Brief biography of Agatha Christie. Biography of the famous writer Agatha Christie Works written under the name Mary Westmacott

Agatha's childhood and youth

Agatha spent her childhood on the Ashfield estate in Torquay. Ashfield remained in Agatha's memory as a symbol of a happy childhood. “Despite the fact that my parents loved social life, in Ashfield I had silence and the opportunity to retire,” Agatha recalled many years later. Agatha’s need for privacy arose very early: already at the age of four, she preferred the company of her Yorkshire terrier Tony, conversations with the nanny and a family of kittens created by her rich imagination.

She was considered a not very smart girl. But this did not affect parental love for their daughter. Mom and Dad were forced to admit: unlike brother Monty and sister Madge - lively, energetic, never at a loss for words - little Agatha did nothing but get lost, embarrassed and stammered.

Agatha did not shine in her studies either. However, at that time, studying for a girl seemed a completely abstract concept, and there was no need to even attend school. From an early age, young ladies were prepared exclusively for a successful marriage; they were taught needlework, music, and dancing. However, attention was paid to competent writing even then: successfully responding to a gallant message from a future gentleman is no joke. So, Agatha always had problems with grammar. And until the very end of her days, having already become a great writer, she continually made gross grammatical errors.

Agatha completely ignored the toys that her parents bought and could spend hours rolling an old hoop along the garden paths.Agatha Christie later recalled these games as follows:
“Reflecting on what gave me the greatest pleasure as a child, I am inclined to think that the firm primacy belonged to the hoop, this simplest toy that cost... how much? Sixpence? Shilling? No more. And what an invaluable relief for parents, nannies and servants! On a fine day, Agatha goes into the garden to play with a hoop, and everyone can be completely calm and free, until the next meal, or, more precisely, until the moment when hunger makes itself felt.

The hoop turned into a horse, a sea monster and a railway in turn. Chasing the hoop along the paths of the garden, I became either a knight errant in armor, or a court lady riding a white horse, Clover (from “Kittens”) escaping from prison, or - somewhat less romantically - a driver, conductor or passenger on three railways my own invention.

I developed three branches: “Trubnaya” - a railway with eight stations with a length of three-quarters of a garden, “Tank” - a freight train ran along it, serving a short branch that started from a huge tank with a crane under a pine tree, and “Terrace” railway, which was walking around the house. Just recently I discovered in a closet a sheet of cardboard on which, some sixty years ago, I had clumsily drawn a plan of railroad tracks.

Now I just can’t understand why it gave me such inexplicable pleasure to drive the hoop in front of me, stop and shout: “Lily of the valley.” Transfer to Trubnaya. "Pipe". “The ultimate. Please vacate the carriages." I played like this for hours. It must have been great exercise. With all my diligence I learned the art of throwing my hoop so that it would come back to me; one of our friends, naval officers, taught me this trick. At first I couldn’t do anything, but I persistently tried again and again and finally caught the right movement - how happy I was!”

One day, the nanny, having observed the girl more closely, discovered that Agatha, left alone, was constantly talking to herself. That is, not even with yourself, but with non-existent interlocutors. At home she had long conversations with some kittens, and in the garden she greeted the trees and asked them about the events of the previous night...
Little Agatha loved listening to the stories of relatives who came from the colonies and secretly dreamed of seeing the whole world with her own eyes. But at home she was prepared for another role - the role of a respectable wife: they taught her the art of pleasing her husband and cooking well.

Agatha's mother believed that children should not be allowed to read until they were eight years old. But from early childhood, little Agatha showed an increased interest in “squiggle letters.” Already at the age of four, to the surprise of her nanny and parents, she began to read on her own - and since then she has not parted with books. Collections of fairy tales become the most desired gift for her during the holidays, and the library in the study room is subject to frequent raids.

Agatha's reference book was Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. And the first detective story she heard, “The Blue Carbuncle” by Arthur Conan Doyle, was told to little Agatha by her sister Magie. As Agatha later recalled, it was then that “in some corner of my brain, where topics for books are born, the thought appeared: “Someday I will write a detective novel myself.” Subsequently, it was from the style of Conan Doyle that the writer Agatha Christie learned to write her detective stories.

Agatha wrote her first story in 1896, expressing in it her cherished childhood dream: to be a real lady. This meant “always leaving a little food on your plate, putting an extra stamp on the envelope, and putting on clean underwear before traveling.” railway in case of disaster."

Agatha dutifully followed these and a thousand other instructions from her nanny and once asked when she would finally become Lady Agatha? The nanny, a convinced realist, replied: “This will never happen. Lady Agatha can only be born, that is, to be the daughter of an earl or duke.” Agatha was very upset. And, as it turned out later, it was completely in vain. After a few decades, she will still become Lady Agatha, and the dream, destroyed by the nanny, will be realized in 1971 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

In the meantime, Agatha was learning proper lady manners, taking piano lessons and studying with a home teacher. She started reading early, but penmanship, grammar and spelling were much more difficult for her. Having already become famous, Agatha Christie continued to write with errors. But mathematics delighted her. It seemed to Agatha that the conditions simple tasks like “John has five apples, George has six” hides a real intrigue. Which of these boys loves apples more? Where did they even get the apples from? And will something happen to John if he eats the apple that George gave him?

