Dame Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which was performed in the West End from 1952 to 2020, as well as six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six consecutive rejections, but this changed in 1920 when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring detective Hercule Poirot, was published. Her first husband was Archibald Christie; they married in 1914 and had one child before divorcing in 1928. During both World Wars, she served in hospital dispensaries, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the poisons which featured in many of her novels, short stories, and plays. Following her marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930, she spent several months each year on digs in the Middle East and used her first-hand knowledge of his profession in her fiction. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author. Her novel And Then There Were None is one of the highest-selling books of all time, with approximately 100 million copies sold. Christie's stage play The Mousetrap holds the world record for the longest initial run. It opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End of London on 25 November 1952, and by September 2018 there had been more than 27,500 performances. The play was closed down in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. Later that year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award for best play. In 2013, she was voted the best crime writer and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers' Association. In September 2015, And Then There Were None was named the "World's Favourite Christie" in a vote sponsored by the author's estate. Most of Christie's books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games, and graphic novels. More than 30 feature films are based on her work.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie

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Davis Suchet as Hercule Poirot
Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple

15 Mysterious Facts About Agatha Christie

1. Agatha Christie's mother was against her daughter learning to read. Before becoming a bestselling novelist, Agatha Christie was in real danger of growing up an illiterate. Her mother was said to be against her daughter learning how to read until age 8 (Christie taught herself) and insisted on home-schooling the budding author. Mrs. Christie refused to let Agatha pursue any formal education until the age of 15, when her family dispatched her to a Paris finishing school.2. Agatha Christie's first novel was written on a dare. After an adolescence spent reading books and writing stories, Christie’s sister Madge dared her sibling to attack a novel-length project. Christie accepted the challenge and penned The Mysterious Affair at Styles, a mystery featuring a soldier on sick leave who finds himself embroiled in a poisoning at a friend’s estate. The novel, which featured Hercule Poirot, was rejected by six publishers before being printed in 1920.3. Hercule Poirot was based on a real person. The dapper Poirot, a mustachioed detective who took a gentleman's approach to crime-solving, might be Christie’s best-known creation. Christie was said to have been inspired when she caught sight of a Belgian man deboarding a bus in the early 1910s. He was reportedly a bit odd-looking, with a curious style of facial hair and a quizzical expression. His fictional counterpart's debut in The Mysterious Affair at Styles would be Poirot's first of more than 40 appearances.4. Agatha Christie once disappeared for 10 days. In 1926, Christie—who was already garnering a large and loyal fan base—left her home in London without a trace. It could’ve been the beginning of one of her sordid stories, particularly since her husband, Archie, had recently disclosed he had fallen in love with another woman and wanted a divorce. A police manhunt ensued, although it was unnecessary: Christie had simply driven out of town to a spa, possibly to get her mind off her tumultuous home life. The author made no mention of it in her later autobiography; some speculated it was a publicity stunt, while others believed the family's claim that she had experienced some kind of amnesic event.5. Agatha Christie wasn't big on violence in her work. While a murder is typically needed to set a murder mystery in motion, Christie’s preferred methodology for slaying her characters was poison: She had worked in a dispensary during wartime and had an intimate knowledge of pharmaceuticals. Rarely did her protagonists carry a gun; her two most famous detectives, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, were virtual pacifists.6. Agatha Christie had an alias. Not all of Christie’s work had a mortality rate. Beginning in 1930 and continuing through 1956, she wrote six romance novels under the pen name Mary Westmacott. The pseudonym was a construct of her middle name, Mary, with Westmacott being the surname of her relatives.7. Agatha Christie loved surfing. The image of Christie as a matronly author of mystery is the one most easily recognized by readers, but there was a time when Christie could be found catching waves. Along with her husband, Archie, Christie went on a traveling spree in 1922, starting in South Africa and winding up in Honolulu. At each step, the couple got progressively more capable riding surfboards; some historians believe they may have even been the first British surfers to learn how to ride standing up.8. Agatha Christie didn't like taking an author's photo. Although not explicitly camera-shy—Christie took frequent photos while traveling—she appeared to dislike having her photo appear on the dust jackets of her novels and once insisted they be issued without a likeness attached. It’s likely Christie preferred not to be recognized in public.9. Agatha Christie took an oath of detective writing. Founded in 1928 by writer Anthony Berkeley, the London Detection Club, or Famous Detection Club, was a social assembly of the notable crime writers in England. Members “swore” (tongue mostly in cheek) to never keep vital clues from their readers and to never use entirely fictional poisons as a plot crutch. Christie was a member in good standing, and took on the role of honorary president in 1956 on one condition: She never wanted to give any speeches.10. Agatha Christie tried her best to take up smoking. While it would shortly gain a reputation for killing its devotees, smoking was once so revered that it seemed unusual not to take a puff. Shortly after the end of the first world war, Christie was quoted as saying she was disappointed that she couldn’t seem to adopt the habit even though she had been trying.11. Agatha Christie wrote a play that ran for over 27,000 performances. The curtain was first raised on Mousetrap in London’s West End in 1952. After 68 years, the “initial run” of the play was finally shut due to the corona virus pandemic. The play—about a group of people trapped in a snowbound cabin with a murderer among them—was originally a radio story, Three Blind Mice, that was written at the behest of Queen Mary in 1947.12. Agatha Christie loved archaeology. After divorcing alleged cad Archie, Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930 and joined him for regular expeditions to Syria and Iraq. In 2015, HarperCollins published Come, Tell Me How You Live, the author’s long-forgotten 1946 memoir of her experiences traveling. Although she assisted her husband on digs, she never stopped working on her writing: Their preferred method of transport was frequently the Orient Express, a fact that likely inspired her Murder on the Orient Express.13. At least one of Agatha Christie's fictional "victims" was inspired by a real-life nuisance. When Mallowan married Christie, he was assistant to renowned archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. This fact upset Woolley’s wife, who refused to let Christie stay in a Mesopotamia digging camp; Mallowan was forced to take a train into Baghdad every night to see her. Christie soon wrote Murder in Mesopotamia: The victim was the wife of an archaeology field director who was bludgeoned with an antique mace. Christie dedicated the book to the Woolleys, who never joined Mallowan on an expedition again.14. You can rent Agatha Christie's old home. If you feel like inhabiting the same real estate as Christie is a bucket-list travel opportunity, her former home in Devonshire, England is available for rent. The centuries-old home was Christie’s summer getaway in the 1950s; portions of it are rented out to individuals or groups for $500 a night. Some furniture and a piano that once belonged to the author remain in residence.15. The New York Times ran an obituary for Hercule Poirot when he "died." Like Arthur Conan Doyle before her, Christie eventually grew tired of her trademark character and set about having Hercule Poirot perish in the 1975 novel Curtain. The reaction to his demise was so fierce that The New York Times published a front-page “obituary” for the character on August 6. Christie died the following year. © https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85723/15-mysterious-facts-about-agatha-christie

