Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

English author
more_vert
Agatha Christie
pencil

AGATHA CHRISTIE (1890-1976) (née Miller, other married name Mallowan, aka Mary Westmacott) - In her book Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars, scholar Alison Light identified Agatha Christie as a key figure in what she called "popular modernism." Nicola Humble, too, in her work on The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, discusses the middlebrow concerns and anxieties revealed in Christie's work. And as both scholars were primarily discussing Christie's enormously popular and influential mystery novels, rather than her pseudonymous Mary Westmacott novels, which are more straightforward domestic dramas, I couldn't imagine not including Christie on any list of key middlebrow authors. In fact, in some ways, mystery novels, with their necessarily meticulous attention to domestic details and personal behavior, might be as crucial for understanding the culture of a time period as the more literary novels that sit next to them on bookstore shelves. (At any rate, that's my excuse for also including some of Christie's "mysterious" contemporaries—writers like Gladys Mitchell and Dorothy Sayers, whose books tend to transcend their genre.) Christie's most famous mysteries include The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), and And Then There Were None (1939), and her memoir, An Autobiography (1977), was a major bestseller.

Agatha Christie Writer - Born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England, UK

Died January 12, 1976 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, UK (natural causes)

Birth Name Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller

Nickname The Queen of Crime

Mini Bio (1) Agatha was born as "Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller" in 1890 to Frederick Alvah Miller and Clara Boehmer. Agatha was of American and British descent, her father being American and her mother British. Her father was a relatively affluent stockbroker. Agatha received home education from early childhood to when she turned 12-years-old in 1902. Her parents taught her how to read, write, perform arithmetic, and play music. Her father died in 1901. Agatha was sent to a girl's school in Torquay, Devon, where she studied from 1902 to 1905. She continued her education in Paris, France from 1905 to 1910. She then returned to her surviving family in England.

As a young adult, Agatha aspired to be a writer and produced a number of unpublished short stories and novels. She submitted them to various publishers and literary magazines, but they were all rejected. Several of these unpublished works were later revised into more successful ones. While still in this point of her life, Agatha sought advise from professional writer Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960). Meanwhile she was searching for a suitable husband and in 1913 accepted a marriage proposal from military officer and pilot-in-training Archibald "Archie" Christie. They married in late 1914. Her married name became "Agatha Christie" and she used it for most of her literary works, including ones created decades following the end of her first marriage.

During World War I, Archie Christie was send to fight in the war and Agatha joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, a British voluntary unit providing field nursing services. She performed unpaid work as a volunteer nurse from 1914 to 1916. Then she was promoted to "apothecaries' assistant" (dispenser), a position which earned her a small salary until the end of the war. She ended her service in September, 1918.

Agatha wrote "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", her debut novel ,in 1916, but was unable to find a publisher for it until 1920. The novel introduced her famous character Hercule Poirot and his supporting characters Inspector Japp and Arthur Hastings. The novel is set in World War I and is one of the few of her works which are connected to a specific time period.

Following the end of World War I and their retirement from military life, Agatha and Archie Christie moved to London and settled into civilian life. Their only child Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Christie (1919-2004) was born early in the marriage. Agatha's debut novel was first published in 1920 and turned out to be a hit. It was soon followed by the successful novels "The Secret Adversary" (1922) and "Murder on the Links" (1923) and various short stories. Agatha soon became a celebrated writer.

In 1926, Archie Christie announced to Agatha that he had a mistress and that he wanted a divorce. Agatha took it hard and mysteriously disappeared for a period of 10 days. After an extensive manhunt and much publicity, she was found living under a false name in Yorkshire. She had assumed the last name of Archie's mistress and claimed to have no memory of how she ended up there. The doctors who attended to her determined that she had amnesia. Despite various theories by multiple sources, these 10 days are the most mysterious chapter in Agatha's life.

Agatha and Archie divorced in 1928, though she kept the last name Christie. She gained sole custody of her daughter Rosalind. In 1930, Agatha married her second (and last) husband Max Mallowan, a professional archaeologist. They would remain married until her death in 1976.Christie often used places that she was familiar with as settings for her novels and short stories. Her various travels with Max introduced her to locations of the Middle East, and provided inspiration for a number of novels.