Agatha's life, like that of the entire Miller family, was carefree: a steady income in the form of interest on her grandfather's capital, high society in Ashfield, summer trips to France... "I did not suspect that behind the doors of the nursery there was another, not so pleasant world" , - Agatha recalled.

But in November 1901, Father Fred Miller died. Stunned by grief, eleven-year-old Agatha did not immediately realize that the family’s life had changed. Clara did not leave her bedroom for weeks, refusing to communicate even with her children. Madge, her father's pride, got married. Monty experienced his father's death more difficult than others: he was Fred's favorite and, unable to stay in the empty house, volunteered for India.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) - famous English writer. She was born in the port city of Torquay in the south of England. This place is amazing and is famous for its mild maritime climate. In the 19th century, it was a fashionable resort where vacationers admired palm trees, cypresses and pine trees. These days it is called the English Riviera.

The girl's name was Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. Her mother and father came to England from the United States, making a small fortune there. The family also included an older sister, Margaret Frary (1879-1850), and an older brother, Louis Montand (1880-1929).

The older sister wrote funny stories, and Agatha decided to write a story too. But the plot turned out to be very scary, even creepy. The parents didn't like him, and they directly told their daughter about it. After this, the girl lost all desire to compose anything for many years.

Our heroine’s mother gravitated toward everything new and interesting. She was interested either in the new religion or in fashionable handicrafts. As for my father, he was addicted to drinking. After his death, the family was forced to move to Cairo, since living there was much cheaper compared to England.

By this time, Agatha had turned into a pretty girl with a good home education, and the question of marriage arose. At one of the youth evenings, the future famous writer met a Royal Air Force pilot. His name was Archibald Christie. The man was not rich, but his courageous profession turned the head of the romantically inclined girl. She fell in love with the pilot, and this feeling lasted for many years.

With my first husband after marriage

It all ended with a wedding in 1914. But the joy of family life was overshadowed by the First World War. During these difficult years, Agatha Christie worked in a hospital as a nurse. There she met many Belgian refugees. It can be assumed that communication with these people gave rise in the future to the image of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

From the hospital the girl went to work as a pharmacist in a pharmacy. She perfectly mastered the knowledge of medicines and poisons. Subsequently, this was reflected in her work. Several dozen crimes described in her books were committed precisely with the help of poisoning.

With daughter Rosalind

In 1919, our heroine gave birth to a daughter, Rosalind, and in 1920 she wrote her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The young woman went to publishing houses, offering her work to editors. But only the seventh publishing house agreed to publish it. For her first book, the future star of detective novels received a fee of £25.

What prompted Agatha to take up writing? Here you need to take into account that the husband was sometimes not at home for 6 months, taking into account his profession. The woman spent all her evenings alone. Maybe loneliness gave her the idea to do something productive and interesting. The writer herself later said that she came up with the bloody murders while washing the dishes. As for the development of the plot, apples helped a lot with this. The woman loved them very much, and when she ate them, vivid and exciting pictures of sinister and sophisticated crimes popped up in her head.

In 1926, our heroine experienced two turning points in her life. The mother died, and the husband asked for a divorce because he fell in love with a certain Nancy Neal, with whom he regularly played golf. Christy resisted divorce for a long time, trying with all her might to save the family. And in December 1926 she left home and disappeared.

The police searched for the woman for 11 days without success. Finally, her car was discovered, and soon the writer herself was found in a small hotel with signs of amnesia. Agatha registered there under the name of her husband’s mistress. But did the woman really suffer from memory loss, or did she fake everything to annoy her unfaithful husband?

There is no answer to this question. However, the English psychologist Andrew Norman carefully studied Christie's behavior in the hotel and concluded that the woman suffered from a dissociative fugue. And it was caused by experiences and suffering. And indeed, our heroine initially experienced grief from the death of her mother, and barely recovered, she received a new psychological blow when she learned that her beloved husband was going to divorce her. Many people in this situation may have a nervous breakdown.

In 1928 family life ended in divorce, and the writer was left alone. In 1930, she went on a trip to Iraq and met Max Mallowan (1904-1978) while excavating the ancient city of Ur. He was a young archaeologist specializing in the history of Western Asia. He graduated from Oxford and worked with the famous English archaeologist Charles Woolley.

With my second husband

The man was 15 years younger than Agatha. But the noticeable age difference did not interfere with their marriage. This union turned out to be extremely happy and lasted until the death of both spouses. As for the writer’s work, from then on the plots of her detective novels began to develop in the lands of Western Asia.