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The Baker's Dozen

First up is The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in October of 1920. Most critics agree that the novel is an excellent example of what today is a major branch of crime fiction: The cozy, where a dead body is a puzzle, an enigma, a knot just waiting for a clever sleuth to come along and unravel and save the day. The location is often a home in a rural or isolated setting with what is now a very typical cast of characters--often including a vicar, a maid, a butler, a socialite, an aging grande dame, and/or a rich bachelor.
On everyone’s list is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd from June of 1926. In 2013, the 600 members of the Crime Writers' Association chose The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as "the best whodunit ... ever written.” Critic Sutherland Scott stated, "If Agatha Christie had made no other contribution to the literature of detective fiction, she would still deserve our grateful thanks" for writing this novel. It contains one of the greatest twists in all crime fiction. And if you think I’m revealing it, you’re sadly mistaken. Written nearly a hundred years ago, it’s still a tour de force.
Murder at the Vicarage from October of 1930 is the first novel to feature the character of Miss Jane Marple and her cozy village of St. Mary Mead, which turns out to be a hotbed of burglary, impersonation, adultery, and ultimately murder. Yet, one of the things that many people find delightful about this book is the humor. Miss Marple has a very sardonic wit at times. We have to remember that Christie wanted us to enjoy her stories. This isn’t a bleak afternoon with Kafka--this is a puzzle to be unfolded with a smile.
Published in February of 1932, Peril at End House features Hercule Poirot, as well as Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp, and is the sixth novel featuring Poirot. In it, Poirot and Hastings vacation in Cornwall, meet a young woman known to her friends as Nick. Poirot is persuaded that someone is out to kill her. Though he aims to protect Nick, a murder happens that provokes Poirot to mount a serious investigation. Most critics cite this book as one of Christie’s more ingenious puzzles with the actual solution being unusually clever.
And then there’s Murder on the Orient Express from February of 1934. Here the cozy moves from a village onto the famous train that traverses Europe and ends its run in Istanbul. The elegant train is stopped by a heavy snowfall. A murder is discovered, and Poirot's trip home to London from the Middle East is interrupted to solve the case. If you’ve read the novel or seen any of the film or television versions of the story, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s very clever. And once again, Christie comes up with a knockout plot twist.
The A.B.C. Murders--published in January of 1936--features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Chief Inspector Japp, as they contend with a series of killings by a mysterious murderer known only as "A.B.C.". The form of the novel is unusual, combining first-person narrative and third-person narrative, with the third-person narrative supposedly reconstructed by the first-person narrator of the story, Arthur Hastings. The Times Literary Supplement on January 11th, 1936 concluded its review of the novel with a note of admiration: "If Mrs. Christie ever deserts fiction for crime, she will be very dangerous: No one but Poirot will catch her."
In November of 1937, Christie published Death on the Nile. The full-length novel was preceded in early 1937 by a short story with the same title, but with Parker Pyne as the detective. Pyne appears in a number of Christie’s short tales. The details of the short story plot are substantially different, though the settings and some of the characters are similar.The book, on the other hand, features Hercule Poirot. The action takes place in Egypt, mostly on the River Nile. Here, the cozy setting becomes a cruise vessel filled with a small cast of restless tourists. Novelist and critic Ernest Punshon in his review of December 10th in The Guardian says this: "To decide whether a writer of fiction possesses [a] true novelist's gift, it is often a good plan to consider whether the minor characters in his or her book, those to whose creation the author has probably given little thought, stand out in the narrative in their own right as living personalities. This test is one [that] Mrs. Christie always passes successfully, and never more so than in her new book."
In September of 2015, And Then There Were None first published in 1939, was named the "World's Favorite Christie Mystery" in a vote sponsored by the author's estate. The novel was originally called Ten Little "N" Word in England, but renamed Ten Little Indians for the American publication. Over time, when that name proved too insensitive as well, the title--And Then There Were None--was the one publishers and film makers latched on to. The novel begins with the classic set-up of potential victim(s) and killer(s) isolated from the outside world, but then violates all the traditional conventions. There’s no detective involved in the action, no interviews of suspects, no careful search for clues, and no suspects gathered together in the last chapter to be confronted with the solution. As Christie herself said, "Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious." And Then There Were None is Christie's most adapted novel with 10 film adaptations and eight television series adaptations including Rene Clair's brilliant 1945 film with Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald and BBC's 2015 miniseries starring Charles Dance and Douglas Booth.
