Agatha Mary Clarissa
Agatha Christie.
• Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15
September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was a British crime
writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote
six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is
best remembered for the 66 detective novels and more than
15 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most
of which revolve around the investigations of such characters
as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and Tommy and Tuppence.
She also wrote the world's longest-running play The
Mousetrap.
Childhood: 1890–1910.
• Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was born on 15 September 1890 into a
wealthy upper middle-class family in Ashfield, Torquay, Devon in South
West England. Christie's mother, Clara Boehmer was an Englishwoman
who had been born in Belfast, modern day 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 on Jersey in 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
née West, who had married a wealthy American Nathaniel Frary Miller in
1863 and lived in Prinsted, West Sussex. Clara stayed with Margaret and
there she would meet her future husband, an American stockbroker named
Frederick Alvah Miller the son of Nathaniel. Frederick 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. Their first child, Margaret
"Madge" Frary Miller (1879–1950) was born in Torquay, where the couple
were renting lodgings, while their second, Louis "Monty" Montant (1880–
1929) was born in the U.S. state of New 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.
Early literary attempts and the First World War:
• Returning to England in 1910, Agatha found that her mother Clara
had been taken ill, and so they decided to head for a holiday in the
warmer climate of Cairo in Egypt, then a part of the British
Empire and a popular tourist destination for wealthy Britons.
Returning to Britain, she continued her social activities in search
of a husband, also taking part in writing and performing in
amateur theatrics, helping to put together a play called The Blue
Beard of Unhappiness with a number of female friends. Her writing
extended to both poetry and music, and some of her early works
saw publication, but she decided against focusing on either of
these as future professions. It was while recovering in bed from an
illness that she penned her first short story; entitled "The House of
Beauty", it consisted of about 6000 words and dealt with the
world of "madness and dreams" which fascinated Christie. Later
Christie biographer Janet Morgan would comment that while it
suffered from "infelicities of style", it was nevertheless "a
compelling story".
Disappearance.
• In late 1926, Christie's husband Archie revealed that he was in
love with Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. On 3 December
1926, the couple quarrelled, and Archie left their house Styles
inSunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress
at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening, around 9.45pm, Christie
disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her
secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. On 14 December
1926, Agatha Christie was identified as a guest at the Swan
Hydropathic Hotel (now the Old Swan Hotel) in Harrogate,
Yorkshire, where she had been registered as 'Mrs Teresa Neele'
from Cape Town, since the day of her disappearance. Christie never
explained her disappearance from Surrey. Although two doctors had
diagnosed her as suffering from psychogenic fugue, opinion remains
divided. A nervous breakdown from a natural propensity for
depression may have been exacerbated by her mother's death
earlier that year and her husband's infidelity. Public reaction at
the time was largely negative, supposing a publicity stunt or attempt
to frame her husband for murder.
Critical reception.
• 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. Some critics
however regarded Christie's plotting abilities as
considerably exceeding her literary ones. The
novelist Raymond Chandler criticised her in his
essay, "The Simple Art of Murder", and the
American literary critic Edmund Wilson was
dismissive of Christie and the detective fiction
genre generally in his New Yorker essay, "Who
Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?".
Popular novels with heavy archaeological influences.
• Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
– Christie's Murder in Mesopotamia is 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 included an
archaeologist, Dr. Eric Leidner, as well as his wife, multiple specialists,
assistants and the men working on the site. The novel is most noted for
its careful description of the dig site and house, which showed the
author had spent much of her own time in very similar situations
herself. The characters in this book in particular are also based on
archaeologists Christie knew from her personal experiences on
excavations sites.
• Appointment with Death (1938)
– Appointment with Death is set in Jerusalem and its surrounding area.
The death itself occurs at an old cave site and offers some very
descriptive details of sites which Christie herself would have visited in
order to write the book.
• Death on the Nile (1937)
– Death on the Nile takes place on a tour boat on the Nile. Many
archaeological sites are visited along the way and one of the main
characters is an archaeologist, Signor Richetti.
• They Came to Baghdad (1951)
– They Came to Baghdad was inspired by Christie's own trips
to Baghdad with Mallowan, and involves an archaeologist as the heroine's
love interest.
•.
• Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural
•
causes at her Winterbrook House in the north of Cholsey parish,
adjoining Wallingford in Oxfordshire (formerly part of Berkshire).
She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Mary's, Cholsey.
Christie's only child, Rosalind Margaret Hicks, died, also aged 85, on
28 October 2004 from natural causes in Torbay,
Devon.[61] Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, was heir to the
copyright to some of his grandmother's literary work (including The
Mousetrap) and is still associated with Agatha Christie Limited.