Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller Christie (September 15, 1890 - January 12, 1976), was a British crime fiction writer.
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. As she did not want these characters to continue after her own death, both died in the course of these final books.
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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.Bibliography
Co-authored Works:
Works written as Mary Westmacott:
Agatha Christie in fiction
