She is one of the best known names in popular literature and her whodunnit fiction has been translated into more than 100 languages.

Agatha Christie's grave Yet it would take a tourist with more detective ability than her most famous character, Hercule Poirot, to discover that Agatha Christie lived in Wallingford, and lies buried at nearby Cholsey.

The tourist information centre in Wallingford has no leaflets on her - just three photocopied newspaper cuttings about her low-profile funeral.

There is no commemorative plaque at her Queen Anne residence, Winterbrook House, on Reading Road, and nothing in the churchyard at St Mary's Church, Cholsey, to point the way to her grave.

It is as though the much-loved crime writer is being forgotten by south Oxfordshire (excepting the Sinodun Players), and there have been urgent calls for the trend to be reversed.

Julia Grant, 83, of Mariot Court, Wallingford, said: "It appalls me that there is no sign to show where this most famous novelist lived. Our gift shops should be selling Agatha Christie mugs.

"She's a big name and she's been well-known for years."

According to Jane Billinge, 45, who runs the baby group at St Mary's Church, only a few people visit the grave site each week.

The fact that Agatha Christie led a very private life in Wallingford may have a lot to do with her posthumous low profile.

Mrs Billinge added: "I remember walking along the bank of the Thames with my grandmother when I was a child and seeing Agatha Christie in her garden, across the river. My grandmother told me not to look at her. Basically, we were told not to stare. She was allowed to live a very normal life."

Wallingford pantomime veteran Tony Barr-Taylor performed a stand-up routine, with sidekick Tony Lock, in front of Agatha Christie on many occasions.

Mr Barr-Taylor, 76, said: "I joined the Sinodun Players in 1955. She was often sat in the front row, but we didn't get much communication from her on stage, and would never refer to her in the script or ad-libbing, even though we worked in just about everyone else. She was a very private person."

Former policeman Gordon Bartlett met her only once in 23 years on the beat in Wallingford. Just one villager joined family mourners at her low-key funeral.