Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay in England. Her father was called Frederick Miller so she was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She was educated at home and studied singing and piano in Paris. In 1914 she married Archibald Christie, but then the 1st World War had broken out. Agatha worked as a nurse in a Red Cross hospital in Torquay at that time and that experience was useful later on.  Her first book was published in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. There, readers met Hercule Poirot, the eccentric Belgian detective who would appear in about 25 of Christie's later novels. But Agatha's books first attracted attention in 1926 when she published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha made news herself when she desappeared for a few days after her husband wanted a divorced.She was soon found to be staying in a hotel under an alias. Her disappearance is still a mystery. She and Archibald divorced in 1928, keeping his name professionally. When she was around 40 years old she went on holiday in Iraq when she met archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was 14 years younger than her. They married in 1930. During the 2nd World War Agatha worked in the dispensary of University College in London. She often assisted her husband on excavation in Iraq and in Syria. The other principal detective, Miss Jane Marple, a elderly Spinster, first appeare in Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. Following these, she wrote 66 of the most popular detective novels ever writen. Among those are Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and Ten Little Indians. To take a breack from murder, Christie wrote six romance novels under the pseudinym of Mary Westmacott. Mrs Christie had many of her books turned into plays. The Mousestrap is longest running play in history, inspired by the nursery rhyme* (Three Blind Mice). Three Blind Mice was not the only nursery rhyme to inspire Agatha. Also Ten Little Indians is based on a nursery rhyme. The story begins when ten people were invited by Mr U.N. Owen to spend a weekend at his house on Nigger Island. But, when the guests arrived, the host wasn't there, so they realize that his name, if read without the punctuation, is pronunced like the word "UNKNOW". One by one, all the guests were killed just like the little Indians. The interesting web of plots and foreshadowing once inside the book involve the reader, and keep the suspenseful atmosphere. Because of all these qualities in her writing , she became internationally successful, having her books translate into more laguages than the books of Shakespeare were. In recognition of her achievements she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1971. Five years later in 1976 she died and two years later Max Mallowan died, too.