Agatha ChristieAgatha Mary Clarissa ChristieDBE

BornAgatha Mary Clarissa Miller15 September 1890Torquay,Devon,England

Died12 January 1976(aged85)Wallingford,Oxfordshire,England

Resting placeChurch of St. Mary,Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England

Pen nameMary WestmacottAgatha Christie

OccupationNovelist, short story writer, playwright, poet

GenreMurder mystery,thriller,crime fiction,detective,romance

Literary movementGolden Age of Detective Fiction

Notable worksCreation of charactersHercule PoirotandMiss (Jane) Marple

SpouseArchibald Christie(m. 1914; div. 1928)SirMax Mallowan(m. 193076; her death)

ChildrenRosalind Hicks(19192004)

Website

www.agathachristie.com

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie,DBE(neMiller; 15 September 1890 12 January 1976) was an Englishcrimenovelist,short story writer, andplaywright. She also wrote sixromancesunder the nameMary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters asHercule Poirot,Jane Marple,Parker Pyne,Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, andTommy and Tuppence Beresford. She wrote the world's longest-running play,The Mousetrap.[1]Born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family inTorquay,Devon, Christie served in a hospital during theFirst World War, before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published; but in 1920The Bodley Headpress published her novelThe Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Hercule Poirot. This launched her literary career.TheGuinness Book of World Recordslists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2billioncopies, and herestateclaims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books,[2]behindShakespeare'sworks and theBible. According toIndex Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author having been translated into at least 103 languages.[3]:201And Then There Were Noneis Christie's best-selling novel with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of thebest-selling booksof all time.[4]In 1971, she was made aDamebyQueen Elizabeth IIatBuckingham Palace.[5]In 2013,The Murder of Roger Ackroydwas voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of theCrime Writers' Association.[6]Christie's stage playThe Mousetrapholds the record for the longest initial run: it opened at theAmbassadors Theatrein London on 25November 1952 and as of 2012is still running after more than 25,000 performances.[7]In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of theMystery Writers of America's highest honour, theGrand Master Award, and in the same yearWitness for the Prosecutionwas given anEdgar Awardby the MWA for Best Play. Most of her books andshort storieshave been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics, and more than thirty feature films have been based on her work.Contents[hide] 1Life and career 1.1Childhood: 18901910 1.2Early literary attempts and the First World War: 19101919 1.3First novels: 19191923 1.4Disappearance 1.5Second marriage and later life 2Death 2.1Agatha Christie's estate and subsequent ownership of works 3Writings 3.1Fictional writings 3.1.1Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple 3.1.2Formula and plot devices 3.1.3Character stereotypes 3.2Non-fictional writings 3.3Critical reception 4List of writings 5Interests and influences 5.1Archaeology 5.2Spirituality 5.3Use of archaeology and spirituality in her writing 6Portrayals of Christie 7Lists of works and adaptations 8See also 9Notes 10References 11Sources 12Further reading 12.1Articles 12.2Books 13External linksLife and career[edit]Childhood: 18901910[edit]Agatha Mary Clarissa Millerwas born on 15 September 1890 into a wealthyupper middle-classfamily in Ashfield,Torquay,DevoninSouth West England.[8]:1Her mother, Clara Boehmer, was an Englishwoman who had been born inBelfast, Ireland(present-dayBelfast, Northern Ireland), in 1854 to Captain Frederick Boehmer and Mary Ann West; the couple's only daughter, she had four brothers, one of whom died young. Captain Boehmer was killed in a riding accident while stationed onJerseyin April 1863, leaving Mary Ann to raise her children alone on a meagre income. Under financial strain, she sent Clara to live with her aunt Margaret Miller (ne West), who had married a wealthy American, Nathaniel Frary Miller, in 1863. The couple lived in Prinsted,West Sussex. Clara stayed with Margaret, and there she would meet her future husband, an American stockbroker named Frederick Alvah Miller, who was the son of Nathaniel.[8]:24Frederick was a member of the small and wealthy American upper class, and had been sent to Europe to gain an education in Switzerland. Considered personable and friendly by those who knew him, he soon developed a romantic relationship with Clara, and they were married in April 1878.[8]:45Their first child, Margaret Frary Miller (18791950) was born in Torquay, where the couple were renting lodgings, while their second, Louis "Monty" Montant (18801929) was born in the U.S. state ofNew York, where Frederick was on a business trip. Clara soon purchased a villa in Torquay, named "Ashfield", in which to raise her family, and it was here that her third and final child, Agatha, was born.[8]:67

