Tom Adams: The Art of the Artist.

Torre Abbey museum in Torquay, Devon, is currently featuring an exhibition about the cover art Tom Adams created for so many Agatha Christie stories. Titled “Tom Adams: The Art of the Artist”, this original retrospective into his iconic Christie book covers enables visitors to see original artwork, proofs, objects featuring on his covers, and some never-before-seen material showing how Tom’s artistic processes brought these covers to life.

I was honoured to help create this exhibition and launch it on September 18th, 2025, along with Tom's widow, Georgie Adams (3rd from left), and two of his children (Charlotte - 2nd from left - & Mark - centre), who were joined by their spouses. The exhibition was skillfully curated by Clare Howe, Senior Exhibitions and Visitor Experience Co-ordinator for Torre Abbey.

The launch occured as part of the 2025 International Agatha Christie Festival after I gave an illustrated talk about Tom's creative processes. Having been provided unprecedented access to his archives, I revealed never-before-seen material showing how Tom brought his Agatha Christie covers to life. My research into his source material, studio photographs and collage techniques led to many fascinating discoveries. In later articles, I will provide a detailed summary of that talk along with many supporting visual images. If you are not currently a subscriber to my website, there is a link at the bottom of this page. Subscribing will ensure you are notified by email every time I write a new article.

Georgie Adams and I enjoy talking about Tom's last covers at the IACF.

As most readers of Collecting Christie will know, Tom Adams (1926-2019) created some of the most memorable and iconic Agatha Christie book covers ever released. Part of the appeal of these covers is that, despite rarely depicting the violence of a murder, the illustrations are somehow unsettling and hint at the evil that will be uncovered in the story. The first of his Christie covers, A Murder is Announced, was published in 1963.

This was the beginning of his journey illustrating the covers of nearly all of Christie’s novels for Fontana and 26 covers for the American market through 1979. Although the two never met Tom’s art was interwoven with Christie’s and he admired her as “a crime writer of supreme genius.” Agatha Christie also wrote to Tom telling him that she loved so many of his covers and couldn't chose a favourite.

Tom Adams avoided depicting Poirot or Miss Marple in his book covers and instead he focused mainly on the objects that formed significant parts of the plots. Tom interpreted the stories and focused them down into something he could illustrate, making his covers into an artistic literary interpretation of her novels. His striking images give hints about the story that unfolds between the covers, with many of the details only able to be fully appreciated once you have finished reading the book. They are so striking that they still remain in the consciousness of Christie fans and decades after the books went out of print, and they are firmly sought after in the second-hand market.

Many of the exhibits on display have never been available to the public before and likely will not be again. These include original paintings for several of the book covers as well as artist proof prints, rough paintings, sketches, props, newspaper cuttings and images used by Tom in the creation of his art. Among many others, three of his iconic original paintings on display can be seen below. From left to right, they are Hallowe'en Party, Lord Edgware Dies and his last cover for Fontana, Miss Marple's Final Cases.

In most cases, the printed edition of the novel for each of these items can also be viewed along with some of the material used to inspire the image. For example, below is one of the display cases with a number of physical props and source images used in Tom's covers. On the left is the studio photograph of water being poured over an apple and a magazine cut out of a young girl in a mirror - both of these were used in the creative process for the original painting for Hallowe'en Party. Second from left is the letter opener painted as the murder weapon in Lord Edgware Dies. Then we have the Lewis chess piece used for The Big Four. In the middle, the large piece of driftwood was a gift from Georgie to Tom, which he used on the American cover of Evil Under the Sun which also featured a facial portrait of Georgie - his wife. Second from right is the studio photo of the doll he made for the British cover of Evil Under the Sun. Lastly, on the very right are some magazine clippings used for Miss Marple's Final Cases.

Other original paintings on display included one used on a very early cover - The Murder at the Vicarage - and one from one of his later covers - Poirot's Early Cases. Of particular note is the Agatha Christie Collins Crime Club book Tom painted in the shelf beneath the telephone - a fun hidden gem to see in person.

Further examples of archival material are being shown for many of his covers - most of which will be shown in my upcoming articles summarizing the talk I gave at the Festival. Many of these are in pull out drawers - each revealing it's own secret - one of which I reveal later in this article!

In the top of the display cases are many other gems to see including the actual Fontana books that resulted from the art being displayed across the wallks. Even the source image for the cover of Death in the Clouds shows us why Tom used the name 'Hengist' on the plane instead of 'Prometheus'.

Other display cases gave insights into the last few covers he created for HarperCollins, which included Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, as well as the box set for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain. Below is the display case for The Greenshore Folly showing photographs he took at Greenway (Agatha's home in Devon) while visiting there with Mathew Prichard (Agatha's grandson) that he used to inspire the design. We also see his rough pencil sketch before the final cover was painted.

This cover demonstrates how he perfected the technique of collaging source material to form the image he sought. From these items we can see how he would assemble the images under tracing paper, draw the image in pencil and lacquer it to preserve it. From this he could then move onto creating the painted artwork.

The display case for the last covers he ever painted - Styles and Curtain - show the source images he used as well as the two proof paintings before the final, larger paintings were created. For Styles, he had fun pretending it would be a Fontana paperback - something it never would.

Two galleries are being used for the exhibition which provide a visual feast for those who can attend. In addition to original paintings, a number of signed 'artist proof' printings are also on display. Below we see a selection of them, including A Caribbean Mystery, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, They Do It With Mirrors, Death in the Clouds, and many others.

A surprising find in his archive is that he placed the image of a famous person into the cover for Hickory Dickory Dock. In one of the pull-out drawars is an image of Elizabeth Taylor showing off her new engagement ring featuring the Krupp diamond - a gift from Richard Burton. This image was taken from Life Magazine in 1969 and used as the source material for the cover image.. Did you know the eyes in this cover were hers? When I gave the presentation and asked this question only one hand in the room of almost 200 people went up. So now you know.

From his first cover through to these last covers, Tom Adams and Agatha Christie will forever be linked by his iconic artwork. So this is a very special opportunity to view not only some of the original artwork of Tom Adams’ iconic covers but learn about the stories behind Tom’s creativity. I hope that this will bring an appreciation of the process of creating these memorable works of art and further cement Tom’s legacy as an artist.

Exhibition Details.

If you have the opportunity to visit, I strongly recommend you do. The exhibit is currently scheduled to run until November 30th, 2025, but given its success and positive reception, plans are in the works to extend the exhibition through the year’s end.

Location: Torre Abbey Museum, The King’s Drive, Torquay, TQ2 5JE, Great Britain.

Details, including hours and admission fees can be found on their website (link).

A proud moment to participate in the launch of this exhibition.

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