Born: Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller 15 September 1890Torquay, Devon, EnglandDied: 12 January 1976 (aged 85)Wallingford, Oxfordshire, EnglandPen name: Mary WestmacottOccupation: Novelist/Short story writer/Playwright/PoetNationality: BritishGenres: Murder mystery, Thriller, Crime fiction, Detective, RomancesLiterary movement : Golden Age of Detective FictionSpouse(s): Archibald Christie (1914–1928)Max Mallowan (1930–1976; her death)Children: Rosalind Hicks (1919–2004)

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances

under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story

collections (especially those featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple), and her successful West End plays.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, UK. Her mother, Clarissa Margaret Boehmer (called Clara),[citation needed] was the daughter of a British Army

captain[8] but had been sent as a child to live with her mother's sister, who was the second wife of a wealthy

American. Eventually Clara married her stepfather's son from his first marriage, Frederick Alvah Miller, an American

stockbroker

Agatha was the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty.Agatha described herself as having had a very happy childhood. While she never received any formal schooling, she did not lack an education. Her mother believed children should not learn to read until they were eight, but Agatha taught herself to read at four. Her father taught her mathematics

She had piano lessons, which she liked, and dance lessons, which she did not. When she could not learn French through formal instruction, the family hired a young woman who spoke nothing but French to be her nanny and companion. Agatha made up stories from a very early age .During the First World War, she was part of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) who provided nursing services. She worked at a hospital in Torquay as a nurse; she liked the profession, calling it "one of the most rewarding professions that anyone can follow"

On Christmas Eve 1914 Agatha married Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps.The couple had one daughter, Rosalind Hicks.In late 1926, Agatha's husband, Archie, revealed that he was in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. On 8 December 1926 the couple quarrelled, and Archie Christie left their house Styles in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public, many of whom were admirers of her novels.

In 1930, Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan (Sir Max from 1968) after joining him in an archaeological dig. Their marriage was especially happy in the early years and remained so until Christie's death in 1976.

Agata and Max

Agata and Archie

During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy at University College Hospital, London, where she acquired a knowledge of poisons that she put to good use in her post-war crime novels.

To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours. The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club.In the 1971 New Year Honours she was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, three years after her husband had been knighted for his archaeological work in 1968.They were one of the few married couples where both partners were honoured in their own right

Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920 and introduced the long-running character detective Hercule Poirot, who appeared in 33 of Christie's novels and 54 short stories.

Her other well known character, Miss Marple, was introduced in The Tuesday Night Club in 1927 (short story) and was based on women like Christie's grandmother and her "cronies".

During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels, Curtain, and Sleeping Murder, intended as the last cases of these two great detectives, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. Both books were sealed in a bank vault for over thirty years and were released for publication by Christie only at the end of her life, when she realised that she could not write any more novels. These publications came on the heels of the success of the film version of Murder on the Orient Express in 1974.

Almost all of Agatha Christie's books are whodunits, focusing on the British middle and upper classes. Usually, the detective either stumbles across the murder or is called upon by an old acquaintance, who is somehow involved. Gradually, the detective interrogates each suspect, examines the scene of the crime and makes a note of each clue, so readers can analyse it and be allowed a fair chance of solving the mystery themselves. Then, about halfway through, or sometimes even during the final act, one of the suspects usually dies, often because they have inadvertently deduced the killer's identity and need silencing. In a few of her novels, including Death Comes as the End and And Then There Were None, there are multiple victims. Finally, the detective organises a meeting of all the suspects and slowly denounces the guilty party, exposing several unrelated secrets along the way, sometimes over the course of thirty or so pages. The murders are often extremely ingenious, involving some convoluted piece of deception.

Many critics regarded Christie's plotting abilities as considerably exceeding her literary ones. The American novelist Raymond Chandler, criticised her in his essay, "The Simple Art of Murder", and the American literary critic Edmund Wilson, was dismissive of Christie and the detective fiction genre generally in his New Yorker essay, "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?".

Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural causes at her Winterbrook House in the north of Cholsey parish, adjoining Wallingford in Oxfordshire (formerly part of Berkshire). She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Mary's, Cholsey.

Plays adapted into novels

Charles Osborne novelised three of Christie's plays:1998 Black Coffee (featuring Hercule Poirot, based on the 1930 play 'Black Coffee')1999 The Unexpected Guest (based on the 1958 play The Unexpected Guest)2000 Spider's Web (based on the 1954 play Spider's Web)

These three novels are now available in the collection Murder In Three Stages.

Works adapted into plays1928 Alibi (dramatised by Michael Morton from the novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)1932 Roads of Memory (dramatised by W E Fuller; it is unclear what work this "sophisticated mystery" was based on)1936 Love from a Stranger (dramatised by Frank Vosper from the short story Philomel Cottage)1939 Tea for Three (dramatised by Margery Vosper from the short story Accident)1940 Peril at End House (dramatised by Arnold Ridley)1949 Murder at the Vicarage (dramatised by Moie Charles and Barbara Toy)1956 Towards Zero (dramatised by Gerald Verner)1977 A Murder is Announced (dramatised by Leslie Darbon)1981 Cards on the Table (dramatised by Leslie Darbon)1993 Murder Is Easy (dramatised by Clive Exton)2005 And Then There Were None (dramatised by Kevin Elyot from the novel Ten Little Niggers)