Agatha Christie as a girl, date unknownChristie would describe her childhood as "very happy",[9]:3and was surrounded by a series of strong and independent women from an early age.[8]:14Her time was spent alternating between her home inDevon, her step grandmother/aunt's house inEaling,West Londonand parts of Southern Europe, where her family would holiday during the winter.[8]:15, 24Agatha was raised in a household with variousesotericbeliefs, and like her siblings believed that their mother Clara was apsychicwith the ability ofsecond sight.[8]:13Her mother insisted that she receive ahome education, and so her parents were responsible for teaching her to read and write, and to be able to perform basicarithmetic, a subject that she particularly enjoyed. They also taught her about music, and she learned to play both thepianoand themandolin.[8]:2021A voracious reader from an early age, among her earliest memories were those of reading the children's books written byMrs Molesworth, includingThe Adventures of Herr Baby(1881),Christmas Tree Land(1897) andThe Magic Nuts(1898). She also read the work ofEdith Nesbit, includingThe Story of the Treasure Seekers(1899),The Phoenix and the Carpet(1903) andThe Railway Children(1906). When a little older she moved on to reading the surreal verse ofEdward LearandLewis Carroll.[8]:1819Much of her childhood was spent largely alone and separate from other children, although she spent much time with her pets, whom she adored. Eventually making friends with a group of other girls in Torquay, she noted that "one of the highlights of my existence" was her appearance with them in a youth production ofGilbert and Sullivan'sThe Yeomen of the Guard, in which she played the hero, Colonel Fairfax.[8]:2327This was to be her last operatic role, for as she later wrote, "an experience that you really enjoyed should never be repeated."[10]:125Her father was often ill, suffering from a series ofheart attacks, and in November 1901 he died, aged 55. His death left the family devastated, and in an uncertain economic situation. Clara and Agatha continued to live together in their Torquay home; Madge had moved to the nearby Cheadle Hall with her new husband and Monty had joined the army and been sent to South Africa to fight in theBoer War. Agatha would later claim that her father's death, occurring when she was 11 years old, marked the end of her childhood for her.[8]:3234In 1902, Agatha would be sent to receive a formal education at Miss Guyer's Girls School in Torquay, but found it difficult to adjust to the disciplined atmosphere. In 1905 she was then sent toParis, where she was educated in threepensions Mademoiselle Cabernet's, Les Marroniers and then Miss Dryden's the last of which served primarily as afinishing school.[8]:2223, 37Early literary attempts and the First World War: 19101919[edit]Returning to England in 1910, Agatha found that her mother Clara was ill. They decided to spend time together in the warmer climate ofCairo, then a popular tourist destination for wealthy Britons; staying for three months at theGezirah PalaceHotel. Agatha always chaperoned by her mother attended many social functions in search of a husband. She visited such ancient Egyptian monuments as theGreat Pyramid of Giza, but did not exhibit the great interest in archaeology and Egyptology that became prominent in her later years.[8]:4041Returning to Britain, she continued her social activities. Writing and performing in amateur theatrics, she also helped put on a play calledThe Blue Beard of Unhappinesswith female friends. Her writing extended to both poetry and music. Some early works saw publication, but she decided against focusing on either of these as future professions.[8]:4546While recovering in bed from an undisclosed illness she penned her first short story "The House of Beauty". This was about 6000 words on the world of "madness and dreams", a subject of fascination for her. Biographer Janet Morgan later commented that despite "infelicities of style", the story was nevertheless "compelling".[8]:4849Other shorts followed, most of them illustrating her interest in spiritualism and the paranormal. These included "The Call of Wings" and "The Little Lonely God". Various magazines rejected all her early submissions, made under pseudonyms, although some were revised and published later, often with new titles.[8]:4950Christie then set her first novel,Snow Upon the Desert, in Cairo, and drew from her recent experiences in that city. Under the pseudonym Monosyllaba, she was perturbed when various publishers all declined.[8]:5051Clara suggested that her daughter ask for advice from a family friend and neighbour, the successful writerEden Philpotts. Philpotts obliged her enquiry, encouraged her writing, and sent her an introduction to his literary agent, Hughes Massie. However, he[who?]also rejectedSnow Upon the Desert, and suggested a second novel.[8]:5152Meanwhile, Christie continued searching for a husband, and entered into short-lived relationships with four separate men and an engagement with another. She then metArchibald Christie(1889-1962)[11]at a dance given byLord and Lady Clifford of ChudleighatUgbrooke, about 12 miles (19 kilometres) from Torquay. Archie had been born in India, the son of a judge in theIndian Civil Service. He was an army officer who was seconded to theRoyal Flying Corpsin April 1913. The couple quickly fell in love. Upon learning he would be stationed inFarnborough, Archie proposed marriage, and Agatha accepted.[8]:5463With the outbreak ofWorld War Iin August 1914, Archie was sent to France to fight the German forces. While Archie was on home leave, they married on the afternoon of Christmas Eve 1914 at Emmanuel Church,Clifton, Bristol, which was close to the home of his parents.