biographies of agatha christie

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What is Agatha Christie known for?

How did agatha christie begin writing detective fiction, what are agatha christie’s most famous works, did agatha christie disappear.

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Agatha Christie

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Agatha Christie was an English detective novelist and playwright. She wrote some 75 novels, including 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. Christie is perhaps the world’s most famous mystery writer and is one of the best-selling novelists of all time. Her works are reportedly outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible .

Agatha Christie began writing detective fiction while working as a nurse during World War I (1914–18). She began her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles , in 1916 and published it after the end of the war, in 1920. The novel introduced Hercule Poirot , one of Christie’s most enduring characters.

Agatha Christie’s most famous novels include And Then There Were None (1939), Murder on the Orient Express (1933), and The ABC Murders (1936). Her novels have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into some 100 languages. Many of Christie’s works have been adapted for television and film.

After her husband, Col. Archibald Christie, asked for a divorce, Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared for nearly two weeks. On December 4, 1926, her car was found abandoned on a roadside. It was reported that she committed suicide. Detectives turned to her manuscripts for clues. Eventually, Christie was found alive at a spa in Yorkshire, England.

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Agatha Christie (born September 15, 1890, Torquay, Devon , England—died January 12, 1976, Wallingford, Oxfordshire) was an English detective novelist and playwright whose books have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into some 100 languages.

Educated at home by her mother, Christie began writing detective fiction while working as a nurse during World War I . Her first novel , The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), introduced Hercule Poirot , her eccentric and egotistic Belgian detective; Poirot reappeared in about 25 novels and many short stories before returning to Styles, where, in Curtain (1975), he died. The elderly spinster Miss Jane Marple , her other principal detective figure, first appeared in Murder at the Vicarage (1930). Christie’s first major recognition came with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), which was followed by some 75 novels that usually made best-seller lists and were serialized in popular magazines in England and the United States .

Christie’s plays included The Mousetrap (1952), which set a world record for the longest continuous run at one theatre (8,862 performances—more than 21 years—at the Ambassadors Theatre, London) before moving in 1974 to St Martin’s Theatre, where it continued without a break until the COVID-19 pandemic closed theatres in 2020, by which time it had surpassed 28,200 performances; and Witness for the Prosecution (1953), which, like many of her works, was adapted into a successful film (1957). Other notable film adaptations included And Then There Were None (1939; film 1945), Murder on the Orient Express (1933; film 1974 and 2017), Death on the Nile (1937; film 1978), and The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side (1952; film [ The Mirror Crack’d ] 1980). Her works were also adapted for television.

In 1926 Christie’s mother died, and her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, requested a divorce. In a move she never fully explained, Christie disappeared and, after several highly publicized days, was discovered registered in a hotel under the name of the woman her husband wished to marry. In 1930 Christie married the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan; thereafter she spent several months each year on expeditions in Iraq and Syria with him. She also wrote romantic nondetective novels, such as Absent in the Spring (1944), under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Her Autobiography (1977) appeared posthumously. She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971.

Agatha Christie

Mystery writer Agatha Christie became one of the world’s top-selling authors with famous books like Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd .

Who Was Agatha Christie?

Quick facts, husbands, daughter, and disappearance, movie and tv adaptations.

Dubbed the “Queen of Mystery,” Agatha Christie was an author and playwright known for books such as Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile , as well as characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. Christie published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles , in 1920 and went on to become one of the most famous writers in history with 83 books to her name (and her pseudonym, Mary Westmacott). She also became a noted playwright with The Mousetrap , which is still running today on London’s West End. Christie died in January 1976 at age 85 and remains one of the top-selling authors ever, with her combined works selling more than 2 billion copies worldwide.

FULL NAME: Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller BORN: September 15, 1890 DIED: January 12, 1976 BIRTHPLACE: Torquay, England SPOUSES: Archie Christie (1914-1928) and Max Mallowan (1930-1976) CHILDREN: Rosalind ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo

Agatha Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devon, in the southwest part of England. The youngest of three siblings, she was educated at home by her mother, who encouraged her daughter to write. As a child, Agatha enjoyed fantasy play and creating characters, and, when she was 16, she moved to Paris for a time to study vocals and piano.

In October 1912, Agatha met Archibald “Archie” Christie at a dance. The pair became engaged in 1913 , just before Archie entered military training. At the outset of World War I, he was stationed in France and became a pilot. The couple married during his first period of leave, on Christmas Eve in 1914, and they relocated to London at the conclusion of the war.

Agatha and Archie had one child, Rosalind Hicks, born in August 1919. Their marriage began crumbling in 1926, when Archie revealed in August that he had begun a relationship with a woman named Nancy Neele and asked for a divorce. Agatha, who was also grieving the death of her mother, had an alarming response to the revelation.

On December 3 after an argument, the author, who had published the popular book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd that year, left her home in Sunningdale and disappeared. Christie’s disappearance set off a manhunt involving both police and civilians. According to the U.K. National Archives , her flight became a media sensation and writer Arthur Conan Doyle even consulted a medium in an attempt to find her whereabouts.

On December 14, a stranger recognized Christie at the Swan Hydro hotel in Harrogate, where she had checked in using Neele’s name. She had no recollection of the prior 11 days, and her biographer later wrote she was in a “fugue” state caused by trauma or depression. However, some believed she had left on purpose to embarrass her husband. Christie ultimately recovered, with she and Archie finally divorcing in 1928.

In 1930, Agatha remarried with archaeology professor Max Mallowan, with whom she traveled on several expeditions, later recounting her trips in the 1946 memoir Come, Tell Me How You Live .

As she was growing her family, Christie’s writing career ascended. She published her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles , in 1920. The story focused on the murder of a rich heiress and introduced readers to one of Christie’s most famous characters: Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

Poirot returned in The Murder on the Links (1923) and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), a hit that was later marked as a genre classic and one of the author’s all-time favorites. The year of Christie’s second nuptials saw the release of Murder at the Vicarage (1930), which became another classic and introduced readers to Miss Jane Marple, an enquiring village lady.

Poirot and Marple are Christie’s most well-known detectives, with the two featured in dozens of novels and short stories. Poirot made the most appearances in Christie’s work in titles that include Ackroyd , The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928), and Death in the Clouds (1935). Miss Marple was featured in books like The Moving Finger (1942) and A Pocket Full of Rye (1953) and been played onscreen by actors like Angela Lansbury , Helen Hayes, and Geraldine McEwan. Other notable Christie characters include Tuppence and Tommy Beresford, Colonel Race, Parker Pyne, and Ariadne Oliver.

Writing well into her later years, Christie wrote more than 70 detective novels as well as short fiction. Christie’s success as an author of sleuth stories has earned her titles like the “Queen of Crime” and the “Queen of Mystery.” She also wrote romance novels like Unfinished Portrait (1934) and A Daughter’s a Daughter (1952) under the name Mary Westmacott. In total, Christie published 83 books, including works using her pseudonym.

Christie was a renowned playwright as well, with works like The Hollow (1951) and Verdict (1958). Her play The Mousetrap opened in 1952 at the Ambassador Theatre and—at more than 8,800 showings during 21 years—set the record for the longest unbroken run in a London theater. After a brief hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the show is still going strong today with more than 27,500 performances as of February 2022 .

Queen Elizabeth II bestowed Christie with damehood in 1971 for her contributions to literature. Three years later, Christie made her last public appearance for the opening night of the play version of her 1934 book Murder on the Orient Express .

Christie died at her home, Winterbrook House, at age 85 on January 12, 1976. That night, the lead actor of The Mousetrap , Brian McDermot, led a theater audience in a silent tribute to the author . At her death, it was estimated that Christie’s thrillers had sold around 300 million copies. She is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church in Cholsey, where she attended worship services.