The couple treated each other with respect and were truly happy. Christy often helped her husband. She photographed the excavations, dealt with papers, correspondence, and reports, and her husband, in turn, was keenly interested in his wife’s work.

In 1956, England appreciated the literary talents of its famous compatriot. The Order of the British Empire was placed on her chest. In 1971, he was awarded the title of cavalier dam, which gave the right to a title of nobility. The husband turned out to be worthy of his wife. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1968 for his services to archaeology.

In 1958, Agatha Christie became chairman of the English Detective Club. But what’s interesting is that the world-famous woman never considered her work to be something serious and important. But she valued her husband’s archaeological activity extremely highly and believed that it was necessary for humanity.

Agatha Christie with her grandson

In 1971, the writer’s health began to deteriorate. Doctors, having studied her literary works written at this time, came to the conclusion that the elderly woman had developed Alzheimer's disease. The creator of many brilliant detective stories died on January 12, 1976 at the age of 86. She died at her home in Wallingford (Oxfordshire, England).

During her life, she wrote 78 detective novels, 19 plays, and many short stories and poems. The circulation of publications has exceeded 4 billion, and works have been translated into 120 languages. Agatha created such famous characters as Hercule Poirot, Mrs. Marple, Captain Hastings, Miss Lemon, Scotland Yard Inspector Japp, British Intelligence Colonel Race, etc.

She was a courageous and strong woman. She drove a car great, enjoyed horse riding, loved to travel, and even flew an airplane. Until her death, she maintained a great sense of humor and knew how to enjoy every day she lived. In her autobiography, Christie wrote these words: "Lord, thank you for wonderful life and for the love you gave me."

Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, née Miller, better known by her first husband's surname as Agatha Christie. Born September 15, 1890 - died January 12, 1976. English writer.

Agatha Christie's books have been published in over 4 billion copies and translated into more than 100 languages.

She also holds the record for the most theatrical productions works. Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap was first performed in 1952 and is still shown continuously. At the ten-year anniversary of the play at the Ambassador Theater in London, in an interview with ITN television, Agatha Christie admitted that she did not consider the play the best to be staged in London, but the public liked it, and she herself goes to the play several times a year.

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was the youngest daughter in the Miller family. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and a son, Louis "Monty" Montan (1880-1929). Agatha received a good education at home, in particular music, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During the First World War, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she loved the profession and described it as “one of the most rewarding professions a person can engage in.” She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

Agatha married for the first time on Christmas Day in 1914 to Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period was the beginning creative path Agatha Christie. In 1920, Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is an assumption that the reason for Christie’s turn to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proven herself to be a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only the seventh publishing house published the manuscript in a circulation of 2,000 copies. The aspiring writer received a fee of £25.

In 1926, Agatha's mother died. Late that year, Agatha Christie's husband Archibald admitted to infidelity and asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with fellow golfer Nancy Neal. After an argument in early December 1926, Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving a letter to her secretary in which she claimed to be heading to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused a loud public outcry, since the writer already had fans of her work. For 11 days, nothing was known about Christie's whereabouts.

Agatha's car was found, and her fur coat was found inside. A few days later the writer herself was discovered. As it turns out, Agatha Christie registered under the name Teresa Neil at the small spa hotel Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now Old Swan Hotel). Christie offered no explanation for her disappearance, and two doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a head injury. The reasons for the disappearance of Agatha Christie were analyzed by British psychologist Andrew Norman in his book The Finished Portrait, where he, in particular, argues that the hypothesis of traumatic amnesia does not stand up to criticism, since Agatha Christie's behavior indicated the opposite: she registered in a hotel under the name of her husband’s mistress, she spent time playing the piano, spa treatments, and visiting the library. However, after studying all the evidence, Norman came to the conclusion that there was a dissociative fugue caused by a severe mental disorder.

According to another version, the disappearance was deliberately planned by her in order to take revenge on her husband, whom the police would inevitably suspect of the murder of the writer.

Despite mutual affection at the beginning, Archibald and Agatha Christie's marriage ended in divorce in 1928.

In 1930, while traveling around Iraq, at excavations in Ur, she met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. He was 15 years younger than her. Agatha Christie said about her marriage that for an archaeologist a woman should be as old as possible, because then her value increases significantly. Since then, she periodically spent several months a year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband; this period of her life was reflected in the autobiographical novel “Tell How You Live.” Agatha Christie lived in this marriage for the rest of her life, until her death in 1976.

Thanks to Christie's trips to the Middle East with her husband, several of her works took place there. Other novels (such as And Then There Were None) were set in or around Torquay, Christie's birthplace. The novel "Murder in Orient Express"1934 was written at the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul (Turkey). Room 411 of the hotel where Agatha Christie lived is now her memorial museum.

