to Christie’s international adventures (most notably They Came to Baghdad
They Came to Baghdad
They Came to Baghdad is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on March 5, 1951 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
) and to the Tommy and Tuppence
Tommy and Tuppence
Tommy and Tuppence are two fictional detectives, recurring characters in the work of Agatha Christie. Their full names are Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley....
stories.
Plot introduction
At the start of the summer term at Meadowbank School for Girls, there is no reason for Miss Bulstrode, the popular but aging headmistress, to believe that the challenges facing her will be more than the occasional irate or inebriated parent. She scarcely listens when Mrs Upjohn, a parent, recognises someone that she sees from her wartime days in the intelligence service. But there is a killer at the school who does not wait long to strike.Plot summary
The story flashes backFlashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
three months to Ramat, one of the richest countries of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, where a revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
is about to take place. Prince Ali Yusuf gives a fortune in jewels, which he needs sent out of the country, into the safekeeping of Bob Rawlinson, his personal pilot and the only person he can trust. Rawlinson complies with the prince's request, apparently by concealing the jewels in the luggage of his sister, Joan Sutcliffe, who is travelling with her daughter, Jennifer. He is seen doing this by a mysterious and unnamed woman in the next room. Soon after, both Rawlinson and the Prince are killed in an airplane crash after a man named Abdul sabotages their plane while attempting to leave the country. A number of people, including British Intelligence, get onto the trail of the jewels, and their attention focuses on Meadowbank School, where not only Jennifer, but also the prince's cousin and expected fiancée, Shaista, are studying.
This term at Meadowbank there are both old and new staff. Miss Chadwick helped Miss Bulstrode found the school. Miss Vansittart has been teaching there for several years, and Miss Rich for 1 1/2 years. Miss Johnson is the girls' matron. The new staff include Angèle Blanche (a French teacher), Grace Springer (a gym teacher), Ann Shapland (Miss Bulstrode's new secretary), and Adam Goodman (a gardener, or actually an undercover British agent posing as a gardener).
Miss Bulstrode is nearing retirement, and is deciding whom to appoint as her successor. The others assume Miss Vanisttart will be the successor; she would perserve Miss Bulstrode's legacy but is unimaginative and has no new ideas. But Miss Bulstrode is also considering Miss Rich, who is young and has lots of ideas but less experience. She is not considering Miss Chadwick, whom she thinks is too old (although others may assume Miss Chadwick is the second most likely candidate). But all these deliberations are cut short when Miss Springer is shot dead in the Sports Pavilion late at night, and Miss Johnson and Miss Chadwick discover her body.
Following the murder, Inspector Kelsey interviews everyone and Adam Goodman reveals his true identity to Miss Bulstrode. Meanwhile, Jennifer Sutcliffe, an expert tennis player, complains that her racquet feels unbalanced (it must have been warped in the Ramat heat), and she writes to her mother asking for a new one. She swaps tennis racquets with Julia Upjohn, who prefers Jennifer's racquet because it has been refurbished recently. Later a strange woman arrives and gives Jennifer a new racquet, saying it's a gift from her aunt Gina. The woman takes the old racquet (actually Julia's), ostensibly to return it to Aunt Gina for restringing. Later, Julia points out that this is impossible because Aunt Gina knows that Jennifer's racquet had been refurbished and restrung recently, so she would not assume the problem is in the strings. Sure enough, Aunt Gina writes to say that she has not sent a new racquet.
During a weekend when many of the girls are at home with their parents, Shaista is apparently kidnapped by a chauffeur posing as the one sent by her uncle to take her home. That night there is a repetition of murder when Miss Chadwick is disturbed by torch light in the Sports Pavilion and Miss Vansittart is found dead there, having been apparently coshed
Club (weapon)
A club is among the simplest of all weapons. A club is essentially a short staff, or stick, usually made of wood, and wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times....
. Many of the girls go home, but the resourceful Julia, who has been pondering the exchange of the racquets, takes her (really Jennifer's) racquet back to her room and discovers the gems in the hollowed-out handle. She hears someone at the door who quietly turns the knob and attempts to enter. But Julia has pushed furniture against the door to prevent a murderer from entering. The next day Julia flees the school to tell her story to Hercule Poirot, whom she has heard of through a friend of her mother. The police start to focus on the newcomer, Miss Blanche, but in fact she is not the murderer. Instead, she knows who the murderer is, and makes an attempt at blackmail that backfires when she is also killed. With the school struggling to survive the scandal of two murders, the denouement
Detective denouement
The detective dénouement is a variant on the literary dénouement common to mystery stories. It was first popularised by the Sherlock Holmes novels, but is present in many stories, such as the works of Agatha Christie or in Ellen Raskin's young adult novel The Westing Game.In detective stories, the...
has arrived.
Poirot reviews what the reader already knows, and then explains that Princess Shaista was an impostor: the real Shaista had been kidnapped earlier in Switzerland, and the apparent abduction was actually the imposter's escape from the school. She was the representative of one group of interests who, crucially, did not know where the gems had been concealed. The murderer, however, did know where the jewels were concealed and must have been in Ramat to see Bob Rawlinson hide them. Most of the teachers could not have been there … the exception was Eileen Rich, who was apparently sick at the time but was in fact in Ramat. Jennifer had even recognised her, although she remembered the woman she had seen as a fatter woman. (It later transpires that Miss Rich had been in Ramat for the delivery of an illegitimate child that was stillborn
Stillbirth
A stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
.)
