The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith

For his part, Conan Doyle acknowledged basing his detective stories on the model of Edgar Allan Poe's C. In An Autobiography, Christie states, 'I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition – eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp'. Ī more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. His apparel was neat to perfection, a little quaint and frankly dandified.' He was accompanied by Captain Harry Haven, who had returned to London from a Colombian business venture ended by a civil war. The most remarkable features of his head were the stiff military moustache. Evans' Jules Poiret 'was small and rather heavyset, hardly more than five feet, but moved with his head held high.

Poirot's name was derived from two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes' Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans' Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London.

Poirot has been portrayed on radio, in film and on television by various actors, including Austin Trevor, John Moffatt, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina, Orson Welles, David Suchet, Kenneth Branagh, and John Malkovich.

Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ( Black Coffee and Alibi), and 51 short stories published between 19. Hercule Poirot ( UK: / ˈ ɛər k juː l ˈ p w ɑːr oʊ/, US: / h ɜːr ˈ k juː l p w ɑː ˈ r oʊ/ ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie's Poirot

The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith