Biography of Agatha Christie summary. Biography of the famous writer Agatha Christie

In 1919, the Christie couple had a daughter, Rosalind.

In 1928, her marriage to Colonel Christie ended in divorce; in 1930, Agatha Christie married archaeologist Max Mallone.

In 1920, Agatha Christie's first detective novel, The Mysterious Crime at Styles, was published, the main character of which, the Belgian private detective Hercule Poirot, later became the hero of numerous novels by the writer. (Poirot dies in one of Christie's last novels, The Curtain (1975)).

In 1930, a new character appeared in the novel "Murder at the Vicarage" - a lover of private investigation, the insightful Miss Marple.

Agatha Christie - "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (1926), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1934), "Death on the Nile" (1937), "Ten Little Indians" (1939), and "Meeting in Baghdad" (1957), " What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw" (1957). Among her later novels, The Dark of Night (1968), The Halloween Party (1969) and The Gates of Destiny (1973) stand out.

Christie also performed successfully as a playwright - 16 of her plays were staged in London, and films were made from some of them. The plays "Witness for the Prosecution", staged in 1953 in London and in 1954-1955 in New York, and "The Mousetrap", staged in 1952 in London and withstood the largest number of performances in the entire history of the theater, enjoyed great success.

In 1974, the writer made her last public appearance at the premiere of the film version of Murder on the Orient Express.

Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, 2nd class.

In 1971, the writer was awarded the noble title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Agatha Christie is one of the symbols of Great Britain. She is one of the world's most famous crime fiction authors, and her books are the most published after the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. Agatha Christie's books have been translated into more than 100 languages.

In 2005, an unknown manuscript by Agatha Christie was discovered by a specialist in the writer's work, John Curran, in the attic of her country house. After several years of painstaking work, he managed to restore the text and establish the history of the creation of the novel "The Taming of Cerberus", which was published in 2009.

Agatha Christie's grandson Matthew Pritchard discovered 27 tapes in the closet of the writer's house on the Greenway estate, on which Christie herself talks about her life and work for 13 hours.

Agatha Christie's house on the Greenway estate was open to visitors. In 2000, the estate was transferred to the management of the National Trust for the protection of cultural monuments. For eight years, only the garden, boat house and paths were open to visitors, while the house itself underwent extensive reconstruction.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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 leave some food on your plate, put an extra stamp on the envelope, and put on clean underwear before traveling by rail 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 behind the conditions of the simplest problems like “John has five apples, George has six” there was a real intrigue hidden. 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.

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 their 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, née Miller, better known as Agatha Christie, is an English writer. He is one of the world's most famous authors of detective fiction and is one of the most published writers in the entire history of mankind (after the Bible and Shakespeare).

Occupation: novelist, playwright
Years of creativity: 1920 – 1976
Direction: fiction
Genre: detective, adventure novel, spy novel, autobiography
Debut: The Mysterious Affair in Styles

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: a total of 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

For the first time, Agatha Christie married 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 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.

Disappearance.

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 turned 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 examining all the evidence, Norman came to the conclusion that there was a dissociative fugue caused by a severe mental disorder.

According to another version, her disappearance was planned specifically to take revenge on her husband, whom the police inevitably suspected of the murder of the writer.

Archibald and Agatha Christie's marriage ended in divorce in 1928.

Second marriage and later years.

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 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express 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 protected by the National Trust.

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 the rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson, Mathew Prichard, who also inherited the rights to some of her literary works, and his name is still associated with Foundation "Agatha Christie Limited".

The last book published during Agatha’s lifetime was “The Curtain.” Christie hesitated for a long time to publish it, as if sensing that it was a requiem. According to the plot of the story, in Stiles, the setting of the first novel, Hercule Poirot dies after solving another murder. Poirot's game is over, Agatha Christie's life is over. Poirot's farewell letter to Hastings is like Agatha's farewell to her readers. " We will never again set foot on the path of crime together. But it was a wonderful life! Oh, what a wonderful life it was!»

Agatha Christie died on January 12, 1976, at home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, after a short cold, a year after the triumph of her last book.
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 has been 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.

Biography and episodes of life Agatha Christie. When born and died Agatha Christie, memorable places and dates of important events in her life. Quotes from the writer, Photo and video.

Years of Agatha Christie's life:

born September 15, 1890, died January 12, 1976

Epitaph

We wish you good luck
In that unknown and new world,
So that you don't feel lonely,
So that the angels do not leave.

Biography

Agatha Christie's biography is an inspiring example of a woman who was able to live a happy and fulfilling life. During her life, Agatha Christie published more than 60 detective stories, 6 novels and several collections of short stories. To this day, she remains one of the most published authors in the world, second only to the Bible itself and the works of Shakespeare.