Just as it seems that Miss Rich is the murderer, Mrs. Upjohn enters the room having been recalled from her holiday in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
and identifies by face the woman she had seen through Mrs Bulstrode's window: Ann Shapland, who is well known in intelligence circles as a ruthless espionage agent and a mercenary. It was Shapland who had had the room next to Bob Rawlinson at the start of the book. Ann Shapland draws a pistol and Miss Bulstrode steps in front of Mrs. Sutcliffe; Miss Chadwick does the same to protect Miss Bulstrode, and is fatally wounded.
It is revealed that Ann Shapland murdered Miss Springer, who caught her while she was searching the Sports Pavilion for the jewels. She also murdered Miss Blanche, who knew her secret and tried to blackmail her. But she did not kill Miss Vansittart, and had a perfect alibi for that night. Miss Vansittart was actually killed by Miss Chadwick, in an unpremedited fit of passion. Miss Chadwick had found Miss Vansittart in the Sports Pavilion the second night, kneeling in front of Shaista's locker, apparently snooping. Miss Chadwick disliked Miss Vansittart and did not consider her a suitable successor for Meadowbank. Miss Chadwick was carrying a sandbag for protection, and here was Miss Vansittart in a perfect position to be coshed from behind. Barely conscious of her actions, she kills her. But she feels immediate remorse, and later throws herself in front of a bullet to save Miss Bulustrode. As Miss Chadwick lays dying, she confesses that she imagined the removal of the widely presumed successor would make Miss Bulstrode change her mind about retiring.
So the first and third murders are linked by the same murderer, while the second and third murders are linked by the same method (a sandbag). Shapland used the sandbag to make it seem that the second and third murders were linked, since she had an alabi for the second murder.
At the end of the book, Miss Bulstrode reconfirms her decision to make Miss Rich her eventual successor. Poirot turns over the gems to the enigmatic “Mr. Robinson” who, in turn, delivers them to the English woman who has been secretly married to Prince Ali Yusuf. One emerald is returned as a reward to Julia Upjohn.
Characters
- Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
- Inspector Kelsey, the investigating officer
- “Adam Goodman” (aka Ronnie), an operative for Special Branch
- Honoria Bulstrode, headmistress of Meadowbank School for Girls
- Ann Shapland, Miss Bulstrode's secretary
- Elspeth Johnson, the matron
- Miss Chadwick, a long-serving and senior teacher who helps found Meadowbank
- Eleanor Vansittart, a senior teacher
- Eileen Rich, a teacher
- Grace Springer, a Games teacher
- Angèle Blanche, a French teacher
- Miss Blake, a teacher
- Miss Rowan, a teacher
- Princess Shaista, a Middle-Eastern princess who was kidnapped while an imposter takes her place at Meadowbank
- Julia Upjohn, pupil at Meadowbank and Jennifer's friend
- Mrs Upjohn, mother of Julia Upjohn
- Prince Ali Yusuf, hereditary Sheikh of Ramat
- Bob Rawlinson, British intelligence agent in Ramat
- Jennifer Sutcliffe, niece of Bob Rawlinson and pupil at Meadowbank; daughter of Joan and Henry Sutcliffe
- Joan Sutcliffe, Bob Rawlinson's sister and Jennifer's mother
- Henry Sutcliffe, Jennifer's father
- Colonel Ephraim Pikeaway, a senior figure in Special BranchSpecial BranchSpecial Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
- John Edmundson, a member of the Foreign Office
- Derek O'Connor, a member of the Foreign Office
- “Mr. Robinson”, a shadowy figure, of importance in international affairs
- Denis Rathbone, Ann Shapland's boyfriend
- Briggs, the gardener
Literary significance and reception
Maurice Richardson of The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
of November 8, 1959 said, "Some nice school scenes with bogus sheikhs sweeping up in lilac Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
s to deposit highly scented and busted houris for education, and backwoods peers shoving hockey-stick-toting daughters out of battered Austins
Austin Motor Company
The Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles. The company was founded in 1905 and merged in 1952 into the British Motor Corporation Ltd. The marque Austin was used until 1987...
. It's far from vintage Christie, but you'll want to know who."
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
: "Girls' school background surprisingly well done, with humour and some liberality of outlook. Some elements are reminiscent of Tey's
Josephine Tey
Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Mackintosh a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. She also wrote as Gordon Daviot, under which name she wrote plays with an historical theme....