[12]Rising through the ranks, he was eventually stationed back to Britain in September 1918 as a colonel in theAir Ministry.Agatha involved herself in the war effort, joining theVoluntary Aid Detachment(VAD) in 1914, and attending to wounded soldiers at a hospital in Torquay.[13]As an unpaid VAD nurse, she was responsible for aiding the doctors and maintaining morale and she performed 3,400 hours of unpaid work between October 1914 and December 1916. She qualified as an "apothecaries' assistant" (or dispenser) in 1917 and, as a dispenser, she earned 16 a year until the end of her service in September 1918. After the war, the couple settled into a flat at 5 Northwick Terrace inSt. John's Wood, northwest London.[8]:6474First novels: 19191923[edit]Christie had long been a fan of detective novels, having enjoyedWilkie Collins'The Woman in WhiteandThe Moonstoneas well asSir Arthur Conan Doyle's earlySherlock Holmesstories. She wrote her own detective novelThe Mysterious Affair at StylesfeaturingHercule Poirot; portrayed as a former Belgian police officer noted for his twirly large "magnificent moustaches" and egg-shaped head, who took refuge in Britain after Germany had invaded Belgium. Christie's inspiration for this stemmed from real Belgian refugees who were living in Torquay.[8]:7579TheStylesmanuscript was not accepted by such publishing companies asHodder and StoughtonandMethuen. However,John LaneatThe Bodley Headkept the submission for several months, then offered to accept it provided Christie change the ending. She duly did so, and then signed a contract that she later felt was exploitative.[8]:79, 8182Christie meanwhile settled into married life, giving birth to her only child, daughterRosalind Margaret Christieat Ashfield in August 1919, where the couple having few friends in London spent much of their time.[8]:79Archieleft the Air Force at the end of the war and started working inthe Cityfinancial sector at a relatively low salary, though they still employed a maid.[8]:8081Christie's second novel,The Secret Adversary(1922), featured a new detective coupleTommy and Tuppence. Again published by The Bodley Head, it earned her 50. A third novel again featured Poirot,Murder on the Links(1923), as did short stories commissioned by Bruce Ingram, editor ofSketchmagazine.[8]:83In order to tour the world promoting theBritish Empire Exhibitionthe couple left their daughter Rosalind with Agatha's mother and sister then travelled to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.[8]:86103[14]They learned to surf prone in South Africa, then inWaikikiwere among the first Britons tosurfstanding up.[15]Disappearance[edit]In late 1926,Archieasked Agatha for a divorce. He was in love with Nancy Neele, who had been a friend ofMajor Belcher, director of the British Empire Mission, on the promotional tour a few years earlier. On 3 December 1926, the Christies quarrelled, andArchieleft their house, Styles, inSunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress atGodalming, Surrey. That same evening, around 9:45 pm, Christie disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going toYorkshire. Her car, aMorris Cowley, was later found atNewlands Corner, by a lake nearGuildford, with an expired driving licence and clothes.[16]Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public. The Home Secretary,William Joynson-Hicks, pressured police, and a newspaper offered 100 reward. Over a thousand police officers, 15,000 volunteers and several aeroplanes scoured the rural landscape.Sir Arthur Conan Doyleeven gave aspirit mediumone of Christie's gloves to find the missing woman.Dorothy L Sayersvisited the house in Surrey, later using the scenario in her bookUnnatural Death.[17]Christie's disappearance featured on the front page ofThe New York Times. Despite the extensive manhunt, she was not found for 10 days.[17][18][19][20]On 14 December 1926, she was found at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now theOld Swan Hotel[a]) inHarrogate, Yorkshire, registered as Mrs Teresa Neele fromCape Town.Christie's autobiography makes no reference to her disappearance.[10][17]Although two doctors diagnosed her as suffering from amnesia, opinion remains divided as to why she disappeared. She was known to be in a depressed state from literary overwork, her mother's death earlier that year and her husband's infidelity. Public reaction at the time was largely negative, supposing apublicity stuntor attempt to frame her husband for murder.[21][b]The 1979Michael AptedfilmAgathafeatures a disclaimer in the opening credits stating that what follows is an imaginary solution to an authentic mystery. The film starredVanessa RedgraveandTimothy Daltonas Agatha and Archie, and depicts Christie planning suicide in such a way as to frame her husband's mistress for her "murder". An American reporter, played byDustin Hoffman, follows her closely and stops the plan. The film outraged Christie's heirs who fought two unsuccessful lawsuits in the United States to try to prevent the film from being distributed.[citation needed]Author Jared Cade interviewed numerous witnesses and relatives for his sympathetic biography,Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, revised 2011.[22]He provided substantial evidence to suggest she planned the event to embarrass her husband, never supposing the resulting escalated melodrama.[23]The Christies divorced in 1928, andArchiemarried Nancy Neele. Agatha retained custody of daughter Rosalind, and the Christie name for her writing. During their marriage, she published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines.[citation needed]Second marriage and later life[edit]