It was reported Christie was in poor health in her later years, and she complained of an inability to concentrate. Friends also said she had fits of anger and began to speak nonsensically in conversation. This has led to speculation that she might have suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, though Christie was never officially diagnosed. A study by Ian Lancashire , an English professor at the University of Toronto, showed that Christie’s vocabulary had declined by about 20 percent based on words used in 16 of her novels over a 50-year-period—giving credence to this theory.

Several of Christie’s works have been adapted into popular movies and television shows, including as recently as 2023.

Murder on the Orient Express

In 1974, Albert Finney starred as detective Poirot in a film version of Murder on the Orient Express , featuring an ensemble cast that included Ingrid Bergman , Lauren Bacall , Sean Connery , and Vanessa Redgrave . Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, with Finney receiving a Best Actor nomination and the movie earning a nod for adapted screenplay. Murder on the Orient Express also inspired a 2001 made-for-TV movie.

In 2017, Kenneth Branagh directed and portrayed Poirot alongside Penélope Cruz , Judi Dench , Johnny Depp , and Michelle Pfeiffer in a reimagined movie version.

Death on the Nile

In 1978, Death on the Nile premiered and starred Peter Ustinov as Poirot, along with Mia Farrow , Bette Davis , and Angela Lansbury in supporting roles. Meanwhile, for a 2022 remake, Branagh again played Poirot alongside Annette Bening , Gal Gadot , and Armie Hammer .

See How They Run and A Haunting in Venice

Also in 2022, the mystery spoof See How They Run , starring Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan , took inspiration from Christie’s play The Mousetrap and featured Shirley Henderson as a fictional version of the author. A year later, Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party served as the basis for another Poirot movie mystery, A Haunting in Venice .

TV Miniseries: Ordeal By Innocence and The Pale Horse

Several of Christie’s works have been adapted for the small screen in the form of TV miniseries, including And Then There Were None (2015); The Witness for the Prosecution (2016); The ABC Murders (2018), starring John Malkovich as Poirot; Ordeal By Innocence (2018); The Pale Horse (2020); and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (2022).

• People often ask me what made me take up writing... I found myself making up stories and acting the different parts. There’s nothing like boredom to make you write. So by the time I was 16 or 17, I’d written quite a number of short stories and one long, dreary novel. By the time I was 21, I finished the first book of mine ever to be published.
• I think the real work is done in thinking out the development of your story and worrying about it until it comes right. That may take quite a while. Then when you’ve got all your materials together, as it were, all that remains is to try and find time to write the thing.

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Agatha Christie Biography

Born: September 15, 1890 Torquay, England Died: January 12, 1976 Wallingford, England English author and playwright

Agatha Christie was the best-selling mystery writer of all time. She wrote ninety-three books and seventeen plays, including the longest-running play of modern-day theater, The Mousetrap. She is the only mystery writer to have created two important detectives as characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Childhood and family

The daughter of an American father and a British mother, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born at Torquay in the United Kingdom on September 15, 1890. Her family was comfortable, although not wealthy. She was educated at home, with later studies in Paris, France. Christie taught herself to read at five years old. She grew up in a family environment full of stories—from the dramatic, suspenseful tales her mother told her at bedtime to her elder sister's frightening creations. She began creating her own fictions, too, with the help of her nanny, her dolls, and her pets. In 1914 she was married to Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had one daughter.

Early characters

While writing in imitation of Conan Doyle, Christie experimented with many other versions of the sleuth, a term for a detective or solver of mysteries. Some of Christie's early sleuths included the married couple Tuppence and Tommy Beresford, whose specialty was hunting down spies. The Beresfords first appeared in her book The Secret Adversary (1922), where their breezy and almost offhand approach to detection provided a sharp contrast to the methods of Poirot. Another Christie detective, Colonel Race—a mysterious man of few words—first appeared in The Man in the Brown Suit (1924). However, since his principal area of activity was in the English colonies (territories then under British government control), Christie only used him occasionally afterwards.

Superintendent Battle, who was strong, dependable, and hardworking, came onto the scene in The Secret of Chimneys (1925) and later solved The Seven Dials Mystery (1929). He was not a greatly attractive character, however, so Christie only used him as a minor character after that. Other sleuths who first appeared during this experimental period were the weird pair of Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite, as well as the clever Parker Pyne. Pyne specialized not in solving murders, but in influencing the lives of others so as to bring them happiness or adventure. Pyne was often fortunate enough to have the assistance of Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, a mystery novelist who bore an uncanny resemblance to her creator, Agatha Christie.

A mysterious breakdown

The year 1926 was an important one for Christie. It saw the publication of her first hugely successful novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in which the narrator (the character in whose voice the story is told) is the murderer. It was also a year of personal tragedy. Christie's mother died in 1926, and Christie discovered that her husband was in love with another woman. She suffered a mental breakdown and on December 6 she disappeared from her home, and her car was found abandoned in a quarry. Ten days later, acting on a tip, police found her in a hotel in Harrogate, England, where she had been staying the entire time, registered under the name of the woman with whom her husband was having his affair. Christie claimed to have had amnesia (severe memory loss), and the case was not pursued further. She divorced her first husband two years later.

In 1930 Christie married Sir Max Mallowan, a leading British archaeologist. She often accompanied him on his expeditions in Iraq and Syria and placed some of her novels in those countries. In Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946) she wrote a humorous account of some of her travels with her husband.

Major works

In 1930 Christie also produced what is believed by many to be her best-written novel, Murder at the Vicarage. This mystery also marked the first appearance of Jane Marple, who became one of Christie's favorite sleuths and who showed up frequently thereafter in her books. Miss Marple was one of those complicated characters in whom readers delight. Behind her old-fashioned, grandmotherly appearance, Miss Marple's mind was coldly aware that all human beings are weak and that some are completely immoral.

In the mid-1930s Christie began to produce novels that bore her special manner. In them she arranged a situation that seemed highly unrealistic or unlikely, and then she placed characters, who acted for the most realistic of reasons, into this framework. In Murder in the Calais Coach (1934) the murder is committed through the planning of a dozen people. In And Then There Were None (1939) nine murderers are invited to an island by an ex-judge who kills them out of an unshakeable sense of justice. In Easy to Kill (1939) four murders are committed in a tiny town without any suspicions being aroused, while in A Murder Is Announced (1950) the killer notifies others that the crime will occur in advance. Also interesting in these books is Christie's philosophy that it is quite acceptable to kill a killer, particularly one whose crime is especially horrible.

Christie wrote several works in addition to her fiction, including seventeen plays. Her favorite play was Witness for the Prosecution (1953), but the public disagreed. The Mousetrap opened in London in 1952 and was a huge success, playing there for over thirty years. In addition, many of Christie's mysteries were made into movies. In 1998 her play Black Coffee was adapted into a novel by another writer, Charles Osborne.

In 1971 Christie was named a Dame of the British Empire—a title given by the English king or queen in honor of a person's extraordinary service to the country or for personal merit. Five years later Christie died on January 12, 1976.

For More Information

Bunson, Matthew. The Complete Christie: An Agatha Christie Encyclopedia. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.

Dommermuth-Costa, Carol. Agatha Christie: Writer of Mystery. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1997.

Gill, Gillian. Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries. New York: Free Press, 1990.

Morgan, Janet. Agatha Christie: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1985.

Osborne, Charles. The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie. London: Collins, 1982, revised edition, 1990.

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Agatha Christie (September 15, 1890 – January 12, 1976) was an English mystery author. After working as a nurse during World War I , she became a successful writer, thanks to her Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple mystery series. Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time, as well as the most-translated individual author of all time.

