Classic Crime

Agatha Christie

Biography:
Agatha Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on the 15th September 1890 in Torquay. Her father was American and her mother was British. Agatha Miller married an airplane pilot called Archibald Christie in 1914 and five years later, her only child, a daughter, Rosalind, was born.

Agatha Christie always gave the reason for writing her first book down to a bet she had with her sister that she could write a crime novel. She used her knowledge from her time spent as a nurse in a hospital pharmacy during the First World War and the result was The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Christie’s first book was by no means a runaway success. In fact, it languished in an agent’s office for nearly a year before it saw the light of day. After some alterations, the book was finally published in 1920.

Agatha Christie published a book a year but it wasn’t until 1926, with the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, that this gifted author became an international star on the crime scene. From then on Agatha Christie was highly prolific and often brought out at least two, if not more books in a year. It wasn’t until her later years that she reduced this output to one book a year!

After her divorce from Archie Christie, she married Sir Max Mallowan who was to remain her husband for the rest of her life. Christie accompanied her husband on a number of expeditions to places like Iraq and Egypt. It was doubtless living in these far-flung settings that gave Christie the inspiration for some of her novels like Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death.

On the 25th November 1952, Christie’s play, The Mousetrap, opened at the Ambassador’s Theatre in London. It played there until 1974. Then the play transferred to its current home, the St. Martin’s Theatre on Monday 25th March 1974. It is the longest-running play in history.

Agatha Christie is still selling massively today. She has sold over 1 billion books in the English language and another billion in other languages around the world. More will be sold with the release of the new film, ‘Death on the Nile’. Agatha Christie Mallowan died on the 12th January 1976 at the age of 85.