What a fortunate coincidence we have not introduced Agatha Christie yet as it's the perfect timing now, when a new novel featuring detective Hercule Poirot is due to be released. Following the news we have published recently, the spotlightnow shifts to the originator of the whole creative concept, Poirot’s maker; ladies and gentleman – Agatha Christie! We will be looking into her life and creative output today. Can we discover why she was driven so much to crime mystery stories? Who was Poirot’s progenitor? Was she a fulfilled author? What did her life look like when she was not writing? How were the times she was living in influencing her as a female author? Sit tightly, an investigation starts now!
The year 1901 brought a tragedy upon her family. With Agatha’s father’s death, the family were left devastated and financially insecure. For her, it marked the end of childhood. A year later she was sent to receive a formal education at Miss Guyer's Girls School in Torquay, but found herself quite not fitting into the school regime. In 1905 she was then sent to the city of Paris, France to be educated in three pensions – Mademoiselle Cabernet's, Les Marroniers and then Miss Dryden's – the latter of which served primarily as a finishing school.
When she returned in 1910 she found her mother ill and decided to take her to the warmer climate of Cairo. While there, Agatha attended many social functions in search of a husband, following her mother’s advice. She also involuntarily developed a great interest in archaeology and Egyptology that became prominent in her later years. As a result of this journey, indifferently encouraged by her mother to write in order to provide a financial stability for them, Agatha wrote her first novel Snow Upon the Desert set in Cairo. Disguised under the pseudonym Monosyllaba, she faced a brutal reality when various publishers all declined her novel. Put off by her first literary experience she sought advice from family friend and successful writer - Eden Philpotts. Even his literary agent, Hughes Massie, rejected Agatha’s novel and suggested writing another one.
Her search for a husband ended in 1914 when she met Archibald "Archie" Christie who joined the air service, stationed at Devon in 1912. The couple overtook the outbreak of World War I and got married before Archie got sent away. Agatha too was involved in the war effort by joining Voluntary Aid Detachment while also studying Pharmacology.
Up to this point Christie had long been a fan of detective novels, having enjoyed Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and The Moonstone as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories. Her second attempt in writing was published in 1920 under the title of The Mysterious Affair at Styles and received largely promising reviews. In the story of the murder of a rich heiress, detective Hercule Poirot was introduced for the first time. In total, he then appeared in 33 novels, one play (Black Coffee), and more than 50 short stories. The famous character, 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, was inspired by real Belgian refugees who existed in Torquay.
Some sources say that Agatha’s new novel was started partially as a response to a bet from her sister Madge who said she couldn’t write a good detective story and partly to relieve the monotony of the dispensing work which she was now doing. Her newly found expertise in various substances was put to good use. The murderer’s use of poison was so well described that when the book was eventually published Agatha received an unprecedented honour for a writer of fiction - a review in the Pharmaceutical Journal.
1926 brought yet another setback to Agatha’s somewhat stable life – her dear mother died and the news was followed by Archie’s confession about being in love with another woman. The couple reconciled for the sake of their daughter, however peace and love in Agatha’s life were no longer to be found. Some say she had a lot to run from and that is why after a huge fight, she fled her family home on one December day in 1926. Christie, engaging her mysterious mind, arranged her disappearance so credibly that the search for her became nationwide. Believed to have vanished into thin air after abandoning her car on the country road, Agatha checked in to the Harrogate hotel 250 miles away under her husband’s mistress name. Over the next couple of days she was going for walks, reading books from the library and enjoying famous SPA while the search continued, with over a thousand police officers, 15,000 volunteers and several aeroplanes engaged. Thanks to her photos appearing in every newspaper she was eventually recognized. Her place of stay remained unknown for 11 days. While some believed it was a hysteric outbreak, and others are convinced it was all about embarrassing her husband, some went as far as saying it might have been an attempt to frame her husband for murder. Agatha never referred back to this event, and it was not even mentioned in her official autobiography, so the reasons for taking up such a dramatic action are a mystery she took to the grave.
The unfortunate marriage, after walking so many bumpy roads, ended with divorce in 1928. Only two years later, Agatha met and married her second husband, definitely the love of her life. She ‘dug him up’ in an archaeological dig, as Max Mallowan was an archaeologist. The marriage was exceptionally happy and lasted till the very end. Thanks to Agatha’s new husband's profession, the well known quote was created and widely adapted: An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
Around 1941–1942 Agatha was the reason for another real investigation to be conducted, after becoming the centre of attention to the British intelligence agency MI5. After a character called Major Bletchley appeared in her 1941 thriller N or M?, a story featuring a hunt for two of Hitler's top secret spy agents in Britain, MI5 was seriously concerned that perhaps Agatha Christie had a spy in Britain's top-secret code breaking centre, Bletchley Park. Naturally everything was explained soon enough and the situation settled peacefully.
Agatha collected many honorary titles in her later life, being one of the world's top-selling authors at that point. To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956. The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club and in the 1971 New Year Honours, she was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Her literary output includes 79 novels which have sold over two billion copies, amongst them detective stories such as Ackroyd, The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) and Death in the Clouds (1935), The Moving Finger (1942) and A Pocket Full of Rye (1953), also romance novels like Unfinished Portrait (1934) and A Daughter's a Daughter (1952) which she published under the name of Mary Westmacott. Her play The Mousetrap opened in 1952—at more than 8,800 showings during 21 years—holds the record for the longest unbroken run in a London theatre. She created two timeless characters – detective Hercule Poirot and female protagonist - Miss Jane Marple, much loved by the detective-amateur audience. Guilty of experimenting with different types of thriller and murder mystery stories, Agatha enriched the craft of writing crime stories with new solutions and her unconventional approach. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time, her works are only behind Shakespeare's and the Bible. It is more than obvious that there are countless reasons why she earned herself titles like the "Queen of Crime" and the "Queen of Mystery."
From 1971 to 1974, Christie's health began to fail, but it did not stop her from writing until Alzheimer's disease or other dementia was too advanced. Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural causes.
In 2015, the 125th anniversary of Christie's birth will be celebrated, and since the BBC have acquired the exclusive television rights to Christie's works in the UK, some new productions are expected for this occasion. Before we get there though, this fall 14TH - 21ST SEPTEMBER 2014 the Agatha Christie Festival on the English Riviera will be held to celebrate all things Agatha around Christie’s birthday.
We encourage all dedicated (and not only) fans to visit Agatha Christie’s official web: http://www.agathachristie.com/.
More info on this year’s Festival can be found here: http://www.agathachristie.com/international-agatha-christie-festival-2014/ .