Fast Facts: Agatha Christie

• Full Name:  Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie Mallowan
• Also Known As: Lady Mallowan, Mary Westmacott
• Known For:  Mystery novelist
• Born:  September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England
• Parents:  Frederick Alvah Miller and Clarissa (Clara) Margaret Boehmer
• Died: January 12, 1976 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England
• Spouses:  Archibald Christie (m. 1914–28), Sir Max Mallowan (m. 1930)
• Children:  Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Christie
• Selected Works : Partners in Crime (1929), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), And Then There Were None (1939), The Mousetrap (1952)
• Notable Quote:  "I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

Agatha Christie was the youngest of three children born to Frederick Alvah Miller and his wife, Clara Boehmer, a well-off upper-middle-class couple. Miller was the American-born son of a dry goods merchant whose second wife, Margaret, was Boehmer’s aunt. They settled in Torquay, Devon, and had two children before Agatha. Their oldest child, a daughter named Madge (short for Margaret) was born in 1879, and their son, Louis (who went by “Monty”), was born in Morristown, New Jersey, during an 1880 visit to the United States. Agatha, like her sister, was born in Torquay, ten years after her brother.

By most accounts, Christie’s childhood was a happy and fulfilling one. Along with her immediate family, she spent time with Margaret Miller (her mother’s aunt/father’s stepmother) and her maternal grandmother, Mary Boehmer. The family held an eclectic set of beliefs—including the idea that Christie’s mother Clara had psychic abilities—and Christie herself was homeschooled, with her parents teaching her reading, writing, math, and music. Although Christie’s mother wanted to wait until she was eight to begin teaching her to read, Christie essentially taught herself to read much earlier and became a passionate reader from a very young age. Her favorites included the work of children’s authors Edith Nesbit and Mrs. Molesworth, and, later, Lewis Carroll .

Because of her homeschooling, Christie didn’t have as much of an opportunity to form close friendships with other children in the first decade of her life. In 1901, her father died from chronic kidney disease and pneumonia after being in failing health for some time. The following year, she was sent to a regular school for the first time. Christie was enrolled at Miss Guyer's Girls' School in Torquay, but after years of a less-structured educational atmosphere at home, she found it hard to adjust. She was sent to Paris in 1905, where she attended a series of boarding and finishing schools.

Travel, Marriage, and World War I Experience

Christie returned to England in 1910, and, with her mother’s health failing, decided to move to Cairo in hopes that a warmer climate might help her health. She visited monuments and attended social events; the ancient world and archaeology would play a role in some of her later writings. Eventually, they returned to England, just as Europe was drawing nearer to a full-scale conflict .

As an apparently popular and charming young woman, Christie’s social and romantic life expanded considerably. She reportedly had several short-lived romances, as well as an engagement that was soon called off. In 1913, she met Archibald “Archie” Christie at a dance. He was the son of a lawyer in the Indian Civil Service and an army officer who eventually joined the Royal Flying Corps. They fell in love quickly and married on Christmas Eve, 1914.

World War I had begun a few months before their marriage, and Archie was sent to France. In fact, their wedding took place when he was home on leave after being away for months. While he was serving in France, Christie worked back at home as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. She worked for over 3,400 hours at the Red Cross hospital in Torquay, first as a nurse, then as a dispenser once she qualified as an apothecary’s assistant. During this time, she encountered refugees, particularly Belgians, and those experiences would stay with her and inspire some of her early writing, including her famous Poirot novels.

Fortunately for the young couple, Archie survived his stint abroad and actually rose through the military ranks. In 1918, he was sent back to England as a colonel in the Air Ministry, and Christie ceased her VAD work. They settled in Westminster, and after the war, her husband left the military and began working in London’s financial world. The Christies welcomed their first child, Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Christie, in August 1919.

Pseudonym Submissions and Poirot (1912-1926)

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1921)
• The Secret Adversary (1922)
• The Murder on the Links (1923)
• Poirot Investigates (1924)
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

Before the war, Christie wrote her first novel, Snow Upon the Desert , set in Cairo. The novel was summarily rejected by all the publishers she sent it to, but writer Eden Philpotts, a family friend, put her in touch with his agent, who rejected Snow Upon the Desert but encouraged her to write a new novel. During this time, Christie also wrote a handful of short stories, including “The House of Beauty,” “The Call of Wings,” and “The Little Lonely God.” These early stories, which were written early in her career but not published until decades later, were all submitted (and rejected) under various pseudonyms.

As a reader, Christie had been a fan of detective novels for some time, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. In 1916, she began working on her first mystery novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles . It was not published until 1920, after several failed submissions and, eventually, a publishing contract that required her to change the ending of the novel and that she later called exploitative. The novel was the first appearance of what would become one of her most iconic characters: Hercule Poirot , a former Belgian police officer who had fled to England when Germany invaded Belgium. Her experiences working with Belgian refugees during the war inspired the creation of this character.

Over the next few years, Christie wrote more mystery novels, including a continuation of the Poirot series. In fact, over the course of her career, she would write 33 novels and 54 short stories featuring the character. In between working on the popular Poirot novels, Christie also published a different mystery novel in 1922, titled The Secret Adversary , which introduced a lesser-known character duo, Tommy and Tuppence. She also wrote short stories, many on commission from Sketch magazine.

It was in 1926 that the strangest moment in Christie’s life occurred: her infamous brief disappearance. That year, her husband asked for a divorce and revealed he’d fallen in love with a woman named Nancy Neele. On the evening of December 3, Christie and her husband argued, and she disappeared that night. After nearly two weeks of public furor and confusion, she was found at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel on December 11, then left for her sister’s home soon after. Christie’s autobiography ignores this incident, and to this day, the actual reasons for her disappearance remain unknown. At the time, the public largely suspected that it was either a publicity stunt or an attempt to frame her husband, but the real reasons remain forever unknown and the subject of much speculation and debate.

Introducing Miss Marple (1927-1939)

• Partners in Crime (1929)
• The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
• The Thirteen Problems (1932)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
• The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
• Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
• Death on the Nile (1937)
• And Then There Were None (1939)

In 1932, Christie published the short story collection The Thirteen Problems . In it, she introduced the character of Miss Jane Marple, a sharp-witted elderly spinster (who was somewhat based on Christie’s great-aunt Margaret Miller) who became another of her iconic characters. Although Miss Marple would not take off quite as quickly as Poirot did, she was eventually featured in 12 novels and 20 short stories; Christie reputedly preferred writing about Marple, but wrote more Poirot stories to meet public demand.

The following year, Christie filed for divorce, which was finalized in October 1928. While her now-ex husband almost immediately married his mistress, Christie left England for the Middle East, where she befriended archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his wife Katharine, who invited her along on their expeditions. In February 1930, she met Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, a young archaeologist 13 years her junior who took her and her group on a tour of his expedition site in Iraq. The two fell in love quickly and married just seven months later in September 1930.

Christie often accompanied her husband on his expeditions, and the locations they visited frequently provided inspiration or a setting for her stories. During the 1930s, Christie published some of her best-known works, including her 1934 Poirot novel Murder on the Orient Express . In 1939, she published And Then There Were None , which remains, to this day, the best-selling mystery novel in the world. Christie later adapted her own novel for the stage in 1943.

World War II and Later Mysteries (1940-1976)

• Sad Cypress (1940)
• N or M? (1941)
• The Labors of Hercules (1947)
• Crooked House (1949)
• They Do It With Mirrors (1952)
• The Mousetrap (1952)
• Ordeal by Innocence (1958)
• The Clocks (1963)
• Hallowe'en Party (1969)
• Curtain (1975)
• Sleeping Murder (1976)
• Agatha Christie: An Autobiography (1977)

The breakout of World War II did not stop Christie from writing, although she split her time working at a pharmacy at University College Hospital in London. As a matter of fact, her pharmacy work ended up benefitting her writing, as she learned more about chemical compounds and poisons that she was able to use in her novels. Her 1941 novel N or M? briefly placed Christie under suspicion from MI5 because she named a character Major Bletchley, the same name as a top-secret codebreaking operation’s location. As it turned out, she had simply been stuck nearby on a train and, in frustration, gave the place’s name to an unlikeable character. During the war, she also wrote Curtains and Sleeping Murder , intended as the last novels for Poirot and Miss Marple, but the manuscripts were sealed away until the end of her life.

