AGATHA CHRISTIE
(1890-1976)
(aka Mary Westmacott)

Born in Torquay Devon in 1890, Agatha May Clarissa Miller, more commonly known as Agatha Christie, may be considered one of the most famous and successful authors of detective fiction. Youngest of three, she was taught by a governess and tutors and finished school in Paris. She married Archie Christie, a World War I pilot, in 1914 with whom she had a child, Rosalind. While her husband was away at war, Christie worked as a nurse. It was during this period that she started writing a detective novel, however The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing Hercule Poirot, had to wait until 1920 to be published. Poirot, a retired Belgian policeman, featured in thirty-three novels and sixty-five short stories, alongside Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is possibly one of the most famous detectives in fiction. Among the more popular titles we have The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Death on the Nile (1937). She wrote the majority of the Poirot stories between the Wars (especially 1934-1941) and his last appearance in Curtain where he returns to Styles was published in 1975 according to strict instructions even though written in the early days of the Second World War. In 1926, Christie's husband asked for a divorce (see note) and in 1930 she married Max Mallowan a young archeologist she met on a trip to Mesopotamia. Of this same period we find many other detectives "invented" by Christie's pen such as Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (who appeared in four books and a short story collection) and Mr. Quin. In 1930 we are introduced to another of Christie's famous sleuths: Miss Marple. Her first appearance came in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. The elderly English spinster (aged between 65 to 70) starred in twelve novels and twenty short stories with some of the best of the latter published as a collection in The Thirteen Problems. Christie concentrated on Miss Marple stories and non-series novels after the Second World War with an occasional Poirot when she wanted to write about something more complex. As a matter of fact this period saw a fall in quality of her work compared to her homevious standards as the plots became more simple. By 1976, year of her death, Christie had written over 66 novels, hundreds of short stories, plays (including The Mousetrap, the longest continuing running theatrical performance in history), romantic novels using her pseudonym Mary Westmacott, an autobiography and other books on her archeological excursions plus had won the Grand Masters Award from the mystery Writers of America in 1955. Her novels have been translated into more than 100 languages. In 1971 she was made Dame of the British Empire but for everybody she will be always be remembered as the Queen of the Golden Age of British Detective Fiction.

(NB. He actually ran off with another woman and Christie, distressed by the death of her mother, probably created her masterpiece by disappearing. All of England started looking for her anxious for her fate. She was found in a hotel three weeks later and told the police that she had lost her memory. Christie never spoke of the incident again.)