Agatha Christie Biography
Agatha Christie was born Agatha May Clarissa Miller in Devon England on
September 15, 1890. She was the youngest of three children and came from a
conservative, middle class family. Agatha Christie never went to school as a child. She
was taught at home by governesess, tutors and sometimes her mother. Because she spent
so much time at home, she invented games to keep herself occupied. Agatha Christie was
a very shy child and had trouble expressing herself and making friends. At first, she
turned to music as a form of expression and later decided to turn to writing.
In the year 1914 at the age of twenty-four, she married a man named Archie
Christie who was a World War One fighter pilot. During the time that her husband was at
war, she worked as a nurse in a hospital. It was then that she decided to write her first
detective story, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles." It was about a retired belgian police
officer named Hercule Poirot. Hercule Poirot had a waxed moustache and was a very tidy
and neat man. He was a also a little foolish at times. She wrote more than thirty novels
featuring Poirot. Some of these novels were: "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," (1926)
"Murder on the Orient Express," (1934) and "Death on the Nile" (1937).
In 1926, Agatha Christie's husband left her for another woman. This occured
shortly after her mother's death and it became too much for Agatha Christie. She
disappeared. She was found three weeks later in a small hotel claiming to have lost her
memory. Afterwards, the mysterious disappearence was never spoken of again. In 1930
she married a man named Max Mallowan who was an archaeologist and fourteen years
younger than her. She met him on a trip to Mesopotamia. They were happily married for
a long time.
Another well known character of Agatha Christie's novels was Miss Marple. She
was introduced in 1930 in "Murder at the Vicarage." Miss Marple was an elderly spinster
living in the quaint English village of St. Mary Mead. She solved all mysteries with
intense concentration and intuition. Miss Marple was featured in twelve novels.
Agatha Christie became known as the "Queen of the Golden Age" of detective
novels. She wrote over eighty crime stories, mumerous short stories and half a dozen
romance novels under the pen name, Mary Westmacott.. Several of her books were made
into films such as "Murder on the Orient Express." On January 12, 1976, Agatha Christie
died, leaving behind an incrediably high standard for other mystery writers to reach.
Although she is not here physically, Agatha Christie will always be in the minds of
readers, both young and old, and will never be forgotten.
Agatha Christie Bibliography
September 15, 1890 - January 12, 1976
[Link]
Tommy and Tuppence Beresford
Secret Adversary, The (1922)
Partners in Crime (1929, ss)
N or M? (1941)
By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968)
Postern of Fate (1973)
Miss Marple *
At Bertram's Hotel (1965)
Body in the Library, The (1942)
Caribbean Mystery, A (1964)
4.50 from Paddington (1957)
Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, The (1962)
Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories (1979, ss)
Not published in the US
Moving Finger, The (1942)
Murder Is Announced, A (1950)
Murder at the Vicarage, The (1930)
Nemesis (1971)
Pocket Full of Rye, A (1953)
Sleeping Murder (1976)
They Do It With Mirrors (1952)
Thirteen Problems, The (1932, ss)
Hercule Poirot *
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
The Murder on the Links (1923)
Poirot Investigates (1924, ss)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
The Big Four (1927)
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
Peril at End House (1932)
Lord Edgware Dies (1933)
Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
Three-Act Tragedy (1934)
Death in the Clouds (1935)
The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
Cards on the Table (1936)
Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
Death on the Nile (1937)
Dumb Witness (1937)
Murder in the Mews (1937, ss)
Appointment With Death (1938)
Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938)
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940)
Sad Cypress (1940)
Evil Under the Sun (1941)
Five Little Pigs (1942)
Hollow,The (1946)
The Labours of Hercules (1947, ss)
Taken at the Flood (1948)
Mrs. McGinty's Dead (1952)
After the Funeral (1953)
Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
Dead Man's Folly (1956)
Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
The Clocks (1963)
Third Girl (1966)
Hallowe'en Party (1969)
Elephants Can Remember (1972)
Poirot's Early Cases (1974, ss)
Curtain (1975)
