Agatha Christie

the Queen of Crime

«Plots for my detective stories I find while washing up.

It’s such a silly occupation that an idea about crime comes to my mind».

Agatha Christie

I like to read books. Literature helps us to live in this world and we learn a lot from books. English books teach us to understand the English language and the way Englishmen speak.

Today I want to tell you about Agatha Christie.

The way of life

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890 in Torquay, Devonshire, England. When Agatha was eleven her father died and she became even closer to her mother. Without Frederick, Clara became restless and began to travel, sometimes taking Agatha with her; these early trips were the beginning of Agatha's lifelong love for traveling.

In 1912 Agatha met Archie Christie, her future husband, a qualified aviator. After a tempestuous romance, they married on Christmas Eve of 1914.

Agatha’s happiness was complete when Rosalind, her only daughter was born on 5th August 1919 but by 1926, her life was in tatters: Christie’s mother Clara died and Archie left her for another woman.

Christie slowly rebuilt her life and in 1930 she visited Baghdad for the second time. It was here she met Max Mallowan.

Agatha accompanied Max on his annual archaeological expeditions for nearly 30 years.

She and Max were happily married for 46 years.  After a hugely successful career and a wonderful life Agatha died peacefully on 12 January 1976.

You can read Agatha Christie's own account of her life in An Autobiography which was published after her death in 1977.

The creative work

Agatha Christie is known all over the world as the Queen of Crime. She began writing at the end of the First World War.

She wrote 78 crime novels, 19 plays and 6 romantic novels.

Her books have been translated into 103 foreign languages. She is the third best-selling author in the world (after Shakespeare and the Bible). Many of her novels and short stories have been filmed. The Mousetrap, her most famous play, is now the longest-running play in history.

Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920. That was the first appearance of Hercule Poirot, who became one of the most popular private detectives since Sherlock Holmes. This little Belgian with the egg-shaped head and the passion for order amazes everyone by his powerful intellect and his brilliant solutions to the most complicated crimes.

When Agatha Christie got tired of Hercule Poirot she invented Miss Marple, a deceptively mild old lady with her own method of  investigation.

The interesting facts of Agatha Christie’s life biography

Likely she got a talent from the heavens when she was still a little girl. And the line  from her autobiography explain that.

«Then I didn’t have nightmares. All children have nightmares but I even don’t know the reason for them – either horror stories or even accidents. In my formidable dream I saw a Man with a Gun. I had never read anything about him. He was just a Man with a Gun as he had a gun. Somebody was here, somebody ought to be here - panic caught me - and he was in front of me – at the table, walking on the beach, playing with us. His blue-pale eyes met my eyes and I woke up shouting, «A Man with a Gun! A Man with a Gun!»

Next morning my nanny used to say, «Miss Agatha had a dream about a man with a gun today».

Agatha Christie’s expressions

One should make his own mistakes in life.

It’s so tiring when one is always right.

Men are in danger everywhere but women are mainly in love.

There is a proverb according to which we should speak about the dead either good or nothing I think it’s silly. Truth is always true. Frankly speaking we should be moderate speaking about alive. We can grieve them but not the dead.

Agatha Christie nowadays(today)

In March 2002 antiracial society from Hannover announced that the name of one of the most famous novel of Agatha Christie «Ten Little Niggers» is abusing for the black people as she used the word «nigger» that is not admissible now. As EFA says in German the name of this novel will be "Und dann gab's keines mehr" («No one Left»)

Once Agatha Christie wrote: "Some ten years will pass after my death, and nobody will even remember me..." The writer was mistaken. Agatha Christie's novels are very popular now. People of all continents read and reread "The Oriental Express", "Ten Little Niggers", "The Bertram Hotel", "The Corpse in the Library" and other of her novels time and again, enjoy films made by her works, and one can hardly find a country where people do not know her name.