Agatha Christie's room at thePera Palace HotelinIstanbul, where she wroteMurder on the Orient Express

Blue plaque, 58 Sheffield Terrace, Kensington, LondonIn 1930, Christie married archaeologist SirMax Mallowan, having met him during an archaeological dig. Their marriage was happy and lasted until Christie's death in 1976.[24]Mallowan introduced her to wine, which she never enjoyed preferring to drink water in restaurants. She tried unsuccessfully to make herself like cigarettes by smoking one after lunch and one after dinner every day for six months.[25]Christie frequently used settings that were familiar to her for her stories. Her travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. Other novels (such asAnd Then There Were None) were set in and aroundTorquay, where she was raised. Christie's 1934 novelMurder on the Orient Expresswas written in thePera Palace Hotelin Istanbul, Turkey, the southern terminus of the railway. The hotel maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author.[26]TheGreenway Estatein Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of theNational Trust. Christie often stayed atAbney Hall, Cheshire, owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts, basing at least two stories there: a short story "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding", in the story collection of the same name, and the novelAfter the Funeral. "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all its servants and grandeur being woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Chimneys, Stoneygates, and other houses in her stories are mostly Abney in various forms."[27]During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy atUniversity College Hospital, London, where she acquired a knowledge of poisons that she put to good use in her post-war crime novels. For example, the use ofthalliumas a poison was suggested to her by UCH Chief Pharmacist Harold Davis (later appointed Chief Pharmacist at the UK Ministry of Health), and inThe Pale Horse, published in 1961, she employed it to dispatch a series of victims, the first clue to the murder method coming from the victims' loss of hair. So accurate was her description of thallium poisoning that on at least one occasion it helped solve a case that was baffling doctors.[28][29]Christie lived in Chelsea, first in Cresswell Place and later in Sheffield Terrace. Both properties are now marked byblue plaques.Around 194142, the British intelligence agencyMI5investigated Agatha Christie. A character called Major Bletchley appeared in her 1941 thrillerN or M?, which was about a hunt for a pair of deadly fifth columnists in wartime England.[30]MI5was afraid that Christie had a spy in Britain's top-secret codebreaking centre,Bletchley Park. The agency's fears were allayed when Christie commented to codebreakerDilly Knoxthat Bletchley was simply the name of "one of my least lovable characters."[30]To honour her many literary works, she was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE) in the1956 New Year Honours.[31]The next year, she became the President of theDetection Club.[32]In the 1971 New Year Honours, she was promotedDame Commanderof the Order of the British Empire (DBE),[33]three years after her husband had beenknightedfor his archaeological work in 1968.[34]They were one of the few married couples where both partners were honoured in their own right. From 1968, owing to her husband's knighthood, Christie could also bestyledLady Mallowan.