Christie continued writing prolifically in the decades after the war. By the late 1950s, she was reportedly earning around ₤100,000 per year. This era included one of her most famous plays , The Mousetrap , which famously features a twist ending (subverting the usual formula found in most of Christie’s works) that audiences are asked to not reveal when they leave the theater. It is the longest-running play in history and has been running continuously on the West End in London since its debut in 1952.

Christie continued writing her Poirot novels, despite growing increasingly tired of the character. Despite her personal feelings, though, she, unlike fellow mystery writer Arthur Conan Doyle , refused to kill off the character because of how beloved he was by the public. However, 1969’s Hallowe’en Party marked her final Poirot novel (although he did appear in short stories for a few more years) aside from Curtains , which was published in 1975 as her health declined and it became increasingly likely that she would write no more novels.

Literary Themes and Styles

One subject that frequently appeared in Christie’s novels was the topic of archaeology—no real surprise, given her own personal interest in the field. After marrying Mallowan, who spent large amounts of time on archaeological expeditions, she often accompanied him on trips and assisted with some of the preservation, restoration, and cataloging work. Her fascination with archaeology—and, specifically, with the ancient Middle East —came to play a major role in her writings, providing everything from settings to details and plot points.

In some ways, Christie perfected what we now consider the classic mystery novel structure . There is a crime—usually a murder—committed at the beginning, with several suspects who all are concealing secrets of their own. A detective slowly unravels these secrets, with several red herrings and complicating twists along the way. Then, at the end, he gathers all the suspects (that is, the ones who are still alive), and gradually reveals the culprit and the logic that led to this conclusion. In some of her stories, the culprits evade traditional justice (although adaptations, many subject to censors and morality codes, sometimes changed this). Most of Christie’s mysteries follow this style, with a few variations.

In hindsight, some of Christie’s works embraced racial and cultural stereotypes to an occasionally uncomfortable degree, particularly with regard to Jewish characters. That being said, she did often portray “outsiders” as potential victims at the hands of British villains, rather than placing them into the roles of villain. Americans, too, are the subject of some stereotypes and ribbing, but overall do not suffer from wholly negative portrayals.

By the early 1970s, Christie’s health began to fade, but she kept writing. Modern, experimental textual analysis suggests that she may have begun suffering from age-related neurological issues, such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. She spent her later years living a quiet life, enjoying hobbies such as gardening, but continuing to write until the last years of her life.

Agatha Christie died of natural causes at age 85 on January 12, 1976, at her home in Wallington, Oxfordshire. Before her death, she made burial plans with her husband and was buried in the plot they purchased in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Cholsey. Sir Max survived her by about two years and was buried beside her upon his death in 1978. Her funeral attendees included reporters from around the world, and wreaths were sent by several organizations, including the cast of her play The Mousetrap .

Along with a few other authors, Christie’s writing came to define the classic “whodunit” mystery genre , which persists to this day. A large number of her stories have been adapted for film, television, theater, and radio over the years, which has kept her perpetually in popular culture. She remains the most popular novelist of all time.

Christie’s heirs continue to hold a minority stake in her company and estate. In 2013, the Christie family gave their "full backing" to the release of a new Poirot story, The Monogram Murders , which was written by British author Sophie Hannah. She later released two more books under the Christie umbrella, Closed Casket in 2016 and The Mystery of the Three Quarters in 2018.

• Mallowan, Agatha Christie.  An Autobiography . New York, NY: Bantam, 1990.
• Prichard, Mathew.  The Grand Tour: Around The World With The Queen Of Mystery . New York, US: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012.
• Thompson, Laura. Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life . Pegasus Books, 2018.
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Biography Online

Agatha Christie Biography

“One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is to have a happy childhood. I had a very happy childhood. I had a home and a garden that I loved; a wise and patient Nanny; as father and mother two people who loved each other dearly and made a success of their marriage and of parenthood.” A. Christie Autobiography

In 1905, she went to Paris where she was educated at finishing schools and hoped to become a singer, however, she realised that her voice was not strong enough to make it a career. She experimented with writing short novels, but not much came of it. She approached several publishers but, in the period before the First World War, received several rejections.

In 1914, Agatha Christie met Archibald Christie an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps – they married a few months after the outbreak of war in December 1914. They had a child, Rosalind in August 1919.

During the First World war, with her husband away in France, she trained and worked as a nurse helping to treat wounded soldiers. She also became educated in the field of pharmacy. She recalled her time as a nurse with great fondness, saying it was one of the most rewarding jobs she ever undertook.

Writing Career of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was first published in 1920. Her first book was The Mysterious Affair at Styles , (1920) which featured the detective – Hercule Poirot, who at the time was portrayed as a Belgian refugee from the Great War. Poirot is one of the most recognised fictional characters in English with his mixture of personal pride, broken English and immaculate appearance and moustache. The book sold reasonably well and helped meet the public’s great appetite for detective novels. It was a genre that had been popularised through Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories at the turn of the century. In 1926, she made her big breakthrough with the publication of “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” This became a best-seller and made Christie famous as a writer.

Mysterious disappearance

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly despairing, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” – Foreward to Autobiography

After the affair, with created negative publicity towards her, she travelled to the Canary Islands for recuperation. In 1930, she married her second husband, Max Mallowan. This marriage was happier, though her only child, Rosalind Hicks, came from her first marriage. Her second husband Max Mallowan was an archaeologist and she often accompanied him on trips to the Middle East. She learnt to help in archaeological digs, taking photographs and working on the sites. Christie paid her own way and tried to keep out of the limelight, working anonymously.

Writings of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie preferred her other great detective – the quiet but effective old lady – Miss Marple, who used to solve crimes through her intricate knowledge of how people in English villages behave. The character of Miss Marple was based on the traditional English country lady – and her own relatives. In later life, she increasingly preferred Miss Marple to Poirot.

The plot of Agatha Christies novels could be described as formulaic. Murders were committed by ingenious methods – often involving poison, which Agatha Christie had great knowledge of. After interrogating all the main suspects, the detective would bring all the participants into some drawing-room before explaining who was the murderer. Her writing was quite clear and it is easy to get absorbed in the flow of the story. It also gave readers the chance to try and work out who the murderer was before it was revealed at the end.

Agatha Christie enjoyed writing. For her there was great satisfaction in creating plots and stories. She also wrote six novels in the genre of romance and suspense under a pseudonym – Mary Westmacott.

During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy of the University College London, which gave her ideas for some of her murder methods. After the war, her books continued to grow in international popularity. In 1952, her play The Mousetrap was debuted at the Ambassador’s Theatre in London and has been performed without a break ever since. Her success led to her being honoured in the New Year’s honour list. In 1971 she was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire.

Personal life

Agatha Christie loved embroidery, travelling and gardening – she won various horticultural prizes. She expressed a dislike of alcohol, smoking and the gramophone. She preferred to avoid the limelight and rarely gave public interviews. To some extent she hankered after the more idyllic days of Edwardian England she experienced in her childhood and was dubious about aspects of modern life.