Christie often stayed at the mansion Abney Hall in Cheshire, which belonged to her brother-in-law James Watts. At least two of Christie's works were set on this estate: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, a story also included in the collection of the same name, and the novel After the Funeral. “Abney became an inspiration to Agatha; hence the descriptions of such places as Stiles, Chimneys, Stonegates, and other houses, which in one degree or another represent Abney, were taken.”

In 1956, Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1971, for her achievements in the field of literature, Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the holders of which also acquire the noble title “Dame”, used before the name. Three years earlier, in 1968, Agatha Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was also awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements in the field of archaeology.

In 1958, the writer headed the English Detective Club.

Between 1971 and 1974, Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Experts at the University of Toronto examined Christie's writing style during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975, when she was completely weakened, Christie transferred all rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The writer died on January 12, 1976 at home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire after a short cold and was buried in the village of Cholsey.

Agatha Christie's autobiography, which the writer graduated in 1965, ends with the words: “Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that was given to me.”

Christie's only daughter, Rosalind Margaret Hicks, also lived to be 85 years old and died on October 28, 2004 in Devon. Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, inherited the rights to some of Agatha Christie's literary works, and his name is still associated with the Agatha Christie Limited Foundation.

In an interview with the British television company BBC in 1955, Agatha Christie said that she spent her evenings knitting with friends or family, while in her head she was busy thinking about a new storyline, by the time she sat down to write a novel, the plot was ready from start to finish. By her own admission, the idea for a new novel could have come anywhere. Ideas were entered into a special notebook full of various notes about poisons and newspaper articles about crimes. The same thing happened with the characters. One of the characters created by Agatha had a real-life prototype - Major Ernest Belcher, who at one time was the boss of Agatha Christie's first husband, Archibald Christie. It was he who became the prototype for Pedler in the 1924 novel “The Man in the Brown Suit” about Colonel Race.

Agatha Christie was not afraid to address social issues in her works. For example, at least two of Christie's novels (The Five Little Pigs and Ordeal by Innocence) depicted miscarriages of justice involving the death penalty. In general, many of Christie’s books describe various negative sides English justice of that time.

The writer has never made crimes of a sexual nature the theme of her novels. Unlike today's detective stories, there are practically no scenes of violence, pools of blood or rudeness in her works. “The detective story was a story with a moral. Like everyone who wrote and read these books, I was against the criminal and for the innocent victim. It could not have occurred to anyone that the time would come when detective stories would be read for the scenes of violence described in them, for the sake of obtaining sadistic pleasure from cruelty for the sake of cruelty...” - she wrote in her autobiography. In her opinion, such scenes dull the feeling of compassion and do not allow the reader to focus on main topic novel.

Agatha Christie considered her best work to be the novel “Ten Little Indians.” The rocky islet on which the novel takes place is copied from life - this is the island of Burgh in southern Britain. Readers also rated the book - it has the most big sales in stores, but to comply with political correctness it is now sold under the name “And Then There Were None.”

In her work, Agatha Christie demonstrates conservatism quite typical of the English mentality. political views. A striking example is the story “The Clerk's Story” from the series about Parker Pyne, about one of the heroes of which it is said: “He had some kind of Bolshevik complex.” A number of works - "The Big Four", "The Orient Express", "The Captivity of Cerberus" - feature immigrants from the Russian aristocracy, who enjoy the author's unfailing sympathy. In the aforementioned story, "The Clerk's Tale," Mr. Pine's client becomes involved in a group of agents who are passing secret blueprints of Britain's enemies to the League of Nations. But according to Pine’s decision, a legend is invented for the hero that he is carrying jewelry that belongs to a beautiful Russian aristocrat and saves them together with the owner from agents of Soviet Russia.

The most famous characters from Agatha Christie's novels:

In 1920, Christie published her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which had previously been rejected by British publishers five times. Soon she published a whole series of works featuring a Belgian detective. Hercule Poirot: 33 novels, 1 play and 54 short stories.

Continuing the tradition of the English masters of the detective genre, Agatha Christie created a pair of heroes: the intellectual Hercule Poirot and the comical, diligent, but not very smart Captain Hastings. If Poirot and Hastings were largely copied from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then the old maid Miss Marple is a collective image reminiscent of the main characters of the writers M. Z. Braddon and Anna Catherine Green.

Miss Marple appeared in the 1927 short story “The Tuesday Night Club.” The prototype of Miss Marple was Agatha Christie’s grandmother, who, according to the writer, “was a good-natured person, but always expected the worst from everyone and everything, and with frightening regularity her expectations were justified.”

Like Arthur Conan Doyle from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie was tired of her hero Hercule Poirot by the end of the 30s, but unlike Conan Doyle, she did not dare to “kill” the detective while he was at the peak of his popularity. According to the writer’s grandson, Matthew Pritchard, of the characters she invented, Christie liked Miss Marple more - “an old, smart, traditional English lady.”