Agatha Christie's gravestone in CholseyFrom 1971 to 1974, Christie's health began to fail, although she continued to write. Recently, using experimental tools of textual analysis, Canadian researchers have suggested that Christie may have begun to suffer from Alzheimer's disease or other dementia.[35][36][37][38]Death[edit]Dame Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural causes at herWinterbrookHouse in the north ofCholseyparish, adjoiningWallingfordin Oxfordshire (formerly part of Berkshire). She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Mary's, Cholsey. She was survived by her only child, Rosalind Margaret Hicks.Agatha Christie's estate and subsequent ownership of works[edit]During Agatha Christie's life, she had set up aprivate company, Agatha Christie Limited, to hold the rights to her works, and around 1959 she had also transferred her 278 acre home,Greenway Estate, to her daughter Rosalind.[39]In 1968, when Christie was almost 80 years old, she sold a 51% stake in Agatha Christie Limited (and therefore the works it owned) to Booker Books (better known asBooker Author's Division), a subsidiary of theBritishfood and transportconglomerateBooker-McConnell (nowBooker Group), the founder of theBooker Prizefor literature, which later increased its stake to 64%.[when?]Agatha Christie Limited remains the owner of the worldwide rights for over 80 of Christie's novels and short stories, 19 plays, and nearly 40 TV films.[40]After Christie's death in 1976, her remaining 36% share of the company was inherited by her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, who passionately preserved her mother's works, image, and legacy until her own death 28 years later.[39]The family's share of the company allowed them to appoint 50% of the board and thechairman, and thereby to retain avetoover new treatments, updated versions, and republications, of her works.[39][41]In 1993, Hicks founded the Agatha Christie Society and became its first president.[39]In 2004 herobituaryinThe Telegraphcommented that Hicks had been "determined to remain true to her mother's vision and to protect the integrity of her creations" and disapproved of "merchandising" activities.[39]Upon Hicks' death, also at age 85 like her mother, on 28 October 2004, both this and the Greenway Estate passed to Christie's grandson, Matthew Pritchard. In 2000, Pritchard gifted Greenway - both the house and its contents - to theNational Trust.[39][42]Christie's family andfamily trusts, including Prichard, continue to own the remaining 36% stake in Agatha Christie Limited,[40]and remain associated with the company. In particular Prichard remains as the company'schairman,[40]and also in his own right holds the copyright to some of his grandmother's later literary works (includingThe Mousetrap).[43]In 1998, Booker sold a number of its non-food assets to focus on its core business.[41]As part of that, its shares in Agatha Christie Limited (at the time earning 2.1m annual revenue[41]) were sold for 10m toChorion,[41]a major international media company whose portfolio of well known authors' works also included the literary estates ofEnid BlytonandDennis Wheatley. However in February 2012, Chorion found itself in financial difficulties some years after amanagement buy-out, and began to sell off their literary assets on the market,[40]selling their stake in Christies estate (specifically, their 64% stake in Agatha Christie Limited) to the current ownerAcorn Media UK(part of RLJ Entertainment, Inc. and theRLJ Companies, owned by American entrepreneurRobert L. Johnson) during that same month.[44]As of 2014, media reports state that theBBChad acquired the exclusive television rights to Christie's works in the UK (previously associated withITV) and plans with Acorn's co-operation to air new productions for the 125th anniversary of Christie's birth in 2015.[45]Writings[edit]Fictional writings[edit]Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple[edit]Christie's first bookThe Mysterious Affair at Styleswas published in 1920 and introduced the detectiveHercule Poirot, who became a long-running character in many of Christie's works, appearing in 33 novels and 54 short stories.Miss (Jane) Marplewas introduced in the short storiesThe Thirteen Problemsin 1927 and was based on Christie's grandmother and her "Ealing cronies".[46]Both Jane and Gran "always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and were, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right."[9]:422Marple appeared in 12 of Christie's novels. During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels,CurtainandSleeping Murder, intended as the last cases of these two great detectives, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. Both books were sealed in abank vaultfor over thirty years and were released for publication by Christie only at the end of her life, when she realised that she could not write any more novels. These publications came on the heels of the success of thefilm versionofMurder on the Orient Expressin 1974.Like SirArthur Conan Doylewith his characterSherlock Holmes, Christie was to become increasingly tired of her detective Poirot. By the end of the 1930s, Christie wrote in her diary that she was finding Poirot "insufferable", and by the 1960s she felt that he was "an egocentric creep". However, unlike Conan Doyle, Christie resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular. She saw herself as an entertainer whose job was to produce what the public liked, and the public liked Poirot.