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THE world’s favourite detective fiction writer Agatha Christie keeps breaking world records even after her death. The latest record-breaker is the complete collection of Miss Marple stories with a spine that is over a foot thick. The volume, which comes in a special pack that also has a handle, has 4,032 pages and contains all 12 novels and 20 short stories featuring the reclusive detective. "With 252, 16-page hand-sewn sections, the production values of this limited edition are amazing and the attention to detail is remarkable," said Agatha Christie Limited, run by Chorion that manages the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie’s works around the world. The book is bound by Cedric & Chivers Period Bookbinding, cased in Winters Wintan leather, blocked in gold on the front and spine, with head and tail bands and four silk ribbon markers. There are only 500 volumes printed, according to the firm. The price tag: 1,000 pounds, inclusive of the Guinness Book of World Records certificate. Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard writes in the preface: "Over the years, everyone has told me it could never be done — to collect together all my grandmother’s stories about Miss Marple into a single volume. So whilst this book is, in publishing terms, a landmark event, it also symbolises the great affection the public, both in Britain and elsewhere, have for Miss Marple." This is the third record the author has set. The previous two are: the best-selling novelist of all time, having sold two billion books worldwide in over 45 languages, and as the author of the longest-running play, The Mousetrap, now in its 58th continuous year. Book blogs, however, are not impressed by the latest record-breaker. The Book Bench of the New Yorker sneered at the handle, noting "I guess because that’s the only way one can carry the thing" and added "if this isn’t an argument for the Kindle, I donknow what is". — By arrangement with The Independent
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