During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels, The Curtain (1940) and The Sleeping Murder, with which she intended to end the series of novels about Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. However, the books were published only in the 70s.

Colonel Reis(eng. Colonel Race) appears in four novels by Agatha Christie. The Colonel is an agent of British intelligence, he travels around the world in search of international criminals. Reis is a member of MI5's spy department. He is a tall, well-built, tanned man.

He first appears in The Man in the Brown Suit, a spy mystery set in South Africa. He also appears in two Hercule Poirot novels, Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile, where he assists Poirot in his investigation. He last appears in the 1944 novel Sparkling Cyanide, where he investigates the murder of an old friend. In this novel, Reis has already reached old age.

Parker Pine(English: Parker Pyne) is the hero of 12 stories included in the collection “Parker Pyne Investigates”, as well as partially in the collections “The Secret of the Regatta and Other Stories” and “Trouble in Pollensa and Other Stories”. The Parker Pyne series is not detective fiction in the generally accepted sense. The plot is usually not based on a crime, but on the story of Pine's clients who, for various reasons, are unhappy with their lives. It is these dissatisfaction that brings clients to Pine's agency. In this series of works, Miss Lemon first appears, who leaves her job with Pine to become a secretary to Hercule Poirot.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford(eng. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford), full names Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley are a young married couple of amateur detectives who first appear in the 1922 novel The Mysterious Assailant, not yet married. They begin their lives with blackmail (for money and out of interest), but soon discover that private investigation brings more money and pleasure. In 1929, Tuppence and Tomie appeared in the short story collection Partners in Crime, in 1941 in N or M?, in 1968 in Snap Your Finger Just Once, and most recently in the 1973 novel The Gates of Doom. , which was the last Agatha Christie novel written, although not the last published. Unlike the rest of Agatha Christie's detectives, Tommy and Tuppence age along with the real world and with each subsequent novel. So, by the last novel where they appear, they are nearly seventy.

Superintendent Battle(eng. Superintendent Battle) is a fictional detective, the hero of five novels by Agatha Christie. Battle is entrusted with sensitive cases related to secret societies and organizations, as well as cases affecting the interests of the state and state secrets. The Superintendent is a highly successful Scotland Yard employee; he is a cultured and intelligent policeman who rarely shows his emotions. Christie says little about him: thus, Battle’s name remains unknown. About Battle's family it is known that his wife's name is Mary, and that they have five children.

Novels (detectives) by Agatha Christie:

1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles
1922 Secret Adversary
1923 Murder on the Golf Course Murder on the Links
1924 Man in the Brown Suit

1924 Poirot investigates Poirot Investigates (11 stories):

The Mystery of the Star of the West
Tragedy at Marsdon Manor
The mystery of a cheap apartment
Murder at Hunter's Lodge
Million dollar theft
Pharaoh's Revenge
Trouble at the Grand Metropolitan Hotel
Kidnapping of the Prime Minister
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
The mystery of the death of the Italian count
Missing will

1925 Secret of Chimneys Castle
1926 Murder of Roger Ackroyd
1927 Big Four Big Four
1928 Mystery of the Blue Train
1929 Partners in Crime
1929 Seven Dials Mystery
1930 Murder at the Vicarage
1930 The Mysterious Mr. Keene Quin
1931 Sittaford Mystery, the
1932 Endhouse Mystery Peril at End House

1933 The Hound of Death (12 stories):

Death Hound
Red signal
Fourth man
Gypsy
Lamp
I'll come for you, Mary!
Witness for the prosecution
The Mystery of the Blue Jug
The Amazing Incident of Sir Arthur Carmichael
Call of the Wings
The last seance
SOS

1933 Death of Lord Edgware Lord Edgware Dies
1933 The Thirteen Problems
1934 Murder on the Orient Express Murder on the Orient
1934 Parker Pyne Investigates

1934 The Listerdale Mystery (12 stories):

Listerdale Mystery
Philomela Cottage
Girl on the train
A song for six pence
The Metamorphosis of Edward Robinson
Accident
Jane is looking for a job
Fruitful Sunday
The Adventure of Mr. Eastwood
Red ball
Rajah's emerald
a swan song

1935 Tragedy in three acts Three Act Tragedy
1935 Why not Evans? Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
1935 Death in the Clouds
1936 The Alphabet Murders The A.B.C. Murders
1936 Murder in Mesopotamia
1936 Cards on the Table
1937 Silent Witness Dumb Witness
1937 Death on the Nile
1937 Murder in the Mews (4 stories):