[47]Feeling tied down, stuck with a love interest, she did marry off Poirot's companion, Colonel Hastings, in an attempt to trim her cast commitments.[9]:268In contrast, Christie was fond of Miss Marple. However, the Belgian detective's titles outnumber the Marple titles more than two to one. This is largely because Christie wrote numerous Poirot novels early in her career, whileThe Murder at the Vicarageremained the sole Marple novel until the 1940s. Christie never wrote a novel or short story featuring both Poirot and Miss Marple. In a recording discovered and released in 2008, Christie revealed the reason for this: "Hercule Poirot, a complete egoist, would not like being taught his business or having suggestions made to him by an elderly spinster lady".[46]Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary inThe New York Times, following the publication ofCurtain. It appeared on the front page of the paper on 6 August 1975.[48]Following the great success ofCurtain, Christie gave permission for the release ofSleeping Murdersometime in 1976 but died in January 1976 before the book could be released. This may explain some of the inconsistencies compared to the rest of the Marple series for example, Colonel Arthur Bantry, husband of Miss Marple's friend Dolly, is still alive and well inSleeping Murderdespite the fact he is noted as having died in books published earlier. It may be that Christie simply did not have time to revise the manuscript before she died.[49]No other detective, including Miss Marple despite Marple's superannuation, was killed off by Christie.Formula and plot devices[edit]Christie's reputation as "The Queen of Crime" was built upon the large number of classicmotifsthat she introduced, or for which she provided the most famous example. Christie built these tropes into what is now considered classic mystery structure: a murder is committed, there are multiple suspects who are all concealing secrets, and the detective gradually uncovers these secrets over the course of the story, discovering the most shocking twists towards the end. At the end, in a Christie hallmark, the detective usually gathers the surviving suspects into one room, explains the course of his or her deductive reasoning, and reveals the guilty party, although there are exceptions in which it is left to the guilty party (or parties) to explain all (such asAnd Then There Were NoneandEndless Night, both rathernihilisticin nature).[50][51]Seven stories are named for, or built around words from, well known children'snursery rhymes:And Then There Were None(byTen Little Indians),One, Two, Buckle My Shoe(byOne, Two, Buckle My Shoe),Five Little Pigs(byThis Little Piggy),Crooked House(byThere Was a Crooked Man),A Pocket Full of Rye(bySing a Song of Sixpence),Hickory Dickory Dock(byHickory Dickory Dock), andThree Blind Mice(byThree Blind Mice).Christie allows some culprits to escape earthly justice, i.e. in such cases asThe Witness for the Prosecution,The Man in the Brown Suit,Murder on the Orient Express,Curtain, andThe Unexpected Guest. There are also instances where the killer is not brought to justice in the legal sense but does die as a direct result of his or her plot, sometimes at the direction or with the collusion of the detective involved, almost always Hercule Poirot or Harley Quin. This occurs in such widely varying mysteries asDeath on the Nile,Dumb Witness,The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,Crooked House,The Hollow,Nemesis,Cat Among the Pigeons,The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side,Peril at End House, andThe Secret Adversary. InThe A.B.C. Murders, Poirot specifically denies the murderer, who has killed four innocent people and attempted to frame an unstable man for the crimes, this easy way out, ensuring a trial and hanging. InAnd Then There Were None, the killer's own death is intrinsic to the plot; thered herringis when and how the killer actually died. However, stage, film and television productions of some of these mysteries were traditionally sanitized with the culprit(s) not evading some form of justice, for a variety of reasons, i.e. censors, plot clarity, and Christie's own changing tastes. (When Christie adaptedWitness for the Prosecutioninto a stage play, she lengthened the ending so that the murderer was also killed; this format was followed in film and television productions, most famously theCharles Laughton/Marlene Dietrichfilm.) InDeath Comes as the End, set in ancientEgypt, the culprit is killed in the act before he can claim another victim by one of the few surviving characters left.In some stories, the question of whether formal justice will ever be delivered remains unresolved, such asFive Little Pigs,Endless Night, andOrdeal by Innocence. Christie often made the unlikeliest character the guilty party. Savvy readers could sometimes identify the culprit by simply identifying the least likely suspect.[52]On an edition ofDesert Island Discsin 2007,Brian Aldissclaimed that Christie had told him that she wrote her books up to the last chapter, then decided who the most unlikely suspect was, after which she would then go back and make the necessary changes to "frame" that person.