Interview with Literary Map Designer (Yes, That's a Thing) Ben Olins

All About Agatha Christie

Catherine Brobeck & Kemper Donovan

Tv & Film, Books, Film Reviews, Arts

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It isn't every day I get to interview a map designer on All About Agatha. Nor is it every day I get to work on a map with a map designer, which is something I've been doing on the side in tribute to my late co-host, Catherine Brobeck, whom Ben and I talk about at some length in our conversation. We also talk some Christie, because of course we do; I know Catherine wouldn't have had it any other way.

Visit my website for details on my upcoming U.S. tour in the South.

Click here for tickets to my upcoming panel at the Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay, in September. And click here for information about all the fabulous offerings at the Festival this year.

Loose Lips, the second book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series, is currently available for purchase.

Time for some map links! Here is Catherine Brobeck's map of Joan Didion's Los Angeles, Caroline Crampton's map of Agatha Christie's England, and Martin Edwards's Golden Age of Mystery map of England.

And here is a link to the general Herb Lester catalogue of gloriously weird maps.

You can also buy The Busy Body, the first book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series, in paperback at your bookseller of choice (make it an indie if you possibly can) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia and New Zealand.

To visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page, click here.

Visit the podcast on Twitter and Instagram.

Visit me personally on Facebook at Kemper Donovan Author, or at my author website.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to All About Agatha, the podcast dedicated to reading and ranking every single mystery novel written by the Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie.
0:14.7	I am Kemper Donovan, and I have got a wonderful interview for you.
0:19.9	I'll be speaking with designer, mapmaker, extraordinaire, Ben Olens of Erb Lester Associates.
0:27.0	I will explain why I'm speaking to Ben when we get to the interview.
0:31.2	Consider yourselves enticed.
0:33.4	I have two announcements to make before we get to the interview.
0:36.8	First, tickets are officially on sale for the 2025 Agatha Christie Festival in September.
0:44.7	I will be making my first solo appearance at the festival.
0:49.0	I am not bringing a multitude of co-panelists onto the stage with me.
0:53.2	I will be doing a live episode in much the same way
0:56.3	that I do most of my episodes these days, all by my lonesome. My talk is titled True Crime Queen,
1:03.9	The Real Life Murders in Agatha Christie's fiction. I'm going to be talking about true crime
1:09.6	in Christie. There is a lot more of it
1:12.0	than I think most people realize. This talk will be happening on Thursday, the 18th of September,
1:18.0	in the Spanish Barn, but of course, in Tor Abbey, in lovely Torquay, England. I've included
1:24.2	two links in the show notes, one to my event specifically, and then another
1:29.0	to the literary festival overall, so you can see what else is on offer. This is shaping up to be a
1:35.7	really great festival. My friends, Mark and Gray, over at the Swinging Christies, are also doing
1:42.2	a live episode. We've got all sorts of mystery authors
1:45.7	appearing. Dr. John Curran will be there once again. Christy biographer Laura Thompson.
1:52.7	Christy publisher David Braun, who I spoke with at a previous festival. We made an episode out
1:57.9	of that. So many good friends appearing at the festival, including Tony
	...

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