Murder in the backyard
Incredible theft
Dead Man's Mirror
Triangle on Rhodes

1938 Appointment with Death
1939 Десять негритят Ten Little Niggers
1939 Murder is Easy
1939 Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
1939 The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories
1940 Sad Cypress
1941 Evil Under the Sun
1941 N or M? N or M?
1941 One, two - fasten the buckle One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
1942 The Body in the Library
1942 Five Little Pigs
1942 With one finger, Vacation in Limstock, Moving Finger, Finger of Destiny
1944 Zero Hour
1944 Towards Zero Towards Zero
1944 Sparkling Cyanide
1945 Death Comes as the End
1946 The Hollow
1947 Labors of Hercules The Labors of Hercules
1948 Coast of Fortune Taken at the Flood
1948 Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
1949 Crooked House
1950 A Murder is Announced
1950 Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
1951 Baghdad meetings They Came to Baghdad
1951 Quiet “The Hunted Dog” The Under Dog and Other Stories
1952 Mrs. McGinty died Mrs McGinty's Dead
1952 They Do It with Mirrors
1953 A Pocket Full of Rye
1953 After the Funeral
1955 Hickory Dickory Dock / Hickory Dickory Death
1955 Destination Unknown
1956 Dead Man's Folly
1957 At 4.50 from Paddington 4.50 from Paddington
1957 Ordeal by Innocence
1959 Cat Among the Pigeons

1960 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (6 stories):

The Adventure of Christmas Pudding
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest
Quiet
Black currant
Dream
Lost Key

1961 Villa “White Horse” The Pale Horse
1961 Double Sin and Other Stories
1962 And, cracking, the mirror rings... The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
1963 The Clocks
1964 Caribbean Mystery
1965 At Bertram's Hotel
1966 Third Girl Third Girl
1967 Endless Night
1968 Snap Your Finger Just Once By the Pricking of My Thumbs
1969 Halloween Party
1970 Passenger to Frankfurt
1971 Nemesis Nemesis
1971 The Golden Ball and Other Stories
1972 Elephants Can Remember
1973 Gates of Fate Poster of Fate

1974 Poirot’s Early Cases (18 stories):

Case at the Victory Ball
The Disappearance of the Clapham Cook
Cornish mystery
The Adventure of Johnny Waverly
Double evidence
King of Clubs
Lemesurier's legacy
Lost Mine
Plymouth Express
Box of candies
Submarine drawings
Apartment on the fourth floor
Double sin
The Mystery of Market Basing
Vespiary
Lady under the veil
Marine Investigation
How wonderful everything is in your little garden...

1975 Curtain Curtain
1976 Sleeping Murder

1979 Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories (Collection of Stories):

Holy place
Unusual joke
Measure of death
The Caretaker's Case
The case of the best of the maids
Miss Marple talks
Doll in the fitting room
In the twilight of the mirror

1991 Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories (Collection of stories):

Service "Harlequin"
Second gong strike
It's about love
Yellow irises
magnolia flower
Case in Pollensa
Together with the dog
Mysterious incident during the regatta

1997 The Harlequin Tea Set

1997 While the Light Lasts and Other Stories (Collection of stories):

The house of his dreams
Actress
On the edge
Adventure at Christmas
Lonely God
Manx Gold
Behind the walls
The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest
As long as the light lasts...

GettyImages Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was a very shy child. While her older brother and sister playfully played with each other, she acted out the scenes that appeared in her imagination with herself. She also did not study brilliantly, even according to the modest requirements that were imposed on young students at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Girls were then prepared mainly for marriage: they were taught music, dancing, and needlework. Until the end of her life, Agatha Christie will write with gross spelling errors - which, however, will not interfere with her career as a writer.

The girl sang beautifully, but due to extreme shyness she never decided to perform in front of an audience. It was as if she felt that fate actually had a completely different destiny in store for her.

Love for Archibald

Wikipedia, Link

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, young Agatha often attended balls of the English aristocracy. Studying at a Parisian boarding school increased her self-confidence, and outwardly the girl was always pretty. It is not surprising that one evening Agatha was noticed by RAF Lieutenant Archibald Christie. The feeling turned out to be mutual. The young people hurried to get engaged as soon as possible, and they did not delay the wedding - soon Archie had to leave for war, and Agatha remained in London. Separated from her husband, performing the difficult duties of a nurse in a military hospital, she first tried to write down the story that was born in her head. Daily work with medicines and poisons suggested the murder weapon - the hero of the novel died from poisoning, and the crime was solved by a funny little Belgian with the big name Hercule Poirot. Agatha “copied” the appearance of the character from a real person, having once seen a group of refugees from Belgium on the streets of the city.

Archibald Christie, two family friends and Agatha Christie, Link

Time passed, Archibald returned from the war and tried to become a businessman to support his family. Agatha gave birth to his daughter Rosalind, and it was a bit crowded for the three of them in the small rented apartment. But business didn’t work out. One day my husband jokingly asked how her manuscript was doing? By that time, Agatha was determined to become a writer. But The Mysterious Affair at Styles was rejected by six publishers one after another. Archie's question prompted her to try her luck with the seventh. To her surprise, the novel was published, and she was given a fee of 25 English pounds. “Now you can earn a lot of money!” - this phrase from her husband finally confirmed Agatha in the idea that writing should be turned from a hobby into a real job.