“The quality of agreeableness is not much stressed nowadays. People tend to ask if a man is clever, industrious, if he contributes to the well-being of the community, if he ‘counts’ in the scheme of things.” -A. Christie, Part I of Autobiography

Religious views

Agatha Christie was baptised in the Anglican Church and remained a Christian throughout her life, though she went through periods of difficulty. She was very close to her mother, who was a practising Christian but also was willing to experiment in following practices of Catholocism and spiritualism. Agatha and her other siblings believed that her mother had a degree of psychic ability. Her own writings are not explicitly Christian, but generally have a theme of justice with the sinners unable to escape the consequences of their bad actions, and the moral universe restored. She kept her mother’s copy of “Imitation of Christ” by Thomas à Kempis – close to her bed. In her own autobiography, she writes about her own awareness and interest in the inner spiritual sense.

“We never know the whole man, though sometimes, in quick flashes, we know the true man. I think, myself, that one’s memories represent those moments which, insignificant as they may seem, nevertheless represent the inner self and oneself as most really oneself.” – A. Christie

She died in 1976 aged 85 from natural causes, though may have experienced some dementia in her final years.

Citation:  Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Agatha Christie”, Oxford,  www.biographyonline.net Last updated 18 March 2020. Originally published 5 February 2013.

Agatha Christie – a biography

• Agatha Christie – a biography at Amazon

by Janet Morgan.

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Agatha Christie in profile: facts about her life

Agatha Christie is one of the most popular writers in history. Almost four billion copies of her novels have been sold across the globe, and her book sales are beaten only by William Shakespeare. Here, we take a look at the life of the best-selling author, whose novels include some of the most recognisable characters in British literature, including Poirot and Miss Marple

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Your guide to best-selling author Agatha Christie...

When was Agatha Christie born?

15 September 1890, Torquay, Devon

When did she die?

12 January 1976, Wallingford, Oxfordshire

What is she remembered for?

Being one of the best-selling authors in history, Agatha Christie’s crime novels have produced some of the most recognisable characters in British literature, including Poirot and Miss Marple.

In 1971 Christie was presented with a damehood by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to literature.

More like this

Who were her family.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born into a comfortably middle-class family. Her father, Frederick Alvah Miller, was a stockbroker from New York, and her mother, Clara Boehmer, was the daughter of an army officer. Agatha had two older siblings named Margaret and Louis.

In 1914 Agatha married Archibald Christie, an officer in the military. Together they had one child, named Rosalind, in 1919. The couple divorced in 1928.

Agatha married her second husband, archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, in 1930.

How did she become an author?

Growing up in Devon during the last decade of the 19th century, Agatha taught herself to read by the age of five. While her two siblings were sent away for their education, Agatha was homeschooled by her parents, and from a young age she enjoyed reading, writing poetry and playing music. In her autobiography, published in 1977, Agatha commented that she was lucky to have a “very happy childhood”. However, Agatha lost her father in November 1901 after he suffered numerous heart attacks.

• The golden age of murder: Agatha Christie and the Detection Club

In 1902 Agatha began her formal education at Miss Guyer’s Girls' School in Torquay, before moving to France in 1905 to continue her education at three different Parisian schools.

After moving back to England in 1910, Agatha began writing her first short story, The House of Dreams. Not until 1926 was the tale published, in an issue of The Sovereign Magazine .

Who was her first husband?

While attending a dance in 1912, Agatha met Archie Christie, an officer in the Royal Flying Corps. The pair very quickly fell in love, but had to delay getting married.

Following the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, Archie was sent to fight in France, while Agatha joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment as an unpaid nurse at the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay. The couple married on Christmas Eve 1914 at Emmanuel Church in Bristol while Archie was on leave. They stayed at The Grand Hotel in Torquay on the first night of their honeymoon, before Archie had to return to France on 27 December.

• 6 notorious unsolved crimes from history

The couple’s early married life was disrupted by the war – they were able to meet on only a few rare occasions throughout the duration of the conflict.

However, they were reunited in January 1918 when Archie moved to London after being given a position in the War Office. After the war ended in November 1918, Archie found a job in finance in London, and the couple’s daughter, Rosalind, was born in August 1919.

When did she begin writing detective stories and crime novels?

It was during the First World War that Agatha began writing detective stories. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was written in 1916, but was not published until four years later.

Christie’s second novel, The Secret Adversary, was published in 1922 and was well received by reviewers. In the same year, Archie was asked to tour areas of the British Empire to promote the opening of the British Empire Exhibition (which promoted Britain and its colonies and was due to open in London in 1924). Agatha joined her husband on his travels, and while visiting Hawaii the couple possibly became two of the first Europeans to master surfing standing up.

After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Agatha volunteered at the pharmacy of the University College Hospital in London. There she learned about different poisons and medicines, and she used this newfound knowledge in her later crime novels.

• Arsenic: a brief history of Agatha Christie’s favourite murder weapon

Agatha continued to write after the Second World War, and was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1956 New Year Honours list for her contribution to literature. Her husband was presented with a knighthood in 1968 for his archaeological work, and Agatha was promoted to Dame Commander in 1971.

What were the circumstances surrounding her mysterious disappearance in 1926?

The year 1926 proved to be a difficult one for Agatha: her mother died, and her husband unexpectedly announced that he was leaving her for another woman. Overwhelmed by these events, on 3 December Agatha left her home during the night, leaving a letter stating she was travelling to Yorkshire.

However, the next morning Agatha’s car was discovered near the top of a chalk quarry, several miles from her home, sparking a nationwide search to find the novelist . Agatha’s picture featured in scores of newspapers, including the New York Times , and journalists speculated over what might have happened to her.

Following an extensive search, Agatha was discovered at a hotel in Harrogate 11 days after going missing, having checked in under the name of her husband’s mistress, Theresa Neele. Agatha famously could not recall what had happened to her, and she never spoke publicly of her disappearance. Despite numerous speculations by the police, the press and Agatha’s family members, it is probable that we will never know for sure what happened to her.

When did she divorce?

In 1928 Agatha completed one of her most famous novels, The Mystery of the Blue Train . Also in this year, her divorce was finalised.

Two years later, during a visit to an archaeological site in Ur, near Baghdad, Agatha met archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was almost 14 years her junior. The couple married in September 1930, just six months after first meeting.

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Agatha continued to write popular detective novels, which included Murder on the Orient Express (1934); Death on the Nile (1937) and Appointment with Death (1938).

How did she die?

Agatha’s health began to decline during the 1970s, and on 12 January 1976 she died from natural causes at her home in Oxfordshire. Agatha’s final novel, Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple ’ s Last Case, was published posthumously in October 1976.

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Who Was Agatha Christie?

Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime, was arguably the best detective novelist of all time. We look at Christie's life and legacy.

Alice Nuttall

Alice Nuttall (she/her) is a writer, pet-wrangler and D&D nerd. Her reading has got so out of control that she had to take a job at her local library to avoid bankrupting herself on books — unfortunately, this has just resulted in her TBR pile growing until it resembles Everest. Alice's webcomic, writing and everything else can be found at https://linktr.ee/alicenuttallbooks . Her debut novel, The Zombie Project , is coming out in January 2025 with Chicken House .

View All posts by Alice Nuttall

The Queen of Crime, the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, the best-selling novelist of all time — even people who don’t read detective novels know the name Agatha Christie. In her long and prolific career, Christie wrote 66 novels and 14 short story collections, as well as several plays, one of which, The Mousetrap , is the longest-running play in history. I’ve loved Agatha Christie’s work ever since I watched my first episode of Poirot starring David Suchet (one of the best castings in literary adaptation history), and spent lockdown rereading my favourite Christie mysteries. But who was Agatha Christie?

Who was Agatha Christie?

