Agatha Christie
Dame
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller Christie (
September 15,
1890–
January 12,
1976), was a
British crime fiction writer.
Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer and all-time best selling author of any genre other than
William Shakespeare. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the
English language and another billion in over 45 foreign languages (as of 2003). As an example of her broad appeal, she is the all-time best-selling author in France, with over 40 million copies sold in
French (as of 2003) versus 22 million for
Emile Zola, the nearest contender.
Christie published over eighty books and stageplays, mainly whodunnits and
Locked room mysteries. She is a major figure in detective fiction for both her commercial success and her innovations in the genre. Although she delighted in twisting the established form, she was scrupulous in "playing fair" with the reader by making sure all necessary information for solving the
puzzle was given. One of her early books,
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, is renowned for its surprise denouement.
Most of her books and short stories have been filmed, some many times over (
Murder on the Orient Express,
Death on the Nile,
4.50 from Paddington). The
BBC has produced television and radio versions of most of the Poirot and Marple stories. A later series of Poirot dramatizations starring
David Suchet was made by
Granada Television.
Her first marriage, an unhappy one, was in 1914 to Colonel Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. The couple had one daughter, Rosalind, and divorced in 1928.
During
World War I she worked as a pharmacist, a job that also influenced her work: many of the murders in her books are carried out with
poison.
In December
1926 she disappeared for eleven days and caused quite a storm in the press. Opinions are still divided as to whether this was a
publicity stunt or an emotional breakdown.
She also used the pen name
Mary Westmacott for
romantic novels. In 1930, she married to Sir Max Mallowan, a British
archaeologist, and her travels with him contributed background to several of her novels set in the
Middle East. Other novels were set in
Torquay,
Devon, where she was born. Famous characters include
Hercule Poirot and
Miss (Jane) Marple. Her stage play
The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest run ever in London, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre on
November 25,
1952 and still running after 50 years and more than 20,000 performances.
Sir
Richard Attenborough, who was in the original production, participated in an anniversary performance: "It lasted so long because it is a bloody good play. Agatha Christie is very, very clever indeed."
In 1971 she was awarded a
DBE.
Two of her novels were written at the height of her career, but held back until after her death: they were the last cases of Poirot and Miss Marple. In the final Poirot novel
Curtain, Christie killed her creation and explained in her diary that she had always found him insufferable. She had a great fondness for Miss Marple however, as she had based her characterisation largely on her own grandmother, so she allowed Miss Marple to solve one more mystery in
Sleeping Murder and return to the solitude of her village.
Bibliography
Co-authored Works:
Works written as Mary Westmacott:
- 1930 Giant's Bread
- 1934 Unfinished Portrait
- 1947 The Rose and the Yew Tree
- 1952 A Daughter's a Daughter
- 1956 The Burden
Agatha Christie in fiction
Dame Agatha appears as one of the title characters, with Dorothy L. Sayers, in the fictional murder mystery Dorothy and Agatha by Gaylord Larsen.
The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley contains characters based on Christie, Sayers, Carr, and Chesterton.
External links