Unlucky 1926

In six years - from 1920 to 1926 - she published six novels, Poirot could already compete in popularity with Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha and her husband changed their rented apartment to own house in the suburbs and even bought a car. The white streak in her life ended unexpectedly. First, Agatha's mother died. Not having time to recover from the loss, she was faced with a new misfortune. Archibald Christie admitted that he fell in love with someone else: his golf partner Nancy Neal. A quarrel followed, Archie left the house, slamming the door, and returned home only in the morning. The house was empty: Agatha left by car, leaving a note that she was going to Yorkshire. But there was only an abandoned car there. The writer disappeared - and the family quarrel acquired criminal overtones. By this time, Agatha Christie was already a well-known person in England, so the entire local police was sent to search for her, 15 thousand people helped voluntarily. Suspicion inevitably fell on the unfaithful husband, but it turned out that Colonel Christie had nothing to do with it.

10 days later, Agatha was found in a sanatorium, where all this time she went to physiotherapeutic procedures, played the piano and, in general, had a good time. But the strangest thing was the name under which the writer registered: she called herself Teresa Neal, taking the surname of her rival. She and Archibald divorced two years later, in 1928. She did not give any comments or explanations for her behavior in those 10 days for the rest of her life. Agatha once told a particularly meticulous journalist that she didn’t remember anything—thus, the version of amnesia due to nervousness was born. After the writer's death, British scientists analyzed her later manuscripts and stated that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease. But her grandson Matthew Pritchard denied these rumors. “I never discussed this act of hers either with herself, or with her mother, or with the people who witnessed the disappearance. I can only say that when people suffer, when they acutely experience misfortune, they are capable of very strange things.”“The only thing I can say with confidence is that my grandmother did not, as many people think, strive for publicity, to attract attention to herself or her books. She was very unhappy at the time, and a lot of people in her place would have behaved in a similar way,” Pritchard said.

The archaeologist's favorite woman

Agatha Christie decided to heal from her misfortunes by working and traveling. She booked a compartment on the Orient Express train (yes, that same one) and went to Baghdad. It was there, in Iraq, that the writer met her second love, the architect Max Mallowan. He was her guide at the excavations of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur. Throughout the entire season of excavations, Max was there: showing the country, talking about ancient monuments of civilization, even entrusting the processing of the found shards. “I thought then, as I often thought later, what a wonderful person Max is. So calm, he takes his time to console. He doesn't talk, he does. She does what is needed, and this turns out to be the best consolation,” Agatha later wrote in her autobiography. When the excavation season ended, the archaeologist volunteered to accompany her to England - and proposed. She also fell in love with him, but did not decide to get married right away. The previous bad experience and the age difference were scary: Max was 15 years younger, he was only 25, and she was already 40!

Agatha Christie and Max at the excavations - http://www.gwthomas.org/murderinmeso.htm , Public Domain, Link

But their feelings were so strong that they had to ignore such conventions. Subsequently, Agatha Christie joked freely on this topic: the older a woman is, the more valuable she is to an archaeologist. Their marriage with Max turned out to be happy and lasted until the end of their lives. Together they traveled throughout the Middle East, which gave the writer many ideas for her detective stories. He survived her by only two years.

After Agatha Christie's death in 1976, the last novel about Hercule Poirot and her autobiography were published.

“Thank you, Lord, for your virtuous life and for all the love that was given to me,” she finished her last manuscript with these words.

Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan (Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan), née Miller (Miller), better known by the name of her first husband as Agatha Christie was born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon.

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was the youngest daughter. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and a son, Louis "Monty" Montan (1880-1929). Agatha received a good education at home, in particular music, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During the First World War, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she loved the profession and described it as “one of the most rewarding professions a person can engage in.” She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

Agatha got married for the first time on Christmas Day in 1914 for Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period marked the beginning of Agatha Christie's creative career. In 1920 Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is an assumption that the reason for Christie’s turn to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proven herself to be a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only the seventh publishing house published the manuscript in a circulation of 2,000 copies. The aspiring writer received a fee of £25. In 1922 Together with her husband, Agatha Christie made a round-the-world sea voyage along the route Great Britain - Bay of Biscay - South Africa - Australia and New Zealand - Hawaiian Islands - Canada - USA - Great Britain.

In 1926 Agatha's mother died. Late that year, Agatha Christie's husband Archibald admitted to infidelity and asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with fellow golfer Nancy Neal. After a quarrel early December 1926 Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving a letter to her secretary in which she stated that she was heading to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused a loud public outcry, since the writer already had fans of her work. For 11 days, nothing was known about Christie's whereabouts.

Agatha's car was found, and her fur coat was found inside. A few days later the writer herself was discovered. As it turns out, Agatha Christie registered under the name Teresa Neil at the small spa hotel Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now Old Swan Hotel). Christie gave no explanation for her disappearance, and two doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a head injury.

