WOMEN IN HISTORY - AGATHA CHRISTIE
English mystery writer.
DATE OF BIRTH
September5 15, 1890
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PLACE OF BIRTH
Torquay, United Kingdom
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DATE OF DEATH
January 12, 1976
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PLACE OF DEATH
Winterbrook, United Kingdom
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (1890 - 1976) Of all the authors’ names who come to mind when the words “good mystery” come up, none is more recognizable than the Queen of Mystery herself - Agatha Christie. Unlike many of her best-beloved (and most reviled!) characters, she was a quiet woman who hated crowds and attention. Yet she would become, and remains, the best-selling novelist of all time, with book sales second only to the Bible and Shakespeare.
But how does a little girl born into a comfortable British family during the stuffy Victoria Era...whose mother refused to let her attend school till she was nearly 11...become one of the world’s most respected writers? And how does that little girl, so loved by her parents, come up with such an endless supply of unscrupulous, nefarious characters and dark story lines? In a way, this poses its own mystery to solve! Add to that the unsolved riddle of her widely-publicized and greatly misinterpreted disappearance in 1926, the fact that she was investigated by the British intelligence agency M15 in 1941, an honorary doctorate from Exeter, and her coveted title as the Dame Commander of the British Empire and you have the makings of a complex woman whose personal life story merits its own investigation...one that might leave even Monsieur Poirot straining his "little grey cells."
But how does a little girl born into a comfortable British family during the stuffy Victoria Era...whose mother refused to let her attend school till she was nearly 11...become one of the world’s most respected writers? And how does that little girl, so loved by her parents, come up with such an endless supply of unscrupulous, nefarious characters and dark story lines? In a way, this poses its own mystery to solve! Add to that the unsolved riddle of her widely-publicized and greatly misinterpreted disappearance in 1926, the fact that she was investigated by the British intelligence agency M15 in 1941, an honorary doctorate from Exeter, and her coveted title as the Dame Commander of the British Empire and you have the makings of a complex woman whose personal life story merits its own investigation...one that might leave even Monsieur Poirot straining his "little grey cells."