Agatha Christie was born in the city of Torquay into a respectable English family. The origin of Agatha Christie greatly affected her appearance, because from childhood the girl was raised as a real English lady. Once, when she was given a dog, the girl locked herself in the toilet, where she said out loud several times: “I have a dog!” It seemed to her that a lady should be able to restrain her emotions in public. She always dreamed of a family and her own home. That’s probably why she took her breakup with her first husband so hard, who left her for another woman. However, then she married again, and this marriage became happy for her, despite the fact that Agatha Christie’s second husband, an archaeologist, was 15 years younger than her.

Agatha Christie in childhood and youth

Agatha Christie was always shy and modest. Even when she became a world-famous writer, Agatha Christie never gave ceremonial speeches. And she started writing simply because she had an argument with her older sister, who at that time was already a published writer. The publishing house released her first story after the seventh sample, but this is what inspired her to further exploits.

Already in old age, Agatha Christie admitted that she lived a happy, vibrant life. According to her, two of her most important dreams came true - she bought a car and attended a reception with the Queen of England herself. A cozy home, a favorite activity, a caring husband - everything she needed to be happy. Even when her health weakened, she continued to write. Later, experts who studied her later work came to the conclusion that the writer had Alzheimer's disease. Agatha Christie ended her autobiography with the words: “Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that was given to me.”

Agatha Christie's death occurred on January 12, 1976, she died in her own home in the village of Cholsey. The cause of Agatha Christie's death was a short cold that caused complications. Agatha Christie's funeral took place nearby, at St. Mary's Church. Agatha Christie's grave is located in the cemetery associated with this church. The detective club, which was headed by Agatha Christie 18 years before her death, still exists today. The memory of Agatha Christie does not fade to this day.

Agatha Christie with her daughter Rosalind and her grandson Matthew Pritchard

Life line

September 15, 1890 Date of birth of Agatha Christie (Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, née Miller).
1914 Marriage to Archibald Christie.
1920 Publication of Agatha Christie's first novel, The Secret Affair at Styles.
1928 Divorce from Archibald Christie.
1930 Marriage to Max Mallowan.
1956 Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
1958 Agatha Christie heading the English Detective Club.
1971 Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Dame.
January 12, 1976 Date of death of Agatha Christie.

Memorable places

1. Torquay, UK, where Agatha Christie was born.
2. The Old Swan Hotel, where Agatha Christie stayed during her disappearance in 1926.
3. Abney Hall in Cheshire, Agatha Christie's home, where she often stayed.
4. Wallingford, UK, where Agatha Christie's home was located and where she died.
5. Office of the Agatha Christie Limited Foundation in London.
6. Greenway Estate, home of Agatha Christie, where today the Agatha Christie Museum is located.
7. Winterbrook, Agatha Christie's home in Cholsey, where she died.
8. St Mary's Church Cemetery in Cholsey, where Agatha Christie is buried.

Episodes of life

Shortly after the death of Agatha Christie's mother, her husband asked for a divorce; it turned out that he had fallen in love with his golf colleague. Agatha refused to give a divorce, and soon she simply disappeared from home. At that time, the writer already had many fans, so her disappearance caused a public outcry. They searched for Agatha Christie for 11 days until she was discovered in a spa hotel, where she spent her days calmly taking baths and playing the piano. Doctors attributed her disappearance to amnesia. And years later, psychologist Andrew Norman came to the conclusion that there could indeed be a dissociative fugue, which was caused by a mental disorder or severe shock due to stress in Christie's life: the death of her mother and her husband's infidelity.

Agatha Christie once jokingly admitted that she comes up with plots for her books while washing dishes. According to her, this is such a stupid and boring activity that the thought of murder itself comes to mind. Relatives said that the process of writing a book, as a rule, happened in this way: Agatha Christie thought about everything in her head, simultaneously recording some thoughts in her notebook, and then on some day, when the novel had fully matured in her head, she closed in office and wrote it from start to finish. One of the writer’s acquaintances claimed that Christie did not always know who the killer would be in her novel; she first wrote it, then, at the very end, chose a suspect, and then went through the book again and added the details necessary to confirm the hero’s guilt.

Agatha Christie preferred to write by hand; her texts were typed by secretaries and assistants. Most of all, she loved to write books while lying in the bathroom - Agatha Christie would take a warm bath, put a board with apples on it and write page after page. But since the writer was a real Englishwoman, she could not always afford this in the presence of servants, therefore, when there were one of the servants in the house, she sat at the desk so as not to embarrass them.

Agatha Christie with her second husband Max Mallowan, tombstone at Agatha Christie's grave

Covenant

“Freedom is worth fighting for.”

“One of the greatest secrets of existence is to be able to enjoy the gift of life that you have been given.”

Program from the series “Top Secret” - “Agatha Christie. Queen of Detectives"

Condolences

“She is like a literary magician who puts the cards face down, shuffles them with her cunning fingers and invites us to guess them again and again in order to deceive us once again. It is highly doubtful that any of her methods of killing the heroes of her books could be successfully implemented in ordinary life. But although some of the moments seemed incredible, readers of her books happily suspended disbelief, because this is Christieland, and millions of people around the world were happy to be distracted, entertained and confused by her books.
Phyllis Dorothy James, writer