Despite mutual affection at the beginning, Archibald and Agatha Christie's marriage ended in divorce in 1928.

In 1930 While traveling around Iraq, at excavations in Ur, she met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. He was 15 years younger than her. Agatha Christie said about her marriage that for an archaeologist a woman should be as old as possible, because then her value increases significantly. Since then, she periodically spent several months a year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband; this period of her life was reflected in the autobiographical novel “Tell How You Live.” Agatha Christie lived in this marriage for the rest of her life.

Thanks to Christie's trips to the Middle East with her husband, several of her works took place there. Other novels (such as Ten Little Indians) were set in or around Torquay, Christie's birthplace. Novel "Murder on the Orient Express" ( 1934) was written at the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul (Turkey). Room 411 of the hotel where Agatha Christie lived is now her memorial museum. The Greenway Estate in Devon, which the couple bought in 1938, is under the protection of the Society for the Preservation of Monuments (National Trust).

Christie often stayed at the mansion Abney Hall in Cheshire, which belonged to James Watts, her sister's husband. At least two of Christie's works were set on this estate.

In 1956 Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1971 For her achievements in the field of literature, Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the holders of which also acquire the noble title “lady”, used before their name. Three years earlier in 1968 Agatha Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was also awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements in the field of archaeology.

In 1958 The writer headed the English Detective Club.

Between 1971 and 1974 Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Experts at the University of Toronto examined Christie's writing style during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975 When she became completely weak, Christie transferred all rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The writer died January 12, 1976 at her home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire after suffering from a short cold and was buried in the village of Cholsey.

Agatha Christie's books have been published in over 4 billion copies and translated into more than 100 languages.

She also holds the record for the maximum number of theatrical productions of a work. Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap was staged for the first time in 1952 and is still on continuous display today.

In 1920 Christie publishes her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which had previously been rejected by British publishers five times. Soon she has a whole series of works in which the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot acts: 33 novels, 1 play and 54 stories.

Continuing the tradition of the English masters of the detective genre, Agatha Christie created a pair of heroes: the intellectual Hercule Poirot and the comical, diligent, but not very smart Captain Hastings. If Poirot and Hastings were largely copied from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then the old maid Miss Marple is a collective image reminiscent of the main heroines of the writers M.Z. Braddon and Anna Catherine Green.

Miss Marple appeared in the story 1927 of the year “The Tuesday Night Club”. The prototype of Miss Marple was Agatha Christie’s grandmother, who, according to the writer, “was a good-natured person, but always expected the worst from everyone and everything, and with frightening regularity her expectations were justified.”

Like Arthur Conan Doyle from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie was tired of her hero Hercule Poirot by the end of the 1930s, but unlike Conan Doyle, she did not decide to “kill” the detective while he was at the peak of his popularity. According to the writer’s grandson, Matthew Pritchard, of the characters she invented, Christie liked Miss Marple more - “an old, smart, traditional English lady.”

During World War II, Christie wrote two Curtain novels ( 1940 ) and "Sleeping Murder", which was intended to end the series of novels about Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. However, the books were published only in the 1970s.

Other Agatha Christie detectives:

Colonel Race appears in four Agatha Christie novels. The Colonel is an agent of British intelligence, he travels around the world in search of international criminals. Reis is a member of MI5's spy department. He is a tall, well-built, tanned man.

He first appears in The Man in the Brown Suit, a spy mystery set in South Africa. He also appears in two Hercule Poirot novels, Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile, where he assists Poirot in his investigation. He appears for the last time in the novel 1944 "Shimmering Cyanide", where he investigates the murder of his old friend. In this novel, Reis has already reached old age.

Parker Pyne is the hero of 12 stories included in the collection Parker Pyne Investigates, as well as partially in the collections The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories and Trouble in Pollensa and Other Stories. The Parker Pyne series is not detective fiction in the generally accepted sense. The plot is usually not based on a crime, but on the story of Pine's clients who, for various reasons, are unhappy with their lives. It is these dissatisfaction that brings clients to Pine's agency. In this series of works, Miss Lemon first appears, who leaves her job with Pine to become a secretary to Hercule Poirot.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, full names Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley, are a young married couple of amateur detectives who first appear in the novel The Mysterious Assailant. 1922 years, not yet married. They begin their lives with blackmail (for money and out of interest), but soon discover that private investigation brings more money and pleasure. In 1929, Tuppence and Tomie appeared in the short story collection Partners in Crime, in 1941 in N or M?, in 1968 in Snap Your Finger Just Once, and most recently in the 1973 novel The Gates of Doom. , which was the last Agatha Christie novel written, although not the last published. Unlike the rest of Agatha Christie's detectives, Tommy and Tuppence age along with the real world and with each subsequent novel. So, by the last novel where they appear, they are nearly seventy.