Agatha Christie’s work was hugely influential, not only on the detective genre, but on broader popular culture; she’s been parodied in everything from The Simpsons to Muppets Tonight . Christie popularised the country house mystery, and the trope of gathering all the suspects together in one place for the denouement is strongly associated with Christie’s work. In addition to many Christie-inspired spoofs and pastiches, from Murder by Death to Knives Out , Agatha Christie’s work has also influenced multiple serious detective stories. Robin Stevens, author of the Murder Most Unladylike series, has spoken about Christie as one of her main inspirations; Stuart Turton’s The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a Christie mystery with a time loop; and books like The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley draw from Christie, with a country-house setting and a group of friends being picked off one by one.

Christie’s real life was often as fascinating and unexpected as her stories. Like many of her characters, Agatha Christie travelled the world, visited archaeological sites, and worked in the medical field in both the First and Second World Wars, a background which came into play in her writing. She also had a complex and, at some points, heartbreaking romantic life, which at one point led to a major mystery that still surrounds this beloved literary figure.

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 to a well-off family, and was a voracious reader from a young age, after teaching herself to read aged five. She began writing short stories at the age of 18, and, in her early 20s, travelled to Egypt with her mother. During her time in Egypt, Agatha met her first husband, Archie Christie, whom she married in 1914. The couple were soon separated by the First World War — Archie fought in France, while Agatha worked as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment in Torquay, Devon. Here, Agatha met several Belgian refugees who inspired her first detective creation, Hercule Poirot. (Like Arthur Conan Doyle, Christie became quite annoyed with her most famous creation. Ariadne Oliver, her self-insert character, was her way of expressing this irritation; crime writer Mrs Oliver writes stories about a fussy Finnish detective Sven Hjerson, whose idiosyncrasies that she established in earlier stories make him very difficult to write).

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The first Poirot novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles , was written in 1916, but Christie didn’t find a publisher until 1920. The book was well-received, and had the unusual honour for a fiction novel of being reviewed in the Pharmaceutical Journal , because of the accuracy of Christie’s descriptions of the use of poison — unsurprising, as Christie’s work for the Voluntary Aid Detachment included working in the hospital’s dispensary. Christie continued this interest in medication and poisons throughout her life, spending the Second World War working in the pharmacy at University College Hospital, London.

Behind Agatha Christie’s Disappearance

While Christie’s marriage was initially happy, disaster struck in 1926, when Archie Christie informed her that he had met someone else and asked for a divorce. Christie left their home on 3 December, and her car was found the next day, with some clothes and a driving licence left inside.

By this point in her life, Christie was a popular and famous writer, and her disappearance soon became a huge news story. A large team of police officers and volunteers searched for her, and a newspaper offered a large reward for any information on what could have happened to the beloved author. It was initially feared that Christie had died by suicide; however, ten days after she disappeared, she was found at a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, nearly 200 miles from her home.

Christie never discussed what happened during the ten days that she was missing, and theories abound; some believe that she experienced a breakdown that led to a total loss of memory, while others have suggested that she staged the disappearance in order to embarrass her soon-to-be-ex-husband. The disappearance has been the subject of several fiction stories, including The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont, and an episode of Doctor Who , “The Unicorn and the Wasp”.

While Christie’s first marriage ended in heartbreak, her romantic life wasn’t over. On one of the archaeological expeditions that she loved to attend, Christie met her second husband, Max Mallowan. The two married in 1930, and their relationship lasted until Christie’s death in 1976. She left behind her only child, her daughter Rosalind, and a legacy in the form of the Agatha Christie Trust for Children.

Literary Successes

While Christie’s literary career debuted with The Mysterious Affair at Styles , this is far from her best-known work. She cemented her reputation as a gifted detective novelist with another Poirot story, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd , and a later adventure of the Belgian detective, Murder on the Orient Express , has gone down in history as one of the best-known crime stories ever written; even people who haven’t read the book are likely to know both the tale and the twist.

In addition to Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence, Christie wrote several standalone stories. One of these, And Then There Were None (renamed because its original title included a horrific racist slur), tells the story of ten strangers who are lured to an island and then picked off one by one. The group discover along the way that they have all got away with murder, and are being punished for their past sins. And Then There Were None is one of the strongest examples of Christie’s legacy; it is the world’s best-selling mystery, over 80 years after its first publication in 1940, and has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Its popularity is understandable; while I usually prefer reading Poirot and Miss Marple, And Then There Were None has a creeping, terrifying atmosphere and an immensely satisfying plot that keeps you on edge to the last page.

Christie received acclaim and recognition for her work both in her lifetime and after her death. She was the first winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, in 1955, and was voted the best crime writer of all time by the Crime Writers’ Association in 2013. Her books have been adapted for stage and screen from the 1920s onwards, and several of these adaptations, such as the Poirot series starring David Suchet, have been award-winning productions in their own right.

While she is best-known for her crime novels and short stories, Christie also wrote in other genres. She wrote six literary novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and some nonfiction works about her time on an archaeological dig and her travels around the world. She even tried her hand at horror; I remember being quite creeped out by a haunted doll story that appears in one of her short story collections.

Agatha Christie Trivia

Christie’s knowledge of poisons and medicine as a result of her pharmaceutical work is well-known, and particularly notable for its accuracy. Indeed, Agatha Christie helped solve a real-life mystery after her death; in 1977, a case of thallium poisoning was identified when one of the people working on it recognised the symptoms from a Christie novel.

While Agatha Christie is known for her love of travel and archaeology, she also had some more unexpected hobbies. In 1922, she tried surfing for the first time, and grew to love the sport. She remained a keen surfer for much of her life, as well as a devoted swimmer.

In 1941, Christie almost fell afoul of MI5, Britain’s intelligence service. She’d named a character in her Tommy and Tuppence book N or M? Major Bletchley, because she’d been stuck near the town of Bletchley on a train journey and named the unpleasant character after the place in a fit of pique; however, MI5 investigated her because they feared that she had somehow discovered the truth about Britain’s wartime codebreaking centre, based at the famous Bletchley Park.

Agatha Christie isn’t the only writer to have had a long legacy and a fascinating life; if you want to know more about one of the world’s most influential sci-fi authors, try Who Was Ursula K LeGuin? For a deep dive into Christie’s beloved old lady detective, read How I Learned to Stop Being Sexist and Love Miss Marple . You might also be interested in Why is Agatha Christie the Best-Selling Author of All Time?

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Agatha Christie’s Latest Biographer Plumbs a Life of Mystery

In “Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman,” Lucy Worsley revisits the weird story of one of the 20th century’s most popular and enduring authors.

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AGATHA CHRISTIE An Elusive Woman By Lucy Worsley 415 pages. Pegasus Crime. $29.95.

Agatha Christie’s best books have crisp dialogue and high-velocity plots. The bad ones have a Mad Libs quality: feeble prose studded with blank spots into which you can picture the prolific Christie plugging a random “BODY PART” or “WEAPON.” In a 1971 study of English crime fiction, Colin Watson snickered that Christie “seems to have been well aware that intelligence and readership-potential are quite unrelated.”

Watson’s barb was unfair. Few readers turn to detective novels for complex cerebral rewards. Detective novels are games, and require a different method of evaluation (and construction) than works of capital-L Literature. Christie understood this. As with any game-player, an author can be accused of not playing fair , and Christie’s finest novels, like “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” tiptoe deliciously close to the cheating line without crossing it. The goal is to leave a reader thwarted and thrilled, not stumped and resentful.

There have been at least a dozen books devoted to Christie in the past two decades, and Lucy Worsley’s “Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman” is a pleasant but inessential addition to the stack. Fans will admire Worsley’s identification of real-life people, places and phrases that Christie upcycled into her fiction. They will delight in seeing photographs of the author surfing in Hawaii, or learning that her favorite drink was a glass of neat cream. (“Cream, neat” should be an acceptable order at a bar. If we work together, maybe we can make it happen.)