In 1934, Agatha and Max settled in Winterbrook, Oxfordshire, which served as their main residence until their respective deaths. During World War II, she served in the pharmacy at the University College Hospital, where she gained additional training about substances used for poisoning cases. She incorporated such knowledge for realistic details in her stories.

She became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956 and a Dame Commander of the same order in 1971. Her husband was knighted in 1968. They are among the relatively few couples where both members have been honored for their work. Agatha continued writing until 1974, though her health problems affected her writing style. Her memory was problematic for several years and she had trouble remembering the details of her own work, even while she was writing it. Recent researches on her medical condition suggest that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other dementia. She died of natural causes in early 1976.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I Ntikoudis

Spouse (2)

edit

Max E.L. Mallowan (11 September 1930 - 12 January 1976) (her death)

Archibald Christie (24 December 1914 - 1928) (divorced) (1 child)

Trade Mark (1) All her books and short stories feature some kind of plot twist or surprising ending with the least expected person being the bad guy.

Trivia (32)

edit
View details Hide details
expand_more
Agatha Christie was born on Monday, 15 September 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England UK. Her full name at birth was Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She was best known as a writer. Christie's country of citizenship (nationality) was British. She died on Monday, 12 January 1976 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, UK at the age of 85. She is buried at Church of St Mary, Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England. Her religion is listed as Christian. She was 5' 9" (175 cm) tall with a slim build. She had hazel eyes and grey hair (color). Her zodiac star sign was Virgo.

You can find people similar to Agatha Christie by visiting our lists British women historical novelists and British women mystery writers.

Full name at birth
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller
edit
Claim to fame
80 detective novels
edit
Date of birth
15 September 1890
edit
Place of birth
Torquay, Devon, England UK
edit
Date of death
12 January 1976
edit
Age
85 (age at death)
Place of death
Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
edit
Cause of death
(natural Causes)
edit
Resting place
Church of St Mary, Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England
edit
Occupation
Novelist/Short story writer/Playwright/Poet
edit
Occupation category
edit
Nationality
edit

PERSONAL DETAILS

Height
5' 9" (175 cm)
edit
Build
edit
Hair color
edit
Eye color
edit
Gender
edit
Ethnicity
edit
Sexuality
edit
Religion
edit
Zodiac sign
Distinctive feature add_black distinctive feature
Pets add_black pets

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

High school add_black high school
University add_black university
Talent agency add_black talent agency
Political affiliation add_black political affiliation
Political party add_black political party
An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
  • The last two novels published in her lifetime were "Curtain" (chronicling Hercule Poirot`s last cast) and "Sleeping Murder" (the last Miss Marple novel). She wrote both books in the 1940s, and then locked them in a safe deposit box.
  • Although it was not the last novel she published in her lifetime, the last novel that Agatha Christie wrote was "Postern of Fate" (1973). It featured her re-occurring characters Tommy and Tuppence, and marks their final appearance in a novel.
  • Her novel "And Then There Were None" is also published as "Ten Little Indians" and is a Mystery`s #1 Bestseller
  • Her second husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist, and she chronicled her travels with him in the Middle East in her 1946 book "Come, Tell Me How You Live."
  • According to her grandson Mathew Prichard, who runs the Agatha Christie estate, she was very keen on using new types of media to help reach fans in new ways. He said this in April 2004 when it was announced that five of her books would be turned into computer games.

Agatha Christie is known for her role in the film Death on the Nile (1978) as novel - uncredited.

She is also known for her role in the film A Haunting in Venice (2023) as novel "Hallowe'en Party".

This page is the FamousFix profile for Agatha Christie. Content on this page is contributed by editors who belong to our editorial community. We welcome your contributions... so please create an account if you would like to collaborate with other editor's in helping to shape this website.

On the Agatha Christie page you will be able to add and update factual information, post media and connect this topic to other topics on the website. This website does skew towards famous actors, musicians, models and sports stars, however we would like to expand that to include many other interesting topics.

Terms of Use · Copyright · Privacy
Copyright 2006-2024, FamousFix · 0.47s