A NOTEBOOK used by Agatha Christie to jot down ideas for her novels has been unearthed for the first time in 60 years – and sold at auction for £15,000.

The cloth-bound journal contains early drafts of the Miss Marple-writer’s books A Murder Is Announced and They Do It With Mirrors.

Written in ink and pencil and dated 1948, the 150-leaf book also contains a fragmentary early draft for her play Spider’s Web.

Christie was in Baghdad at the time with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, who directed the British School of Archaeology in Iraq until 1961.

The precious pad sold at Swann Galleries for $18,750 – triple its estimate and a record for an Agatha Christie manuscript. It is the first known notebook to contain early Christie drafts and was sold by a collector who bought it directly from her when she flogged it at Sotheby’s in 1960.

According to expert Marco Tomaschett, of Swann Galleries, there is interest in working notebooks because they tend to shed light on writers’ methods.

He said: “A few typescripts and corrected galley proofs have come to auction in the past, but this is the first manuscript I’m aware of that contains early or working drafts. The book is somewhat worn, but no more than one would expect if one had been travelling with it.

“The notebook has been in the collection of Milton R Slater (1918-2014) since he bought it from a Sotheby’s auction in 1960. He was an American book collector from New York with broad interests, including Americana and literature.

“Many bidders showed active and enthusiastic interest in the manuscript, resulting in the spectacular price.”