Who Was Agatha Christie?

The Queen of Crime, the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, the best-selling novelist of each clip — adjacent radical who don’t work detective novels cognize the sanction Agatha Christie. In her agelong and prolific career, Christie wrote 66 novels and 14 abbreviated communicative collections, arsenic good arsenic respective plays, 1 of which, The Mousetrap, is the longest-running play successful history. I’ve loved Agatha Christie’s enactment ever since I watched my archetypal occurrence of Poirot starring David Suchet (one of the champion castings successful literate adaptation history), and spent lockdown rereading my favourite Christie mysteries. But who was Agatha Christie?

Who was Agatha Christie?

Agatha Christie’s enactment was hugely influential, not lone connected the detective genre, but connected broader fashionable culture; she’s been parodied successful everything from The Simpsons to Muppets Tonight. Christie popularised the state location mystery, and the trope of gathering each the suspects unneurotic successful 1 spot for the denouement is powerfully associated with Christie’s work. In summation to galore Christie-inspired spoofs and pastiches, from Murder by Death to Knives Out, Agatha Christie’s enactment has besides influenced aggregate superior detective stories. Robin Stevens, writer of the Murder Most Unladylike series, has spoken astir Christie arsenic 1 of her main inspirations; Stuart Turton’s The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a Christie enigma with a clip loop; and books similar The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley gully from Christie, with a country-house mounting and a radical of friends being picked disconnected 1 by one.

Christie’s existent beingness was often arsenic fascinating and unexpected arsenic her stories. Like galore of her characters, Agatha Christie travelled the world, visited archaeological sites, and worked successful the aesculapian tract successful some the First and Second World Wars, a inheritance which came into play successful her writing. She besides had a analyzable and, astatine immoderate points, heartbreaking romanticist life, which astatine 1 constituent led to a large enigma that inactive surrounds this beloved literate figure.

Backstory

Agatha Christie was calved successful 1890 to a well-off family, and was a voracious scholar from a young age, aft teaching herself to work aged five. She began penning abbreviated stories astatine the property of 18, and, successful her aboriginal 20s, travelled to Egypt with her mother. During her clip successful Egypt, Agatha met her archetypal husband, Archie Christie, whom she joined successful 1914. The mates were soon separated by the First World War — Archie fought successful France, portion Agatha worked arsenic a caregiver successful the Voluntary Aid Detachment successful Torquay, Devon. Here, Agatha met respective Belgian refugees who inspired her archetypal detective creation, Hercule Poirot. (Like Arthur Conan Doyle, Christie became rather annoyed with her astir celebrated creation. Ariadne Oliver, her self-insert character, was her mode of expressing this irritation; transgression writer Mrs Oliver writes stories astir a fussy Finnish detective Sven Hjerson, whose idiosyncrasies that she established successful earlier stories marque him precise hard to write).

Behind Agatha Christie’s Disappearance

While Christie’s matrimony was initially happy, catastrophe struck successful 1926, erstwhile Archie Christie informed her that helium had met idiosyncratic other and asked for a divorce. Christie near their location connected 3 December, and her car was recovered the adjacent day, with immoderate apparel and a driving licence near inside.

By this constituent successful her life, Christie was a fashionable and celebrated writer, and her disappearance soon became a immense quality story. A ample squad of constabulary officers and volunteers searched for her, and a paper offered a ample reward for immoderate accusation connected what could person happened to the beloved author. It was initially feared that Christie had died by suicide; however, 10 days aft she disappeared, she was recovered astatine a edifice successful Harrogate, Yorkshire, astir 200 miles from her home.

Christie ne'er discussed what happened during the 10 days that she was missing, and theories abound; immoderate judge that she experienced a breakdown that led to a full nonaccomplishment of memory, portion others person suggested that she staged the disappearance successful bid to embarrass her soon-to-be-ex-husband. The disappearance has been the taxable of respective fabrication stories, including The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont, and an occurrence of Doctor Who, “The Unicorn and the Wasp”.

While Christie’s archetypal matrimony ended successful heartbreak, her romanticist beingness wasn’t over. On 1 of the archaeological expeditions that she loved to attend, Christie met her 2nd husband, Max Mallowan. The 2 joined successful 1930, and their narration lasted until Christie’s decease successful 1976. She near down her lone child, her girl Rosalind, and a bequest successful the signifier of the Agatha Christie Trust for Children.

Literary Successes

While Christie’s literate vocation debuted with The Mysterious Affair astatine Styles, this is acold from her best-known work. She cemented her estimation arsenic a talented detective novelist with different Poirot story, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and a aboriginal escapade of the Belgian detective, Murder connected the Orient Express, has gone down successful past arsenic 1 of the best-known transgression stories ever written; adjacent radical who haven’t work the publication are apt to cognize some the communicative and the twist.

Christie received acclaim and designation for her enactment some successful her beingness and aft her death. She was the archetypal victor of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, successful 1955, and was voted the champion transgression writer of each clip by the Crime Writers’ Association successful 2013. Her books person been adapted for signifier and surface from the 1920s onwards, and respective of these adaptations, specified arsenic the Poirot bid starring David Suchet, person been award-winning productions successful their ain right.

While she is best-known for her transgression novels and abbreviated stories, Christie besides wrote successful different genres. She wrote six literate novels nether the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and immoderate nonfiction works astir her clip connected an archaeological excavation and her travels astir the world. She adjacent tried her manus astatine horror; I retrieve being rather creeped retired by a haunted doll communicative that appears successful 1 of her abbreviated communicative collections.

Agatha Christie Trivia

Christie’s cognition of poisons and medicine arsenic a effect of her pharmaceutical enactment is well-known, and peculiarly notable for its accuracy. Indeed, Agatha Christie helped lick a real-life enigma aft her death; successful 1977, a lawsuit of thallium poisoning was identified erstwhile 1 of the radical moving connected it recognised the symptoms from a Christie novel.

While Agatha Christie is known for her emotion of question and archaeology, she besides had immoderate much unexpected hobbies. In 1922, she tried surfing for the archetypal time, and grew to emotion the sport. She remained a keen surfer for overmuch of her life, arsenic good arsenic a devoted swimmer.

In 1941, Christie astir fell afoul of MI5, Britain’s quality service. She’d named a quality successful her Tommy and Tuppence publication N oregon M? Major Bletchley, due to the fact that she’d been stuck adjacent the municipality of Bletchley connected a bid travel and named the unpleasant quality aft the spot successful a acceptable of pique; however, MI5 investigated her due to the fact that they feared that she had someway discovered the information astir Britain’s wartime codebreaking centre, based astatine the celebrated Bletchley Park.

Agatha Christie isn’t the lone writer to person had a agelong bequest and a fascinating life; if you privation to cognize much astir 1 of the world’s astir influential sci-fi authors, effort Who Was Ursula K LeGuin? For a heavy dive into Christie’s beloved aged woman detective, work How I Learned to Stop Being Sexist and Love Miss Marple. You mightiness besides beryllium funny successful Why is Agatha Christie the Best-Selling Author of All Time?