But the book also contains a great deal of padding — perhaps because the terrain has been so thoroughly mapped before — and an unsubtle dose of moralizing. A line in the preface sets an ominous tone, warning that Christie’s work “contains views on race and class that are unacceptable today” — a common refrain in recent biographies but totally unnecessary for readers whose knowledge of history extends more than five minutes.

Worsley moves through Christie’s childhood at a brisk pace. Her birth year: 1890. Location: Southwest England. Mother: creative, enigmatic. Father: blessed with a decent inheritance but cursed with a shopping addiction. Siblings: two. Home: sprawling villa with a view of the sea. Education: spotty.

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Agatha Christie

• Born September 15 , 1890 · Torquay, Devon, England, UK
• Died January 12 , 1976 · Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, UK (natural causes)
• Birth name Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller
• The Queen of Crime
• Height 5′ 7¾″ (1.72 m)
• Agatha was born as "Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller" in 1890 to Frederick Alvah Miller and Clara Boehmer. Agatha was of American and British descent, her father being American and her mother British. Her father was a relatively affluent stockbroker. Agatha received home education from early childhood to when she turned 12-years-old in 1902. Her parents taught her how to read, write, perform arithmetic, and play music. Her father died in 1901. Agatha was sent to a girl's school in Torquay, Devon, where she studied from 1902 to 1905. She continued her education in Paris, France from 1905 to 1910. She then returned to her surviving family in England. As a young adult, Agatha aspired to be a writer and produced a number of unpublished short stories and novels. She submitted them to various publishers and literary magazines, but they were all rejected. Several of these unpublished works were later revised into more successful ones. While still in this point of her life, Agatha sought advise from professional writer Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960). Meanwhile she was searching for a suitable husband and in 1913 accepted a marriage proposal from military officer and pilot-in-training Archibald "Archie" Christie. They married in late 1914. Her married name became "Agatha Christie" and she used it for most of her literary works, including ones created decades following the end of her first marriage. During World War I, Archie Christie was send to fight in the war and Agatha joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, a British voluntary unit providing field nursing services. She performed unpaid work as a volunteer nurse from 1914 to 1916. Then she was promoted to "apothecaries' assistant" (dispenser), a position which earned her a small salary until the end of the war. She ended her service in September, 1918. Agatha wrote "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", her debut novel ,in 1916, but was unable to find a publisher for it until 1920. The novel introduced her famous character Hercule Poirot and his supporting characters Inspector Japp and Arthur Hastings. The novel is set in World War I and is one of the few of her works which are connected to a specific time period. Following the end of World War I and their retirement from military life, Agatha and Archie Christie moved to London and settled into civilian life. Their only child Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Christie (1919-2004) was born early in the marriage. Agatha's debut novel was first published in 1920 and turned out to be a hit. It was soon followed by the successful novels "The Secret Adversary" (1922) and "Murder on the Links" (1923) and various short stories. Agatha soon became a celebrated writer. In 1926, Archie Christie announced to Agatha that he had a mistress and that he wanted a divorce. Agatha took it hard and mysteriously disappeared for a period of 10 days. After an extensive manhunt and much publicity, she was found living under a false name in Yorkshire. She had assumed the last name of Archie's mistress and claimed to have no memory of how she ended up there. The doctors who attended to her determined that she had amnesia. Despite various theories by multiple sources, these 10 days are the most mysterious chapter in Agatha's life. Agatha and Archie divorced in 1928, though she kept the last name Christie. She gained sole custody of her daughter Rosalind. In 1930, Agatha married her second (and last) husband Max Mallowan, a professional archaeologist. They would remain married until her death in 1976.Christie often used places that she was familiar with as settings for her novels and short stories. Her various travels with Max introduced her to locations of the Middle East, and provided inspiration for a number of novels. In 1934, Agatha and Max settled in Winterbrook, Oxfordshire, which served as their main residence until their respective deaths. During World War II, she served in the pharmacy at the University College Hospital, where she gained additional training about substances used for poisoning cases. She incorporated such knowledge for realistic details in her stories. She became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956 and a Dame Commander of the same order in 1971. Her husband was knighted in 1968. They are among the relatively few couples where both members have been honored for their work. Agatha continued writing until 1974, though her health problems affected her writing style. Her memory was problematic for several years and she had trouble remembering the details of her own work, even while she was writing it. Recent researches on her medical condition suggest that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other dementia. She died of natural causes in early 1976. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I Ntikoudis
• Spouses Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (September 11, 1930 - January 12, 1976) (her death) Archibald Christie (December 24, 1914 - April 20, 1928) (divorced, 1 child)
• Relatives Mathew Prichard (Grandchild) James Prichard (Great Grandchild)
• All her books and short stories feature some kind of plot twist or surprising ending with the least expected person being the bad guy.
• Over two billion copies of her books have been sold worldwide. Her book sales are surpassed only by the Bible and by William Shakespeare . She is the best-selling author of all time.
• She wrote Hercule Poirot's Christmas for her godson James (an avid fan of her books), after he complained her murders were getting too refined. He wanted a good solid murder, with lots of blood, and the body positioned in such a way that it couldn't be anything but murder. There is a dedication to him in the book.
• The last two novels published were Curtain (chronicling Hercule Poirot's last case) and Sleeping Murder (the last Miss Marple novel). She wrote both books in the 1940s, and then locked them in a safe deposit box. It is stated in her biography, that she wrote the two final cases for Marple and Poirot early, in case she was killed in WWII. This way fans would have closure concerning her characters fates.
• Disappeared for several days in 1926. Disappearance remains unexplained.
• While her fans loved Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie herself was increasingly fed up with her creation. Late in her career, she described him as "an egocentric creep".
• An archaelogist is the best husband a women can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
• I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
• Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend.
• If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles one would hardly see anybody.
• Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.

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10 Things You May Not Know About Agatha Christie

By: Jesse Greenspan

Updated: October 6, 2023 | Original: January 11, 2016

1. She is the best-selling novelist in history.

Popular worldwide, Christie’s books have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold an estimated 2 billion copies (and counting). This puts her third on the all-time bestseller list behind only William Shakespeare and the Bible .

2. She received virtually no formal education.

Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, a seaside resort town in southwestern England. Unlike her two older siblings, who went to boarding school, she was tutored almost exclusively at home and rarely saw kids her own age. Playtime was spent with pets, imaginary friends and her family’s servants. Yet she apparently wasn’t lonely, describing her childhood as “very happy” in the opening paragraph of her autobiography. Finally, at age 13, Christie began attending a local girls’ school two days a week, and she later studied music in Paris. As a writer, she was self-taught.

3. Her father was a gentleman of leisure.

Living off his inheritance, Christie’s father, Frederick, whiled away the days playing cards at the yacht club and eating extravagant dinners—that is, until he ran into financial difficulties shortly before his death in 1901. “He was a lazy man…[with] a simple and loving heart,” Christie would write, adding that he probably “would not have been particularly good at working anyway.” Her mother, Clara, on the other hand, composed poetry and struggled to find herself spiritually, dabbling with Zoroastrianism, Catholicism and Unitarianism, among other religions.

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4. Christie started writing mysteries in response to a challenge from her sister.

At age 11, Christie published her first piece, a poem about electric trams that appeared in an English newspaper. As a teenager, she then had several additional poems printed in The Poetry Review , while also working on short stories that at the time failed to attract publishers’ interest. Detective novels did not appear on her radar until World War I , after her sister bet that she couldn’t write a good one. Her initial attempt, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles,” in which retired Belgian policeman Hercule Poirot solves the murder of a wealthy widow, was eventually picked up by a publisher on the condition that she alter the ending. From that point forward, detective novels would dominate her career.