Miss Pym Disposes. Marred by the international dimension and the spy element, which do not jell with the traditional detective side. Fairly typical example of her looser, more relaxed style."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A television adaptation of the novel for the series Agatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
was broadcast on September 28, 2008, in the UK and on June 21, 2009 in the US. David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
once again reprised his role as Poirot and it also starred Harriet Walter
Harriet Walter
Dame Harriet Mary Walter, DBE is a British actress.-Personal life:She is the niece of renowned British actor Sir Christopher Lee, as the daughter of his elder sister Xandra Lee. On her father's side she is a great-great-great-granddaughter of John Walter, founder of The TimesShe was educated at...
as Miss Bulstrode, Natasha Little
Natasha Little
Natasha Little is a British actress. She is best known for her work on British television, but has also featured in many film and theatre roles.- Early life :...
as Ann Shapland, Claire Skinner
Claire Skinner
Claire L. Skinner is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television career.-Biography:Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was immensely shy as a child...
as Miss Rich, Elizabeth Berrington as Miss Springer, Katie Leung
Katie Leung
Katie Leung is a Scottish actress, best known for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter film series. She returned for a brief role in the video game Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.-Early life:...
as Hsui Tai Wan, Raji James
Raji James
Rajesh Jhanji better known by his stage name Little Raji James That Used To Be In Eastenders But Ruined It, is a British Indian actor, club night promotor and podcast co-host, best known for his role as Ash Ferreira in EastEnders, he also played Abdul Khan in the 1999 British Film East Is East...
as Prince Ali Yusuf, and Adam Croasdell
Adam Croasdell
Adam Croasdell is a Zimbabwe-born British actor. He has appeared on TV in Supernatural, The Chase, Holby City, Peak Practice, London's Burning, Agatha Christie's Cat Among the Pigeons and Ultimate Force. In 2009, he was cast as Doctor Al Jenkins in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
as Adam Goodman. The adaptation was written by Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
and has several significant plot changes from the original novel, including:
- Instead of Rawlinson and the Prince being killed in a plane crash while attempting to leave the country, the pair die in a gallant shootout against overwhelming odds.
- Changing the primary murder weapon from a revolver to a javelin.
- Introducing Poirot at the beginning of the story as an old friend of Miss Bulstrode's, rather than two-thirds of the way through as in the novel.
- Eliminating the character of Miss Vansittart. The murder of Miss Vansittart, however, is kept loosely: in the adaptation, Miss Chadwick coshes Miss Rich, hoping that Miss Bulstrode will nominate her (Miss Chadwick) as her successor instead, but Miss Rich ultimately survives the attack.
- The addition of a subplot concerning Miss Springer's blackmailBlackmailIn common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
of another teacher; all in all, this version of the character was much more sadistSadism and masochism as medical termsIn psychiatry, the terms sadism and masochism describe a personality type characterized by the actor or actrix deriving pleasure and gratification from inflicting physical pain and humiliation ; and from suffering pain and humiliation upon the self ; such pleasure often is sexual, but not...
ic and bullying than the one in Christie's original story, whom she described as a "woman you could neither love or hate". - Eliminating the murderer's attempt at stealing the jewels from Jennifer Sutcliffe by posing as a stranger with a new tennis racquet from her Aunt Gina; subsequently Jennifer is not the unobservant and uninterested character as in the novel. Another small fact related to the theme of concealed identity — a pregnant and hardly recognizable Miss Rich being in Ramat at the time of the revolution — is also left out of the adaptation, although Miss Rich was still pregnant and delivered a stillborn child during a leave of absenceLeave of absenceLeave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...
in the adaptation. - Eliminating most of the novel's scenes set in Egypt and the British secret serviceSecret serviceA secret service describes a government agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For instance, a country may establish a secret service which has some...
due to time constraints. - Moving the period of the story from the 1950s to the 1930s.
Publication history
- 1959, Collins Crime Club (London), November 2, 1959, Hardcover, 256 pp
- 1960, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), March 1960, Hardcover, 224 pp
- 1961, Pocket BooksPocket BooksPocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
(New York), Paperback, 216 pp - 1962, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), Paperback, 187 pp - 1964, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 255 pp
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull
John Bull (magazine)
John Bull Magazine was a weekly periodical established in the City, London EC4, by Theodore Hook in 1820.-Publication dates:It was a popular periodical that continued in production through 1824 and at least until 1957...
in six abridged instalments from September 26 (Volume 106, Number 2771) to October 31, 1959 (Volume 106, Number 2776) with illustrations by “Fancett”.
In the US a condensed version of the novel appeared in the November 1959 (Volume LXXVI, Number 11) issue of the Ladies Home Journal with an illustration by Joe DeMers.
International titles
- Dutch: Een kat tussen de duiven (A Cat Among the Pigeons)
- Finnish: Kissa kyyhkyslakassa (A Cat in the Dovecote)
- French: Le Chat et les Pigeons (The Cat and the Pigeons)
- German: Die Katze im Taubenschlag (The Cat in the Dovecote)
- Hungarian: Macska a galambok között (Cat Among the Pigeons)
- Indonesian: Kucing di Tengah Burung Dara (Cat Among the Pigeons)
- Italian: Macabro quiz (Gruesome quiz)
- Norwegian: Katt i dueslaget (Cat in the dovecote)
- Spanish: Un Gato en el Palomar (A Cat in the Dovecote)
- Serbian: Мачка међу голубовима/Mačka među golubovima (Cat Among the Pigeons)
External links
- Cat Among the Pigeons at the official Agatha Christie website