[53]However, John Curran'sAgatha Christie: The Secret Notebooksdescribes different working methods for every book in Christie's biography, thus contradicting Aldiss's claim.[citation needed]Character stereotypes[edit]Christie occasionally inserted stereotyped descriptions of characters into her work, particularly before the end of the Second World War (when such attitudes were more commonly expressed publicly), and particularly in regard toItalians, Jews, non-Europeans, and sometimes Americans, the last usually as impossibly nave or uninformed. For example, in the first editions of the collectionThe Mysterious Mr Quin(1930), in the short story "The Soul of the Croupier", she described "Hebraic men with hook-noses wearing rather flamboyant jewellery"; in later editions the passage was edited to describe "sallow men" wearing same. InThe Hollow, published as late as 1946, one of the more unsympathetic characters is "a Whitechapel Jewess with dyed hair and a voice like acorncrake... a small woman with a thick nose, henna red and a disagreeable voice". To contrast with the more stereotyped descriptions, Christie sometimes showed "foreigners" as victims or potential victims at the hands of English malefactors, such as, respectively, Olga Seminoff (Hallowe'en Party) and Katrina Reiger (in the short story "How Does Your Garden Grow?"). Regarding Jewish characters, while seen as un-English (such as Oliver Manders inThree Act Tragedy), they are rarely the culprits.[54]Often she is lovingly affectionate or teasing with her prejudices. After four years of war-torn London, UK, Christie hoped to return some day to Syria, which she described as "gentle fertile country and its simple people, who know how to laugh and how to enjoy life; who are idle and gay, and who have dignity, good manners, and a great sense of humour, and to whom death is not terrible."[9]:187After trouble with an incompetent Swiss French nursery helper (Marcelle) for toddler Rosalind, she decides "Scottish preferred... good with the young. The French were hopeless disciplinarians ... Germans good and methodical, but it was not German that I really wanted Rosalind to learn. The Irish were gay but made trouble in the house; the English were of all kinds".[9]:327Non-fictional writings[edit]Christie published relatively few nonfiction works. Come, Tell Me How You Live, about working on an archaeological dig, drawn from her life with second husband Max Mallowan. The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery, a collection of correspondence from her 1922 Grand Tour of the British empire, including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Agatha Christie: An Autobiographywas published posthumously in 1977.Critical reception[edit]The world's best-selling mystery writer, and often referred to as the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie is considered a master of suspense, plotting, and characterisation.[55][56][57]Some critics however regarded Christie's plotting abilities as considerably exceeding her literary ones. The novelistRaymond Chandlercriticised her in his essay, "The Simple Art of Murder", and the American literary criticEdmund Wilsonwas dismissive of Christie and the detective fiction genre generally in hisNew Yorkeressay, "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?".[58]List of writings[edit]Main article:Agatha Christie bibliographyInterests and influences[edit]Archaeology[edit]The lure of the past came up to grab me. To see a dagger slowly appearing, with its gold glint, through the sand was romantic. The carefulness of lifting pots and objects from the soil filled me with a longing to be an archaeologist myself.[8]:389[9]Many years ago, when I was once saying sadly to Max it was a pity I couldn't have taken up archaeology when I was a girl, so as to be more knowledgeable on the subject, he said, "Don't you realize that at this moment you know more about prehistoric pottery than any woman in England?"[8]:546[9]Christie had a lifelong interest in archaeology. On a trip to the excavation site atUrin 1930, she met her future husband,Sir Max Mallowan, a distinguished archaeologist, but her fame as an author far surpassed his fame in archaeology.[59]Prior to meeting Mallowan, Christie had not had any extensive brushes with archaeology, but once the two married they made sure to only go to sites where they could work together. While accompanying Mallowan on countless archaeological trips (spending up to 34 months at a time inSyriaandIraqat excavation sites atUr,Ninevah,Tell Arpachiyah,Chagar Bazar,Tell Brak, andNimrud), Christie not only wrote novels and short stories, but also contributed work to the archaeological sites, more specifically to the archaeological restoration and labelling of ancient exhibits which includes tasks such as cleaning and conserving delicate ivory pieces, reconstructing pottery, developing photos from early excavations which later led to taking photographs of the site and its findings, and taking field notes.[60]So as to not influence the funding of the archaeological excavations, Christie would always pay for her own board and lodging and her travel expenses, and supported excavations as an anonymous sponsor.