And Then There Were None has been voted the world's favourite Agatha Christie novel.

In a global poll carried out to mark what would have been Christie's 125th birthday on September 15, the classic murder mystery came top.

The 1939 novel, widely considered her finest work and cited by her as the most difficult of her books to write, garnered more than 3,000 votes out of 15,000 in total.

In second place is Murder on the Orient Express, with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in third.

To date, And Then There Were None is the best-selling crime novel of all time, making it Christie's most successful book, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide.

A standalone book which does not feature either of Christie's famous detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, And Then There Were None sees a number of characters stranded on an island, where they are picked off one-by-one by a hidden killer. Everyone has a guilty secret, and any one of them could be the murderer - with suspicion and paranoia increasing as the body count rises.

Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, who is also the chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, said: "It has been genuinely exciting to see fans from all around the world cast their votes for the World's Favourite Christie.

"In And Then There Were None, my grandmother has crafted a staggeringly complex plot, which has baffled, entertained and surprised readers since it was first published in 1939 and will, I hope, do so for years to come."

The winning title was announced at an event held at London's Bankside gallery, where a special anniversary exhibition, Agatha Christie: Unfinished Portrait, is on display.

The novel is also being turned into a new TV series for BBC One.

The series will be adapted by Sarah Phelps, who also took JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy from book to small screen.

Ms Phelps said: "And Then There Were None both sets the standard for the mystery thriller and defies the genre.

"Savagely, deliciously playful, genuinely terrifying with a plot that tightens like the hangman's noose, it is also a searing forensic study of guilt and the dark, cruel extremes of the human heart."

The show's star-studded cast features Poldark's Aidan Turner, Douglas Booth (Great Expectations), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), Anna Maxwell Martin (Death Comes to Pemberley) and Miranda Richardson (Mapp & Lucia, Parade's End).