Five Little Pigs, originally called Murder in Retrospect, from 1943 features Hercule Poirot. The novel is unusual. In it, the same events are retold from the viewpoints of five people present on the day of a murder that took place sixteen years earlier. A similar device would be used a number of years later in the famous Japanese film Rashomon. But for the record, Christie did it first. The novel was received very positively at the time of publication. The answer to the riddle was considered brilliant. Later reviewers used stronger terms of praise: "All in all, it is a beautifully tailored book, rich and satisfying and possibly her best novel.” The solution of the mystery was "not only immediately convincing but satisfying as well, and even moving in its inevitability and its bleakness."
Thanks to Crooked House from March of 1949, you may never want a cup of hot chocolate again. In this novel, a young woman named Sophia returns after the Second World War to find that her grandfather has been poisoned / and / that there’s a family filled with suspects. Luckily her fiancé, Charles, is the son of the assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard--and the mystery--with yet another intriguing twist--is solved. The novel contains one of Christie’s most evil villains--and more than that I can’t say without giving anything away.
A Murder is Announced from June of 1950 is one of the best Miss Marple novels. The plot is delicious: A notice appears in a local newspaper. It says: "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, 29th of October, at Little Paddocks, at 6.30 pm. Friends accept this, the only intimation." Little Paddocks is the home of Leticia Blacklock; she takes the advertisement in stride and prepares for guests that evening. The villagers are intrigued by the notice, and several of them appear with awkward reasons but definite interest. As the clock strikes 6.30, the lights go out, and a door swings open, revealing a man with a blinding flashlight who demands that the guests "Stick 'em up!" Most do so, believing it to be part of a game, but the game ends when shots are fired into the room. When the lights turn on, Miss Blacklock's ear is bleeding from a bullet that has grazed her earlobe--and the gunman is dead on the ground. It’s wonderful fun.
Endless Night, published in time for Halloween in 1967, has everything from a poor little rich girl to a gypsy’s curse. The Guardian carried a laudatory review saying, "The [grande dame] of the crime-novel pulls yet another success out of her inexhaustible bag with Endless Night, quite different in tone from her usual work. It is impossible to say much about the story without giving away vital secrets: sufficient to warn the reader that if he should think this is a romance, he couldn't be more mistaken, and the crashing, not to say horrific suspense at the end is perhaps the most devastating that this surpriseful author has ever brought off." It real is a tour de force, and her last “great” book.
During the Second World War, Christie wrote a pair of novels, Curtain and Sleeping Murder, featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. Both books were sealed in a bank vault, and she gave the copyrights as gifts to her daughter--Rosalind--and her husband--Tony--to provide each of them with a kind of insurance policy. Christie suffered a heart attack and a serious fall in 1974, after which she was unable to write. At that point, Rosalind authorized the publication of Curtain in 1975. Sleeping Murder was published posthumously in 1976. Quite honestly, part of the impetus for publishing these books was the success of the 1974 film version of Murder on the Orient Express, for which Ingrid Bergman won an Academy Award.
Shortly before the American publication of Curtain, Poirot became the first fictional character to have an obituary in The New York Times, which was printed on page one on 6 August 1975.
MARY WESTMACOTT
Christie published six mainstream novels under the name Mary Westmacott, a pseudonym which gave her the freedom to explore "her most private and precious thoughts.” Interestingly enough, these books typically received better reviews than her detective and thriller fiction. Of the first, Giant's Bread published in 1930, a reviewer for The New York Times wrote, "... her book is far above the average of current fiction, in fact, comes well under the classification of a 'good book'. And it is only a satisfying novel that can claim that appellation." After her authorship of the first four Westmacott novels was revealed by a journalist in 1949, she wrote two more, the last in 1956. The other Westmacott titles are: Unfinished Portrait (1934), Absent in the Spring (1944), The Rose and the Yew Tree (1948), A Daughter's a Daughter (1952), and The Burden (1956).
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