[60]During their time in the Middle East, there was also a large amount of time spent travelling to and from Mallowan's sites. Their extensive traveling had a strong influence on her writing, which is often reflected as some type of transportation playing a part in her murderer's schemes. The large amount of travel was reused in novels such asThe Murder on the Orient Express, as well as suggesting the idea of archaeology as an adventure itself.[61]After the Second World War, she chronicled her time in Syria with fondness in "Come Tell Me How You Live". Anecdotes, memories, funny episodes, are strung in a rough timeline, with more emphasis on eccentric characters, lovely scenery, than factual accuracy.[9]:1985From 8 November 2001 to 24 March 2002,The British Museumhad an exhibit namedAgatha Christie and Archaeology: Mystery in Mesopotamia, which presented the secret life of Agatha Christie and the influences of archaeology in her life and works.[60]Spirituality[edit]Christie's life within the archaeological world shaped not only the settings and characters for her books but also the issues she highlights. One of the stronger influences is her love of the mystical and mysterious. Many of Christie's books and short stories set both in the Middle East and back in England have a decidedly otherworldly influence in which religious sects, sacrifices, ceremony, and seances play a part. Such stories include "The Hound of Death" and "the Idol House of Astarte". This theme was greatly strengthened by those times Christie spent in the Middle East where she was consistently surrounded by the religious temples and spiritual history of the towns and cities they were excavating during Mallowan's archaeological work.[citation needed]Use of archaeology and spirituality in her writing[edit]Many of the settings for Christie's books were directly inspired by the many archaeological field seasons spent in the Middle East on the sites managed by her husband Max. The extent of her time spent at the many locations featured in her books is apparent from the extreme detail in which she describes them. One such site featured in her work is the temple site ofAbu Simbel, depicted inDeath on the Nile. Also there is the great detail in which she describes life at the dig site inMurder in Mesopotamia. Among the characters in her books, Christie has often given prominence to the archaeologists and experts in Middle Eastern cultures and artefacts. Most notable are the characters of Dr. Eric Leidner inMurder in Mesopotamiaand Signor Richetti inDeath on the Nile, while many minor characters inThey Came to Baghdadwere archaeologists.Some of Christie's best known novels with heavy archaeological influences are: Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) the most archaeologically influenced of all her novels, as it is set in the Middle East at an archaeological dig site and associated expedition house. The main characters include an archaeologist, Dr. Eric Leidner, his wife, multiple specialists, assistants, and the men working on the site. The novel is noted most for its careful description of the dig site and house, which showed the author had spent much of her time in very similar situations. The characters in this book in particular are also based on archaeologists Christie knew from her personal experiences on excavation sites. Appointment with Death (1938) set inJerusalemand its surrounding area. The death itself occurs at an old cave site inPetraand offers some very descriptive details of sites which Christie herself could have visited in order to write the book. Death on the Nile (1937) takes place on a tour boat on the Nile. Many archaeological sites are visited along the way and one of the main characters, Signor Richetti, is an archaeologist. They Came to Baghdad (1951) inspired by Christie's own trips toBaghdadwith Mallowan, and involves an archaeologist as the heroine's love interest.Portrayals of Christie[edit]Christie has been portrayed on a number of occasions in film and television. Several biographical programmes have been made, such asBBC television'sAgatha Christie: A Life in Pictures(2004), in which she is portrayed byOlivia Williams,Anna Massey, andBonnie Wright; and Season 3, Episode 1 ofITV Perspectives: "The Mystery of Agatha Christie" (2013), hosted byDavid Suchet, who plays Hercule Poirot on television.[62][63]Christie has also been portrayed fictionally. Some of these portrayals have explored and offered accounts of Christie's disappearance in 1926, including the filmAgatha(1979) (withVanessa Redgrave, in which she sneaks away to plan revenge against her husband), and theDoctor Whoepisode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (17 May 2008), withFenella Woolgar, in which her disappearance is the result of her suffering a temporary breakdown owing to a brief psychic link being formed between her and an alien). Others, such as Hungarian film,Kojak Budapesten(1980; not to be confused with the 1986 comedy by the same name) create their own scenarios involving Christie's criminal skill.[64]In the TV play,Murder by the Book(1986), Christie herself (DamePeggy Ashcroft) murdered one of her fictional-turned-real characters, Poirot. The heroine of Liar-Soft'svisual novelShikkoku no Sharnoth: What a Beautiful Tomorrow(2008), Mary Clarissa Christie, is based on the real-life Christie. Christie features as a character in Gaylord Larsen'sDorothy and AgathaandThe London Blitz Murdersby Max Allan Collins.[65][66]