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Case file s1858 · Literature and art · 1976
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1976
Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie in Nederland (detectiveschrijfster), bij aankomst op Schiphol me, Bestanddeelnr 916-8898 (cropped)
Agatha Christie. Joop van Bilsen for Anefo. CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
12 January 1976
Place
Wallingford, England
Field
crime novelist, playwright · Literature and writing on the timeline
Legal tradition
English law (company ownership) · Common law
Historical event
The Mousetrap, running in London since 1952
Member of
Royal Society of Literature, Voluntary Aid Detachment (Wikidata)
Literature and artPostwarEuropeUnited Kingdom

Agatha Christie gave her grandson the rights to The Mousetrap as a child, and the company holding her estate was sold three times

Agatha Christie gave her grandson Mathew Prichard the rights to The Mousetrap as a birthday present when he was a child. Her estate's site says he was nine, in 1952; another source says seven. The play opened that year and still runs. In 1968 Christie sold 51 percent of Agatha Christie Limited to the group Booker McConnell, which held 64 percent by 1977; a second source says 64 percent at once. In 1998 Booker sold its holding to Chorion, reportedly for 10 million pounds (Financial Times Weekly). On 29 February 2012 Chorion sold its 64 percent stake to Acorn Media for an undisclosed sum, and the Christie family kept 36 percent. Prichard remains chairman of Agatha Christie Limited. The Mousetrap rights are separate from the company, and reports say he has given income from them to charities.

What the law took from it

A gift of one property to a child can stay in the family while the company holding the rest of a catalogue passes to outside owners.

Sources
  1. agathachristie.comPress
  2. agathachristie.fandom.comPress
  3. lunch.publishersmarketplace.comPress
  4. thedrum.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Agatha Christie gave her grandson the rights to The Mousetrap as a child, and the company holding her estate was sold three times,” story s1858, https://www.celebrity.estate/agatha-christie-1976, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Literature and artPostwarEuropeCommon lawUnited Kingdom