5. She invented two of the world’s most famous fictional sleuths.

Sharp-eyed detectives abound in literature, from Sherlock Holmes and Philip Marlowe to Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew. Yet according to her estate, Christie is the only crime writer to have created two equally famous protagonists: Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. The dandyish Poirot, who appears in 33 Christie novels and over 50 short stories, remains the only fictional character ever to receive an obituary in the New York Times, whereas the unassuming Marple, who appears in 12 Christie novels and 20 short stories, serves as the archetype for small-town, little-old-lady snoops. Other, less well-known Christie characters include the adventuresome couple Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, the retired civil servant Parker Pyne and the mysterious Harley Quin.

6. The butler never did it.

Contrary to the mystery fiction cliché, the butler never once murders anyone in a Christie book (though one killer does disguise himself as a butler in order to get close to his victim). Doctors, on the other hand, commit homicide in no less than four Christie books, while politicians, secretaries, actors, housewives, military men, teachers and police officers all commit homicide at least twice. More often than not, the victims are knocked off with poisons, which Christie learned about while working as a pharmacist during World War I.

7. Constant travel helped her to get ideas.

Most of Christie’s books take place in England, but she was able to write convincingly about other locations as well by seeing them firsthand. While growing up, she spent months at a time in France and Egypt, and she later traveled around the world on an expedition promoting the British Empire. She then met her second husband, an archeologist 14 years her junior, at a dig site in Iraq and thereafter often returned to the Middle East, gaining material for such books as Murder on the Orient Express and They Came to Baghdad . She wrote another book, A Caribbean Mystery , after visiting St. Lucia and likewise mined the Canary Islands for ideas after vacationing there. In England, meanwhile, she continually shuttled back and forth between London and various houses in the countryside.

8. The Anti-Defamation League protested her portrayal of Jews.

Christie’s works are filled with derogatory references toward Black, Asian, Italian, Native American and Arab peoples. Jewish people don’t fare well either; Christie generally depicts them as hook-nosed and money-grubbing. At one point, the Anti-Defamation League penned a letter objecting to her apparent anti-Semitism. Though the letter was reportedly never shown to her, it prompted her agent to give permission to her U.S. publishers to delete any distasteful passages about Jews and Catholics. Christie’s defenders dispute the racism charge, claiming that although some of her characters use racial epithets, these characters tend to be portrayed negatively overall.

9. She was the subject of a huge manhunt.

Reeling from the recent death of her beloved mother and the revelation that her first husband had been unfaithful, Christie removed her wedding ring, left her daughter in the care of household servants and drove off into the night on December 3, 1926. The next morning, her car was found abandoned several miles away, thus kicking off an intensive search-and-rescue operation that involved thousands of policemen and volunteers. Though divers, bloodhounds and even airplanes were brought in, no trace of the missing crime novelist turned up. The press ran wild with the story, with one publication offering a 100-pound reward for information leading to her whereabouts. Finally, 11 days after leaving home, she was recognized at a spa hotel in northern England, to which she had checked in using the surname of her husband’s mistress. Christie claimed to have virtually no recollection of the entire incident, attributing it to a form of amnesia.

10. She occasionally used a pseudonym.

Christie published her detective fiction, plays and memoirs under her own name. But she also authored six romantic novels—much to the dismay of her publishers, who preferred she stick with crime—under the pen name of Mary Westmacott. (Mary was her second name and Westmacott was the surname of some distant relatives.) For almost two decades, the public had no clue Christie and Westmacott were one and the same; however, a newspaper columnist eventually blew her cover. In her autobiography, Christie called the romantic novel “Absent in the Spring” the “one book that has satisfied me completely” and said she wrote it “in three days flat.”

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Around the World in 12 Book Covers

In our offices here at Agatha Christie Limited we are extremely lucky to be able to have so many incredible Christie editions from all around the world and we wanted to showcase a few of our favourites. We absolutely love seeing readers from countries far and wide sharing their love of the Queen of Crime on social media so it only felt right to celebrate with posts from fans.

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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Filip (@philippeell)

At Bertram's Hotel - @philippeell | Published by Publicat S.A., Poland

These smart, sophisticated and colourful hardbacks are a favourite in the office. The detailed borders, illustrations and endpapers really lend themselves to some stunning photographs, and Christie readers never disappoint in capturing them in situ.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris (@biblioteca_do_chris)

Death on the Nile - @biblioteca_do_chris | Published by ASA, Portugal

These Portuguese editions are so vibrant and we love the illustrations on the covers that give a little insight into what to expect from the story. The matching bookmarks are great fun and add something special to these books.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by le grenier d'automne 🍁🦊📙🧶🫖 (@le_grenier_d_automne)

Death in the Clouds - @le_grenier_d_automne | Published by Éditions du Masque, France

The classic French facsimiles are eye-catching, and benefit from their small format too. The new reproductions are regulars on our Christie Christmas Gift Guide each year, as they make such lovely, compact gifts.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by NohemiBookLover📚 (@nohemibooklover)

Death Comes as the End - @nohemibooklover | Published by Grupo Planeta, Spain

As soon as you see this vibrant cover you know the story is set in Ancient Egypt. The bold orange illustrations really stand out against the black and we love all the hieroglyphics in the background. So unique!

View this post on Instagram A post shared by • Marie • DK 🇩🇰 • (@maries_bogunivers)

A collection of four short stories - @maries_bogunivers | Published by Novellix, Denmark

These boxed short stories from Denmark are simply gorgeous. The careful designs reflect a point in the plot, with repeating patterns that demand attention. Ideal for collecting, but also for popping in a handbag for your day out.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by メルヘンおっさん(anela) (@midlichang)

A Pocket Full of Rye - @midlichang | Published by Hayakawa, Japan

We love the simplicity of these designs. Featuring one very important element of the story (but we won't say any more than that!) this cover is so striking and gives very little away about the plot adding intrigue.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ειρήνη/Irene🌷 (@bibliophile_by_night)

Dead Man's Folly - @bibliophile_by_night | Published by Psichogios Publications, Greece

The reappearance of these 1990s UK cover designs bring a smile to our faces. Our Greek publishers have done a brilliant job of showcasing them in a fresh, and contemporary way that stand out on any bookshelf.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Egész-Budai Anikó (@egeszani)

And Then There Were None - @egeszani | Published by Helikon, Hungary

The colours in this cover are so gorgeous, and the illustration is very ominous, much like the story. We particularly love the hand reaching over the house and the choppy waters reflecting the danger the reader is about to embark upon.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mila and Books ✨ (@milayun_)

The Hollow - @milayun_ | Published by P T Gramedia, Indonesia

There's something a little haunting about the Indonesian covers. The simple white, orange, black and red colourways feature on every story making them look really uniform on our shelves and the illustrations on each are so intricate and often reflect a specific scene in the book.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nosso Universo Literário (@nosso_universo_literario)

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? - @nosso_universo_literario | Published by HarperCollins Brasil

It is hard not to judge this book by its bright, attractive cover! Known affectionately by fans as the "rainbow collection", these new hardback editions all feature a stunning block colour spine, and a carefully depicted item relevant to the plot on the front.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Litteraturskogen (@litteraturskogen)

Partners in Crime - @litteraturskogen | Published by Bookmark Forlag, Sweden

We can't get enough of these Swedish editions. They look so stylish all together on our shelves and the gold foiling adds a touch of luxury. The cover designs even match up when laid out in a flatlay! Have you also spotted the character names hidden on the typewriter keys?

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ᴊᴇᴀɴᴇᴛᴛᴇ (@buch.klatsch)

Sparkling Cyanide - @buch.klatsch | Published by Atlantik Verlag, Germany

The skull created by the bubbles from the bottle of champagne is such a clever design feature. It cleverly contrasts the celebratory feel with a sense of foreboding...just like in the story.

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